I Read That Movie: Jaws by Peter Benchly

I  read that movie is a feature where we compare movies or TV series, and the books they're based on.

Jaws

Title: Jaws
Author: Peter Benchley

Publisher: Bantam

Publishing Date: May 6th, 1973

Pages: 309
Length of Audio: 9 Hours 37 Minutes

Genre: Horror

Series:  Standalone

Source: Audio

  

They didn't mean it. They didn't mean to hit the boy. It's out there in the water...waiting. Nature's most fearsome predator. The seaside community of Amity is at its mercy. A small-town police chief, a marine biologist, and a modern-day Ahab must try to stop it. But they are only three men...alone against the Great White Death.

Mini-review:

I am not sure what possessed me to read this book. The movie was enough for me . Although I realized after I watched the movie, I only saw one of the other ones. Jaws 2 maybe. So this book and then the movie recently was the first time I really experienced jaws. I liked the book enough. It was okay. The characters were okay. The story was okay. I just didn't feel the suspense or the thrills that I really wanted to feel . There were also some scenes in the book that just didn't make sense to me. Like the main characters wife having an affair. I didn't think this was needed and was only added to put some sex into the books, or some drama. It felt out of character and really unnecessary. 

The action in the book was good, but wasn't enough. There was very little action time, very little shark time. It felt the book was more talking about the shark then actual shark attacks. 

It was a short book and it kept me interested. Really though wasn't at all what I thought it would be. I did enjoy what was there though. 

Release Date: June 20th, 1975
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Screenplay by Carl Gottlieb
Director: Steven Spielberg

Mini-review:

The movie was pretty good. I mean it was made in the 70's so special effects weren't the greatest but it was good. There were for sure some very suspenseful parts and of course the music helped out a lot. I liked the characters enough but really this was about a big shark that eats people. So it was an old time horror movie. I liked it for what it was. 

Let's compare:
There really isn't a whole lot to compare. The movie was pretty darn close to the book. The characters were pretty spot on. The story was pretty accurate. They did take out the scene where the wife had an affair. Which I was pretty happy to see that. All in all the book and the movie was pretty close. No real big differences. I do like the movie better. I think the suspense just worked better in a movie than in a book. 

Interesting Fact: 
Robert Shaw could not stand Richard Dreyfuss and the two argued all the time, which resulted in some good tension between Hooper and Quint.

Original Trailer: