Jaws

Rating:
Summary: Good Book - Great Movie
Review: "Jaws" the novel is a good book but it pales in comparison with the movie which can only be described as a theatrical phenomenon.

The story idea of a shark terrorizing a small community first presented in the Benchley novel was not fully realized until it was presented on the silver screen. This is primarily due to the fact that the story can be better told as a VISUAL movie than a LITERARY novel. As great as Benchley is at portraying the beast in his novel it can never truly compare with seeing the shark rise up in front of Brody at the stern of the Orca for the first time during the film, seeing his reaction, and then hearing that famous line - "You're going to need a bigger boat."

This is not to say that the book is not without it's advantages. There is a lot more character development and backstory included in the novel that may or may not interest fans of the movie.

Personally, although I enjoyed the extra information about Brody and the expanded character of Meadows the newspaper editor, I found the novel a little "cluttered" by the "Ellen Brody Biographical" including the affair with Hooper. The mafia subplot involving Mayor Vaughan was also a little trying. It almost seems as though Benchley wasn't sure a pure shark story would sell so he added these subplots to cater to a larger (female) audience.

All in all, reading the book gave me a better appreciation for the movie in that the film does such a outstanding job of "trimming the fat" and focusing and refining the best aspects of the novel into a true masterpiece of cinema.

Rating:
Summary: Benchley's vision-not Spielberg's
Review: This was the first paperback contemporary book I read for entertainment and I loved it. I was one of those teens camped out around the drive-in trying to get in to see the movie night after night only to be turned away. The movie was a terrible disappointment. Too much was left out; including my favorite line from the book when Chief Brodie said that he didn't care if a guy claimed to be Superman and used superhuman body functions to rid the waters of the shark (paraphrased for adult content). . . Also missing from the movie was the sinister hazing of the Chief by the Assembly Hall gang that went so far as to kill his cat. Another glaring omission from the movie was the affair with Hooper and Mrs. Brodie and worst of all was the way that Hopper returned from the deep at the end. In the book Hooper is in the shark's mouth when Brodie fires and hits Hooper in the eye, which was especially poignant because the Chief suspected that Hooper and his wife were fooling around. The book is more suspensful and far more entertaining than the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty much a classic book that is different from the movie
Review: I read this book over the winter break (actually I read it in a day while it rained outside) and I have to say that it was very entralling. Having seen the movie a dozen times over and never getting tired of it, I thought I'd check out the book because a friend told me that the book was different. How different? Well, let's just say that except for Quint (and even he's kind of different in the book) the main characters all seem very different from the characters in the movie. The Chief is not a NYC sophisticate, but is more of a former beat cop whose "dream" was to one day become chief of police in Amity. His wife is not as devoted as she is in the movie. Hooper the shark expert is also somewhat different and this book is interesting because the people are interesting, while the shark is sort of a looming natural threat like a hurricane or earthquake. The basic plot is similar as the washed up corpse of a girl is found on the beach, but then it totally veers off into a different story. And that's a good thing because it felt like I was reading an unpredictable book and not a retread of the movie. I probably would have stopped reading the book if it had been exactly the same as the movie because why bother if you know what's going to happen? I can see why this book was such a major blockbuster as it is quite fascinating to read. The knowledge about sharks does seem very dated (but then a quarter of a century will do that), but isn't that bad. I recommend this book because it is not like the movie in many ways and will surprise the reader and it's almost like a parallel world to the movie version which I appreciated.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but the movie is much better
Review: A great white shark menaces a coastal community, threatening to scare off the summertime trade on which it depends, until the town sheriff, a young shark expert, and a renegade fisherman go on a hunt for it. It's not a bad book, but this is one of those rare cases in which the film is better. Spielberg cut away most of the fat that weighs the story down, such as the pointless antagonism between the three heroes and the affair between Brody's wife and Matt Hooper, which is presented through a silly and clumsily written swinger mentality that betrays the books '70's origin.

Rating:
Summary: SHARK!
Review: Who couldn't love this book? It's got everything!
Hero, young attractive male and female, old and funny
character and of course a man-eating shark! If you've seen the movie you really should read the book. There's so much more to the story then what the movie tries to fit in. Trust me on this one, buy and read this book!

Rating:
Summary: not even the shark itself could digest this
Review: i am a huge fan of "Jaws" the movie and i had seen it many times before i decided i wanted to read the book. i was told it was a "horrifying read, perfect for afternoons spent on the beach." for lack of a better word, i was disappointed. this book, as usually is the case, is different than the movie and im surprised something so wonderful on film could be concocted from these pages. steven spielberg is truly a master in his line of work to make this book into something so great.

do yourself a favor and leave this one on the shelf. instead, get to your local video store as soon as possible.

Rating:
Summary: Jaws!
Review: I read this novel largely because I found it on a list of the all-time 10 best-selling fiction novels. Others on the list that I've gotten 'round to reading include "God's Little Acre", "Valley of the Dolls", "The Exorcist", "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull", and "The Carpetbaggers."

Benchley's "Jaws" is the fastest-read thriller I've ever read. I would now have to rank it with "Jurassic Park" as one of my two favorite pure-entertainment novels. And I'm sure, over the years I will read it again, and again....

But there are enough interspersed thrills to keep this novel rolling. At 275 pages it is (by my slow reading skills) easily readable in a week, and many better readers than me could probably knock it out in a single day.

The tone of the novel is darker and more cynical than the movie. Speilberg's film opts for wonder and adventure, whereas Benchley's original is more brooding and angry. And as other reviewers have noted many of the chief scenes in the movie are not in the book. Nonetheless, "Jaws" the novel does stand on its own. It is a terrific read! Highly entertaining. Complete. And I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a taut, fast-paced thriller.

Rating:
Summary: A shark extravaganza
Review: Jaws is an easy book to get hooked on. Well-written and suspenseful (perhaps a little TOO much), the book provides readers with lots of well rounded action. Benchley really knows his readers, and he shows this through his writing. For example, the shark will appear and commit some sort of brutal attack on a swimmer, killing them with razor-sharp teeth. Benchley then forces you to wait a good deal of time, where not much seems to happen. Then, right when you can't take it anymore, and you find yourself saying out loud, "God! Where's the shark? Show up again already!" the shark suddenly shows up to commit another gruesome and/or violent act. This gets done perhaps too much, which makes the book somewhat tiring at times, but overall, this style tends to work for the novel.
I must say that if you've read the book but haven't seen the movie, or vice versa, neither plot is spoiled. The book and the movie are actually quite different from each other. Yes, there are the basic similarties such as characters and the initial plot (a shark terrorizing a coastal town and three men must hunt it down). Besides these similiarities, the novel and the movie are quite different. They're both just as good, but they aren't as similar as one would think. For example, the mayor of Amity is a lot less of a moron in the book than he is in the movie. I also found the characters in the book to be less likeable, like Ellen Brody, who cheats on her husband and has an affair with Matt Hooper (that part's a little boring, and it's not in the movie.) The ending is also different. I won't say the book ending for those of you who haven't read it, but I must warn you that if you're expecting an ending like the one in the movie, prepare to be disappointed. The book also deals more with the aspects and the whole point of view of the town, rather than those of just the characters Quint, Brody, and Hooper as the movie happens to do.
I've heard many talk about how "inaccurate" Jaws is. Believe it or not, this opinion is very, very exaggerated. Considering how old it is, Jaws is actually, pretty accurate. Of course, with its age come a few exceptions, such as the way the shark is depicted. Yes, great whites will attack humans if in the water with them, but once a great white realizes that the human they are attacking is not a seal, they will leave them alone a short while after. Also, in the book it is explained that there is no way to predict a shark's behavior, which leads to the fact that nobody can understand why the shark decides to hang around in Amity waters for so long a period. It's true, a shark's behavior is not always predictable, but a shark would not hang out in such shallow and/or coastal waters for as long as it does in the book, and Hooper also explains that nobody knows how long great whites grow to be. It has now been shown that they can grow up to twenty-six feet in length. Besides these few minor facts, however, the novel does tend to be rather accurate most of the time.
Overall, Jaws is pretty good. It's a little strange, but interesting and worth anyone's while. For those of you who haven't read it, go out and get a copy. I enjoyed it, and I think you will too.

Rating:
Summary: Always a classic
Review: Before this book was made in to the best horror film of all time, it was a nice novel to read on a warm summer day... maybe even on the beach. Peter Benchley took his love for the sea & perverted it into something malignant, waiting just below the surface. The book is very character driven & we see that each person in the town of Amity mirrors this strange invasion in their own way. Everyone has their own agenda, but destiny still glides just out of sight, touching them when it chooses. Sometimes it is a subtle reminder of where they stand in the grand scheme of things & sometimes it violently shows them that their time is up. Never read "Jaws" for the gore. Read it because Benchley shows us that he knows how to write a compelling story where characters act & react to their surroundings in different ways. Even the shark is simply another player in this classic tale. Is the shark an ultimate being who brings justice in various forms or simply just a hungry beast? You decide. And never let the ending confuse you... it's ambiguous for a reason. I love this book & always have. If you've never read it, go ahead & pick it up. Take it to the beach this summer, listen to the waves, and just slip away under the surface...

Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: This is my favorite book of all time.Of course it does not beat the original 1975 movie but comes very close.This is really worth reading and will get you hocked from the first pages where the women gets eaten.The ending was a little dull compared to the movies ending where the shark blows up into a million pieces.The ending ends when the shark sinkes by the not being able to stand the barrels.Plus in the middle of the book it sort of gets out of the main plot and gets into the a little love affiar with Ellen and Hooper wich is really kind of boring.The characters are a little different than the movie to.But over all this is a classic novel and I surrgest you take your mouse and click on the Add To Cart button right now!