Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Thanks Andy and Eric! I may have to purchase that book on Kindle.
-
Monterey Jack
- Posts: 9743
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:14 am
- Location: Walpole, MA
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
It's interesting to note that Joe Don Baker's "Wade" character from GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies was intended as a replacement for the Felix Leiter character in the films, as he was left mauled by a shark in Licence To Kill. Always weird he never appeared in the remaining two Brosnan films.Eric Paddon wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:14 pm You can get the Kindle version for just $4. There was a lot of interesting stuff in it, but Benson was such an uber-Fleming purist he would rant over the fact that none of the Felix Leiters of the Connery Bonds were ever shown with a steel hook and wooden leg.
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974)
-I know this has been done at least once in this thread going back but I decided to do it myself this time and get another close look at the book. This go-round I was struck by the similarity to "The Poseidon Adventure" in the sense that a novel with a great concept but filled with largely dislikable characters and some very disturbing sequences too was transformed into a great entertaining action movie with characters we could like.
-We're all familiar with the general gist of how the novel had the element of the Hooper-Ellen Brody affair, but reading it again I am frankly bewildered that in this day and age where the Bond novels are being subjected to PC rewrites that Peter Benchley was NEVER in his lifetime called out for some of the stuff that he wrote. As part of the set-up to the Ellen-Hooper affair, Ellen confesses to having fantasized about being raped in a way where she could enjoy it. Benchley at one point talks about how Amity had a problem with a black rapist in town that none of the victims would testify against. I'm no fan of PC rewrites but that no one has gone back and noticed this stuff is amazing. Needless to say, *this* version of Hooper is not missed when he meets his death. He's truly a vile person and even at one point is joining the crowd on reopening the beaches on the grounds the shark has likely gone away.
-The novel's element of Mafia influences on Mayor Vaughn to have the beaches kept open I'll admit works from a literary standpoint to contribute to the sense of what kind of obstacles would Brody face in trying to close the beaches. The biggest mistakes are (1) Brody has too many less than pleasant facets which only seem to be there to justify Ellen's need to cavort with Hooper (2) the character of Quint is a pure cipher who just seems to be there to serve a purpose and nothing more. His speech mannerisms do make you think of Robert Shaw but after a bit, all of Quint's constant f and c-word profanity when taking on the shark gets tiresome. And the novel's ending is too abrupt as well.
-Zanuck/Brown and Spielberg along with Carl Gottlieb rewriting the script (and wisely cutting down his own part of newspaper editor Harry Meadows) knew what they were doing in how to make this concept work on the big screen. If Benchley hadn't come from a famous literary family with connections to getting his first novel published, I doubt "Jaws" would have gotten enough attention to get a film deal which proved to be more memorable long-term than the book itself. "Jaws" the novel was never #1 in hardback sales but the movie helped boost paperback sales and Benchley at least to his credit recognized that Spielberg's instincts were right and he also knew that the extra royalties and fame he got came solely because the film's success made people go back to look at the book and not vice versa.
-I know this has been done at least once in this thread going back but I decided to do it myself this time and get another close look at the book. This go-round I was struck by the similarity to "The Poseidon Adventure" in the sense that a novel with a great concept but filled with largely dislikable characters and some very disturbing sequences too was transformed into a great entertaining action movie with characters we could like.
-We're all familiar with the general gist of how the novel had the element of the Hooper-Ellen Brody affair, but reading it again I am frankly bewildered that in this day and age where the Bond novels are being subjected to PC rewrites that Peter Benchley was NEVER in his lifetime called out for some of the stuff that he wrote. As part of the set-up to the Ellen-Hooper affair, Ellen confesses to having fantasized about being raped in a way where she could enjoy it. Benchley at one point talks about how Amity had a problem with a black rapist in town that none of the victims would testify against. I'm no fan of PC rewrites but that no one has gone back and noticed this stuff is amazing. Needless to say, *this* version of Hooper is not missed when he meets his death. He's truly a vile person and even at one point is joining the crowd on reopening the beaches on the grounds the shark has likely gone away.
