A Greater Jaws Movie

  

Netflix done gone and done it again. They have all four Jaws movies available to stream this month. Since I was in a fishy mood I decided to watch the first Jaws film again. I didn't have any real memory of the movie from my childhood. I knew it starred Richard Dreyfuss and was directed by Stephen Spielberg. So of course, I knew it was a classic. Great storytelling and character building, and Quint..what a way to go out. That was great.

  

The next night I pushed play on Jaws 2. This one I had seen on tv in the 80s, and along with Superman 2 always seemed to be on cable when I visited my Aunt so I was always seeing random clips. Still, I didn't have any concrete memories outside of the patrol copter scene which I thought was really scary.

  

I watched it expecting to see a half-cocked sequel, but what I saw was an elevated horror movie. The original Jaws had done a great job of developing Brody's character as the oft overwhelmed police chief. Without Quint and Hooper, the movie is dependent on Brody's humor and nervous intensity. He delivers.

Following the mischief of the teens on the island, the movie feels like Jaws meets Friday the 13th. We rarely see Jaws in the first half of the original film. In Jaws 2 he is very present, stalking from the opening scene. Relentless in his quest to make the people of Amity Island suffer.

My initial thought was that Jaws was being overexposed in this film. But it's this omnipresence that makes this a horror masterpiece. Though there is not a single scene as grotesque as Quint's death scene from the original, there are more kills. That the victims are teenagers really ups the scare factor.

This movie has my all-time favorite Jaws attack. The aforementioned patrol helicopter attack. Vicious. The runner up being the water skier scene. The panic by the boat driver when she fumbles spilling gas all over herself before blowing the boat up is incredible and sets the stage for a greater Jaws movie.