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Terry's
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Book Reviews: | ||
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By
Patrick Jankiewicz
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The Jaws Log by Carl Gottlieb was a revelation for all filmmakers and JAWS fans as it thoroughly chronicled the making of Steven Spielberg's seminal film. Now over thirty years later, we get another terrific book that is incredibly researched, passionately written and needs to be read. Patrick Jankiewicz tackles all four JAWS films and includes participation from cast & crew from each movie. I really enjoyed seeing the stories of each film that was made, hearing the difficulties each production ran into as well seeing what many of these people look like today. I never knew the difficult details of the first sequel. It was neat hearing what original hired director John (LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH) Hancock was going to do to follow up on the industry's first one-hundred million dollar money maker. He was going to make a darker, more horrific film which sounded very intriguing. It was fun also reading what Joe Alves was trying to do on his directorial debut JAWS 3-D. He had all the right intentions but ultimately it wasn't enough to help him make a good film. I'd kind of like to see this film again as I only saw it once on cable. The third sequel, fourth JAWS movie, was dead in the water just by the ridiculous concept of a shark "stalking" one family. Plus it's a long ways for a shark to travel from the Northeast to the Bahamas. It's all pretty silly if you ask me. Still, I enjoyed learning about the behind the scenes info within this chapter. We also get chapters that focus on the proposed JAWS films that were never made and the movies that ripped of JAWS (like GRIZZLY, TENTACLES, ORCA and PIRANHA). Joe Dante openly admits if he would have made JAWS 3 PEOPLE 0 that it would have killed his career. Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A JAWS Companion has some choice photos from each installment and if you like the first film as much as I do, than you'll treasure this book.
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