-The novel's element of Mafia influences on Mayor Vaughn to have the beaches kept open I'll admit works from a literary standpoint to contribute to the sense of what kind of obstacles would Brody face in trying to close the beaches. The biggest mistakes are (1) Brody has too many less than pleasant facets which only seem to be there to justify Ellen's need to cavort with Hooper (2) the character of Quint is a pure cipher who just seems to be there to serve a purpose and nothing more. His speech mannerisms do make you think of Robert Shaw but after a bit, all of Quint's constant f and c-word profanity when taking on the shark gets tiresome. And the novel's ending is too abrupt as well.
-Zanuck/Brown and Spielberg along with Carl Gottlieb rewriting the script (and wisely cutting down his own part of newspaper editor Harry Meadows) knew what they were doing in how to make this concept work on the big screen. If Benchley hadn't come from a famous literary family with connections to getting his first novel published, I doubt "Jaws" would have gotten enough attention to get a film deal which proved to be more memorable long-term than the book itself. "Jaws" the novel was never #1 in hardback sales but the movie helped boost paperback sales and Benchley at least to his credit recognized that Spielberg's instincts were right and he also knew that the extra royalties and fame he got came solely because the film's success made people go back to look at the book and not vice versa.
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Jaws 2 by Hank Searls (1978)
-Ordinarily a tie-in novelization shouldn't count but because the "Jaws 2" novelization is such a different animal from the movie on many levels, it represents an unusual alternate universe window that I think merits some comparisons. The novel's cover states it's based on the screenplay by Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan who wrote the script for the aborted John Hancock version. Because no copy of the original Sackler/Tristan script has surfaced, people have assumed the novelization is a perfect reflection of what the Hancock film might have been, but based on all the info I've seen in the books on the film's production (including the big Michael Smith one), it's clear that Searls was putting his own stamp on the Sackler/Tristan treatment and not closely following it, or else he may have been mashing together things from Sackler/Tristan and the early Gottlieb revisions. For one thing, you won't find the "Sideburns"/Quint's son character in the novelization that was supposed to figure in the Hancock version, but there is a throwaway reference to "Bob Burnside" at one point during the shark attacks. Also, from what I gather, the scene of the shark attacking the water skiier was thought up after Hancock was fired and that's in the novel, though with Searls it's not a mother-daughter but a husband-wife.
The making of book also indicates that in the Hancock version, Brody was to be obsessed about sharks from the get-go, seeing them in his nightmares etc. Not so in the novelization. Brody is clueless about the fact there's another shark. He in fact spends most of the book convinced that an uncouth, wife-beating vacationing cop who shoots at a seal on the beach shot the divers and the ski boat. The pressure is then put on Brody to drop the investigation and free the cop because he's tight with state politicians who are out to derail the legalization of gambling in Amity, where a casino is being built by Pete Peterson to provide Amity its rebirth from "The Trouble" of several years ago. But Brody refuses to drop the case, even when the pressure starts to come from the fact that the Casino is now being built by Mafia interests, specifically Amity resident "Shuffles" Moscotti.
Brody's cluelessness about another shark is also caused by the fact that the crooked town druggist, Nate Starbuck, after developing the film of the divers is convinced Brody lied about the first shark being killed so he doesn't tell Brody and tries to find a way to sell out before the news gets out (which means he eventually goes to gangster Moscotti to try and blackmail him into buying the film which if exposed would ruin the casino, but Starbuck finds out the hard way you don't try to do that with the Mafia). No one else also picks up on the presence of a shark even when the shark causes the fatal crash of a Navy helicopter by ripping away its experimental sonar ball (this is the book's version of the helicopter scene from the film), or when a panicked student diver sees the shark and gets the bends from a rapid rise to the surface) It only happens late in the game when the teens who are out sailing encounter the shark and Brody, who by this point has finally had to eat crow over his attempt to blame the crooked out of town cop (who gets blown away by Moscotti's henchman when he tries to go to Moscotti and see if he'll have Brody wiped out. It REALLY gets complicated). The whole net effect is the flip-side of Brody's obsession as originally envisioned in the Hancock treatment and still present in the final film. Here, he comes off as a thoroughly incompetent cop who gets very lucky.
I'd note that Searls also creates a universe that represents a combination of the original film and the original Benchley novel. Out of necessity he has to acknowledge the change the film made in giving Brody only two sons instead of three as in the novel. There is a not completely accurate reference to Mike Brody's traumatic experience in the first film (which curiously was never mentioned in the "Jaws 2" film or hinted at). Brody and Ellen have the stable marriage of the film (Matt Hooper is never referenced by name). But the town selectmen characters are all from Benchley's novel as opposed to the film. And like the Benchley novel, Amity is on Long Island.
