Future Apocalypse Now and Conan scribe, John Milius, had a crack at it with Shaw himself, an accomplished playwright, also gave it a polish and honed it to the perfection you see on screen, depending on whose tale you listen to of course.Īnd Benchley didn't agree with the ending of the film, where Chief Brody blows up the shark. This one moment, more than any other, has been the one that has become fabled in who should take the credit for the powerful moment when Robert Shaw’s character retells his World War 2 shark encounter.

One of his greatest additions was the Quint USS Indianapolis monologue, which never featured in Benchley's original book. Peter Benchley, and old pal of Spielberg, Carl Gottlieb, are listed as the screenwriters of the project but beneath the surface of the credits it is revealed that several different people helped stamp their authority on the project.īenchley had two passes at the script and then the Pulitzer winning playwright (and scuba diver), Howard Sackler, was brought in to beef up the script. Jaws still taps into our primal fears and when each and every person bringing that to life is working at the top of their game you can’t go wrong, critically, commercially or for longevity. Jaws never puts a foot wrong, it still has fantastic pace, still thrills and scares a little in all the right places and also makes people laugh in all the places that it is meant to do. It’s sink or swim for the thrust together threesome as they fight against the elements, against each other and against the shark.

Joining him at sea are a marine biologist and the town’s chief of police.

As the victims continue to wash up the town hire a grizzled fisherman to catch it and kill it. The Daily Jaws take a deep dive beneath the surface of the world of the author of Jaws.Īmity Island, a seaside town off Long Island is getting ready for the summer season, but it could have never been ready for the murderous shadow of a Great White Shark. In all there were - including Jaws - five screen adaptations of the books of Peter Benchley. In the years following Jaws there were several attempts to repeat that Jaws magic, with mixed results.

The deep book peter benchley