Searls also in this novelization set up the events that were later run with with a vengeance a decade later in "Jaws: The Revenge". He writes a number of scenes from the point of view of the shark (and they are in fact better written than what Benchley did in his book) and we learn that this shark is a pregnant female that was impregnated by the first shark. Its hunger is driven by the fact that she is about to give birth. When the shark is in fact electrocuted at the end (unlike the film, this doesn't happen as a result of any brilliance on Brody's part) it is giving birth to a male, and when Searls later did the Jaws: The Revenge novelization he called back to his own "Jaws 2" effort by establishing *that* shark as the one in the next film.
In the end, the novelization "works" from the standpoint that Searls is a better prose writer than Benchley who came up with a LOT of cringe-inducing passages, and not just the disturbing lurid sex ones. To me the worst line Benchley ever wrote was when he has Brody deciding not go home for lunch after recovering Chrissie's body because he knows Ellen is serving hamburger and "Brody had seen enough chopped meat for one day." Searls avoids Benchley's lurid imagination in matters of sex (he has a scene of Mike Brody trying to make out with his girlfriend Jackie, a different version of the Donna Wilkes character from the final film that is totally innocent) and coarseness (no abundance of f-words or other items Benchley overdid) and he is also more tame but equally effective in describing the experience of the victims as they are killed by the shark. But I suspect Searls only was borrowing some set piece elements from the Sackler/Tristan script and largely created from whole cloth a completely new narrative. Those of us who want a more true indication of what the film would have been like if Hancock had stayed will need to find a copy of the Sackler/Tristan script.
As for the film itself, in watching it last night I was impressed by the action sequences. On that level, Jeannot Szwark delivered the goods and also with the proper understanding that audiences would be WANTING to see more of the shark than they did the last time. The human drama scenes are less effective and its very unfortunate that the final theatrical cut doesn't contain the two key scenes that show that Murray Hamilton's Vaughan hasn't forgotten the lessons of the first film and has just reverted to type. I hadn't realized in fact until viewing the supplements that the supplements do NOT include the key first scene of Vaughan defending Brody to Peterson and the others before Brody arrives with the picture. You have to see that on YT but it's even more powerful than the moment where he refuses to join in the vote to fire Brody. In that scene, Vaughan looks miserable and troubled that Brody is likely going to get fired and tries to defend him as a decent man who had good intentions. Vaughan may not believe a second shark is back (though I like to think if he'd been presented with the same level of evidence that had existed the first go-round he would have believed him) but he knows how much he owes Brody and doesn't want to ruin him. It's Hamilton's best scene and it should have stayed. Even so, the film as a whole works because it gives the audience what it wanted without insulting it like the subsequent sequels did. But it was the kind of sequel that could only be done once and after that they should have left it alone for good.
-Ordinarily a tie-in novelization shouldn't count but because the "Jaws 2" novelization is such a different animal from the movie on many levels, it represents an unusual alternate universe window that I think merits some comparisons. The novel's cover states it's based on the screenplay by Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan who wrote the script for the aborted John Hancock version. Because no copy of the original Sackler/Tristan script has surfaced, people have assumed the novelization is a perfect reflection of what the Hancock film might have been, but based on all the info I've seen in the books on the film's production (including the big Michael Smith one), it's clear that Searls was putting his own stamp on the Sackler/Tristan treatment and not closely following it, or else he may have been mashing together things from Sackler/Tristan and the early Gottlieb revisions. For one thing, you won't find the "Sideburns"/Quint's son character in the novelization that was supposed to figure in the Hancock version, but there is a throwaway reference to "Bob Burnside" at one point during the shark attacks. Also, from what I gather, the scene of the shark attacking the water skiier was thought up after Hancock was fired and that's in the novel, though with Searls it's not a mother-daughter but a husband-wife.
The making of book also indicates that in the Hancock version, Brody was to be obsessed about sharks from the get-go, seeing them in his nightmares etc. Not so in the novelization. Brody is clueless about the fact there's another shark. He in fact spends most of the book convinced that an uncouth, wife-beating vacationing cop who shoots at a seal on the beach shot the divers and the ski boat. The pressure is then put on Brody to drop the investigation and free the cop because he's tight with state politicians who are out to derail the legalization of gambling in Amity, where a casino is being built by Pete Peterson to provide Amity its rebirth from "The Trouble" of several years ago. But Brody refuses to drop the case, even when the pressure starts to come from the fact that the Casino is now being built by Mafia interests, specifically Amity resident "Shuffles" Moscotti.
Brody's cluelessness about another shark is also caused by the fact that the crooked town druggist, Nate Starbuck, after developing the film of the divers is convinced Brody lied about the first shark being killed so he doesn't tell Brody and tries to find a way to sell out before the news gets out (which means he eventually goes to gangster Moscotti to try and blackmail him into buying the film which if exposed would ruin the casino, but Starbuck finds out the hard way you don't try to do that with the Mafia). No one else also picks up on the presence of a shark even when the shark causes the fatal crash of a Navy helicopter by ripping away its experimental sonar ball (this is the book's version of the helicopter scene from the film), or when a panicked student diver sees the shark and gets the bends from a rapid rise to the surface) It only happens late in the game when the teens who are out sailing encounter the shark and Brody, who by this point has finally had to eat crow over his attempt to blame the crooked out of town cop (who gets blown away by Moscotti's henchman when he tries to go to Moscotti and see if he'll have Brody wiped out. It REALLY gets complicated). The whole net effect is the flip-side of Brody's obsession as originally envisioned in the Hancock treatment and still present in the final film. Here, he comes off as a thoroughly incompetent cop who gets very lucky.
I'd note that Searls also creates a universe that represents a combination of the original film and the original Benchley novel. Out of necessity he has to acknowledge the change the film made in giving Brody only two sons instead of three as in the novel. There is a not completely accurate reference to Mike Brody's traumatic experience in the first film (which curiously was never mentioned in the "Jaws 2" film or hinted at). Brody and Ellen have the stable marriage of the film (Matt Hooper is never referenced by name). But the town selectmen characters are all from Benchley's novel as opposed to the film. And like the Benchley novel, Amity is on Long Island.
Searls also in this novelization set up the events that were later run with with a vengeance a decade later in "Jaws: The Revenge". He writes a number of scenes from the point of view of the shark (and they are in fact better written than what Benchley did in his book) and we learn that this shark is a pregnant female that was impregnated by the first shark. Its hunger is driven by the fact that she is about to give birth. When the shark is in fact electrocuted at the end (unlike the film, this doesn't happen as a result of any brilliance on Brody's part) it is giving birth to a male, and when Searls later did the Jaws: The Revenge novelization he called back to his own "Jaws 2" effort by establishing *that* shark as the one in the next film.
In the end, the novelization "works" from the standpoint that Searls is a better prose writer than Benchley who came up with a LOT of cringe-inducing passages, and not just the disturbing lurid sex ones. To me the worst line Benchley ever wrote was when he has Brody deciding not go home for lunch after recovering Chrissie's body because he knows Ellen is serving hamburger and "Brody had seen enough chopped meat for one day." Searls avoids Benchley's lurid imagination in matters of sex (he has a scene of Mike Brody trying to make out with his girlfriend Jackie, a different version of the Donna Wilkes character from the final film that is totally innocent) and coarseness (no abundance of f-words or other items Benchley overdid) and he is also more tame but equally effective in describing the experience of the victims as they are killed by the shark. But I suspect Searls only was borrowing some set piece elements from the Sackler/Tristan script and largely created from whole cloth a completely new narrative. Those of us who want a more true indication of what the film would have been like if Hancock had stayed will need to find a copy of the Sackler/Tristan script.
As for the film itself, in watching it last night I was impressed by the action sequences. On that level, Jeannot Szwark delivered the goods and also with the proper understanding that audiences would be WANTING to see more of the shark than they did the last time. The human drama scenes are less effective and its very unfortunate that the final theatrical cut doesn't contain the two key scenes that show that Murray Hamilton's Vaughan hasn't forgotten the lessons of the first film and has just reverted to type. I hadn't realized in fact until viewing the supplements that the supplements do NOT include the key first scene of Vaughan defending Brody to Peterson and the others before Brody arrives with the picture. You have to see that on YT but it's even more powerful than the moment where he refuses to join in the vote to fire Brody. In that scene, Vaughan looks miserable and troubled that Brody is likely going to get fired and tries to defend him as a decent man who had good intentions. Vaughan may not believe a second shark is back (though I like to think if he'd been presented with the same level of evidence that had existed the first go-round he would have believed him) but he knows how much he owes Brody and doesn't want to ruin him. It's Hamilton's best scene and it should have stayed. Even so, the film as a whole works because it gives the audience what it wanted without insulting it like the subsequent sequels did. But it was the kind of sequel that could only be done once and after that they should have left it alone for good.
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34279
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Great analysis Eric, I've read the Searls novelizations of 2 and THE REVENGE but it's been a while. Probably time I did so again!
As you wrote, he strays from the screenplays to add detail which is all you can ask from a novelization, especially on THE REVENGE which is a dire movie with a stupid premise right off the bat. I remember my Mom even read the novelization and was tricked into thinking the movie was going to be good! (The novel was out in May, months ahead of the movie). I agree he's a much better writer than Benchley, obviously JAWS is a far more effective film than it is a book, though I recall thinking BEAST was a pretty good read and he improved over time with his prose (the mini-series version of that sadly was a letdown).
I bought a hardcover copy of the 2 novelization off Ebay (I think it was a Bantam Book Club exclusive) just to have it. I agree it's probably not that indicative of what the Hancock version was going to be -- really the more you learn about what it WAS supposed to be, its safe to say Universal retooling it, shutting it down, bringing in Jeannot Swarzc and Carl Gottlieb to craft it "on the fly" was one of the most successful rescue missions for a troubled film in Hollywood history. The end product shows no signs of the problems and works really well. I'd argue it's a lot better than many give it credit for. I totally agree with you on the Vaughan scenes too, those should've been retained, yet they likely wanted to trim the run time to 2 hours or slightly under and while the scenes are good (and well-written also), they regrettably were expendable.
As you wrote, he strays from the screenplays to add detail which is all you can ask from a novelization, especially on THE REVENGE which is a dire movie with a stupid premise right off the bat. I remember my Mom even read the novelization and was tricked into thinking the movie was going to be good! (The novel was out in May, months ahead of the movie). I agree he's a much better writer than Benchley, obviously JAWS is a far more effective film than it is a book, though I recall thinking BEAST was a pretty good read and he improved over time with his prose (the mini-series version of that sadly was a letdown).
I bought a hardcover copy of the 2 novelization off Ebay (I think it was a Bantam Book Club exclusive) just to have it. I agree it's probably not that indicative of what the Hancock version was going to be -- really the more you learn about what it WAS supposed to be, its safe to say Universal retooling it, shutting it down, bringing in Jeannot Swarzc and Carl Gottlieb to craft it "on the fly" was one of the most successful rescue missions for a troubled film in Hollywood history. The end product shows no signs of the problems and works really well. I'd argue it's a lot better than many give it credit for. I totally agree with you on the Vaughan scenes too, those should've been retained, yet they likely wanted to trim the run time to 2 hours or slightly under and while the scenes are good (and well-written also), they regrettably were expendable.
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
I think you'll have fun with the Jaws 2 novel, Andy. I have to admit I can't handle revisiting "The Revenge" book or film! Someone did a book on the production of the film "The Shark Is Roaring" and while it was largely compiled from going back through media sources and not so much interviews (though there are some cast ones in the back) it told me all I needed to know. Joseph Sargent also did a candid interview about it for the Archive of American Television oral history series that you can find on YT as well (he was basically roped into doing it because of the level of control Sheinberg was giving him).
One thing I finally noticed in Jaws 2 for the first time when revisiting it is how the Brody house has one of the Orca barrels out front for plants. Clearly the one Brody paddled home on!
One thing I finally noticed in Jaws 2 for the first time when revisiting it is how the Brody house has one of the Orca barrels out front for plants. Clearly the one Brody paddled home on!
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34279
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
I agree, THE REVENGE is just plain bad, and it's really not even so bad its good bad, it's just misfired and terrible. 3-D I can watch once in a while because it doesn't feel like it's connected to the first two movies, it's more of a disaster movie set at Sea World, with "in name only" references to the Brody family but nothing really connecting them. And I think it was originally written that way too, they just shoehorned "Mike Brody" into Dennis Quaid's character name and such.
I also noticed the barrels also on the Brody family lawn in 2 not that long ago...lol. Nice touch most people missed!
Years ago when scripts used to be fairly easy to find online, I thought I had a draft of JAWS 2 that came from the Tristan/Sackler era -- alas I wonder if I'm just misremembering it now. Might be worth a few searches into "the dark web" to see if it ever existed online!
I also noticed the barrels also on the Brody family lawn in 2 not that long ago...lol. Nice touch most people missed!
Years ago when scripts used to be fairly easy to find online, I thought I had a draft of JAWS 2 that came from the Tristan/Sackler era -- alas I wonder if I'm just misremembering it now. Might be worth a few searches into "the dark web" to see if it ever existed online!
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34279
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Oh here's a fun interview with Hancock and Tristan in the NY Times after they were hired in 1977 to make "JAWS II."
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/26/arch ... -jaws.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/26/arch ... -jaws.html
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
You know Andy, I just went through my files and what do I find but a file that I clearly copied from on-line years ago that says it's the Sackler/Tristan draft dated November 30, 1976! I'll need to go through that later but just looking at the opening page there is one tie-in to the Searls novelization that I can spot. The Sackler/Tristan script has some prominence for the diving instructor character whose name is Tom Andrews and the Andrews character is also prominent in the Searls novelization because Mike (to Brody's displeasure) is taking scuba diving classes (he even becomes the last shark victim). In the film, there is a character named "Tom Andrews" but he's evidently the old man who accompanies Hendricks on the police boat in the search for the divers whereas the young diving instructor we see late in the film is a different character entirely.
Here's my pdf conversion.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uar4p6rgqvzxq ... 9.pdf?dl=0
Here's my pdf conversion.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uar4p6rgqvzxq ... 9.pdf?dl=0
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34279
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Awesome, thanks Eric! Just downloaded it. I really felt I had a copy of it back in the day too but a lot of those "free script" sites have disappeared as studios threatened them or whatever.
I was glancing through this Gottlieb "final draft" which mostly reads very closely to what's in the movie -- outside of the diving instructor "Tom Andrews" having more of a role. That part must have been pared down over and over to the point where it no longer held much of any significance.
https://www.dailyscript.com/bhundlan/sc ... ttlieb.htm
I was glancing through this Gottlieb "final draft" which mostly reads very closely to what's in the movie -- outside of the diving instructor "Tom Andrews" having more of a role. That part must have been pared down over and over to the point where it no longer held much of any significance.
https://www.dailyscript.com/bhundlan/sc ... ttlieb.htm
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
I made my way through the Sackler/Tristan draft of late November 76 and here are some impressions.
1-I have to wonder if Searls made use of a draft written before or after this one. For one thing, in this draft the Andrews character we were talking about is the one who suffers the embolism from panic after seeing the shark. In the Searls novelization this isn't Andrews but the "Andy" character (the curly haired fat one played by Gary Springer in the final movie). The script draft alludes to the fact that Mike had been taken diving lessons that Brody disapproved of which is a bigger deal in the novelization.
2-The girlfriend for Mike in this draft is "Angela" instead of "Jackie" as it would be in the novelization and the final film (I think it was changed when Hancock was shooting).
3-The water ski scene involves *four* people instead of two. A married couple in the boat who are letting another married couple ski behind them. This comes off as very cumbersome. The scene where Brody encounters a body later is still there and it has an important point that the final film didn't make clear. The body recovered being all burned had no shark bites on it so it could offer no proof that a shark was connected to it. Brody knows he doesn't have enough evidence to justify closing the beaches.
4-The scene with Dr. Elkins takes place at Woods Hole and we get a long, talky exposition scene of Elkins going on about sharks and their potential benefit to society as she leads Brody around and the point that does get emphasized is her judgment that the killer whale was attacked by a shark far out to sea and thus there is no threat to Amity. But it does end with the same dialogue from the final film where Brody asks if sharks communicate and if one died, another one might come out of revenge and the very same line in the film from Elkins, "Sharks don't take things personally" is still there. (There is no version of this scene in Searls since there is no killer whale mauled scene in the book and Brody remember is clueless about the shark until near the end)
5-There is also curiously no plot point of the divers taking a picture that is recovered and developed. Nor is there any scene of Brody getting fired. In fact, for all the talk of "Brody going mad" that Hancock was focusing on, there is surprisingly a lot less of that in this draft. The false alarm "bluefish" scene is still there, but it's far more restrained as Brody is just shouting at the guard in the tower to ring the bell and he doesn't yet fire his gun at the ocean when he hears that it's just bluefish. The condo developer Peterson is making threats about wanting to fire Brody, but Vaughan is able to defuse this (so this draft does establish Vaughan as still wanting to look out for Brody and thinking he's just stressed out from bad memories).
6-Further proof this wasn't the last Sackler/Tristan draft. The "Sideburns" character while so addressed in the script, just pops up in the final climactic sailing sequence etc. but there is no plot point about him as Quint's son etc. He does meet his grisly demise as was planned where he is bitten in half and bobs up.
7-The action takes up almost 35-40% of the final part of the script and it isn't particularly easy to follow. Frankly it comes off a bit sloppy. There is no "Cable Junction" and the attack on the helicopter has a lot more pyrotechnics that would have been impossible to bring to the screen. The characters of the other teenagers, who are mostly meant to be 15 (as opposed to how most of them in the final film seem to be 16-17) aren't particularly well-delineated IMO.
But even if Searls used another draft by Sackler/Tristan to at least get a couple other plot points, it is clear he was letting his imagination run for all the other things the novelization has about the Mafia, the crooked pharmacist, the crooked cop, the baby seal Sean gets attached to etc. He must have had some kind of carte blanche to do so because the net effect is almost the equivalent of making you think the novel had to come first and was being "adapted" for the screen because it's that different whether comparing it to Sackler/Tristan or the final Gottlieb version. In effect, they represent three distinctly unique takes on a "Jaws 2" story.
1-I have to wonder if Searls made use of a draft written before or after this one. For one thing, in this draft the Andrews character we were talking about is the one who suffers the embolism from panic after seeing the shark. In the Searls novelization this isn't Andrews but the "Andy" character (the curly haired fat one played by Gary Springer in the final movie). The script draft alludes to the fact that Mike had been taken diving lessons that Brody disapproved of which is a bigger deal in the novelization.
2-The girlfriend for Mike in this draft is "Angela" instead of "Jackie" as it would be in the novelization and the final film (I think it was changed when Hancock was shooting).
3-The water ski scene involves *four* people instead of two. A married couple in the boat who are letting another married couple ski behind them. This comes off as very cumbersome. The scene where Brody encounters a body later is still there and it has an important point that the final film didn't make clear. The body recovered being all burned had no shark bites on it so it could offer no proof that a shark was connected to it. Brody knows he doesn't have enough evidence to justify closing the beaches.
4-The scene with Dr. Elkins takes place at Woods Hole and we get a long, talky exposition scene of Elkins going on about sharks and their potential benefit to society as she leads Brody around and the point that does get emphasized is her judgment that the killer whale was attacked by a shark far out to sea and thus there is no threat to Amity. But it does end with the same dialogue from the final film where Brody asks if sharks communicate and if one died, another one might come out of revenge and the very same line in the film from Elkins, "Sharks don't take things personally" is still there. (There is no version of this scene in Searls since there is no killer whale mauled scene in the book and Brody remember is clueless about the shark until near the end)
5-There is also curiously no plot point of the divers taking a picture that is recovered and developed. Nor is there any scene of Brody getting fired. In fact, for all the talk of "Brody going mad" that Hancock was focusing on, there is surprisingly a lot less of that in this draft. The false alarm "bluefish" scene is still there, but it's far more restrained as Brody is just shouting at the guard in the tower to ring the bell and he doesn't yet fire his gun at the ocean when he hears that it's just bluefish. The condo developer Peterson is making threats about wanting to fire Brody, but Vaughan is able to defuse this (so this draft does establish Vaughan as still wanting to look out for Brody and thinking he's just stressed out from bad memories).
6-Further proof this wasn't the last Sackler/Tristan draft. The "Sideburns" character while so addressed in the script, just pops up in the final climactic sailing sequence etc. but there is no plot point about him as Quint's son etc. He does meet his grisly demise as was planned where he is bitten in half and bobs up.
7-The action takes up almost 35-40% of the final part of the script and it isn't particularly easy to follow. Frankly it comes off a bit sloppy. There is no "Cable Junction" and the attack on the helicopter has a lot more pyrotechnics that would have been impossible to bring to the screen. The characters of the other teenagers, who are mostly meant to be 15 (as opposed to how most of them in the final film seem to be 16-17) aren't particularly well-delineated IMO.
But even if Searls used another draft by Sackler/Tristan to at least get a couple other plot points, it is clear he was letting his imagination run for all the other things the novelization has about the Mafia, the crooked pharmacist, the crooked cop, the baby seal Sean gets attached to etc. He must have had some kind of carte blanche to do so because the net effect is almost the equivalent of making you think the novel had to come first and was being "adapted" for the screen because it's that different whether comparing it to Sackler/Tristan or the final Gottlieb version. In effect, they represent three distinctly unique takes on a "Jaws 2" story.
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34279
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
Great write up Eric!
To Tristan's defense, it is stunning that no matter how adjusted the final script was, the fact Tristan received no credit AT ALL on the finished film is shocking. The main premise was all hers, as was the basic structure of the drama, and that should've generated for her -- at the bare minimum -- a "Story" credit. The fact some dialogue and whole scenes still existed from her early drafts in the final version also means she deserved to be listed on the final screenplay credit also, even if it was under Gottlieb and Sackler etc (how much did Sackler contribute?).
That would never happen today -- in fact it would be completely the other way around. I'm not trying to say they weren't right to fire her/Hancock and make changes, but the rules eventually changed on that kind of thing and there's no way her name wouldn't have been on the final writing credits. And really it ought to be there, in all fairness.
To Tristan's defense, it is stunning that no matter how adjusted the final script was, the fact Tristan received no credit AT ALL on the finished film is shocking. The main premise was all hers, as was the basic structure of the drama, and that should've generated for her -- at the bare minimum -- a "Story" credit. The fact some dialogue and whole scenes still existed from her early drafts in the final version also means she deserved to be listed on the final screenplay credit also, even if it was under Gottlieb and Sackler etc (how much did Sackler contribute?).
That would never happen today -- in fact it would be completely the other way around. I'm not trying to say they weren't right to fire her/Hancock and make changes, but the rules eventually changed on that kind of thing and there's no way her name wouldn't have been on the final writing credits. And really it ought to be there, in all fairness.
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
I agree it is puzzling that Tristan's name was left off. I guess back then as I recall there was a rule on proving how much of a percentage you contributed to the final effort to justify a screen credit. If I recall though, didn't Sackler do the first version solo or at least without her name on it? That may have worked against Tristan if the first effort with her name was polishing a previous one. But yes, they should have gone with "Screenplay by Carl Gottlieb, Story by Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan".
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34279
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
I thought Sackler's solo concept was the USS Indianapolis prequel they vetoed, and that he then worked with Tristan and Hancock (whom Sackler himself apparently recommended) to come up with the main story.
May be wrong , I'd have to drag out the Jaws 2 book to confirm but either way it's clear the central concept of the movie Tristan was involved with as well as the main structure of the film. The set pieces were basically laid out in that script she wrote, Gottlieb redid the characterizations and dialogue but that's still a big piece of the film to not get credit for. Pretty sure she confirmed that in an interview she did, that not to have her name on it somewhere was pretty inexplicable.
May be wrong , I'd have to drag out the Jaws 2 book to confirm but either way it's clear the central concept of the movie Tristan was involved with as well as the main structure of the film. The set pieces were basically laid out in that script she wrote, Gottlieb redid the characterizations and dialogue but that's still a big piece of the film to not get credit for. Pretty sure she confirmed that in an interview she did, that not to have her name on it somewhere was pretty inexplicable.
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8623
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Read a Book, then Watch Its Movie!
I was going through the Kindle Book "Jaws Unmade: The Lost Sequels, Prequels, Remakes and Ripoffs" and I found this summary of what is described as the first Sackler script *after* the Indianapolis prequel idea was rejected. This means the script I evaluated was the next draft when Tristan did the rewrite and this clears up some more things. The "Quint's son" gimmick originated in *this* draft and was then eliminated, it had Brody getting fired which was taken out in the next draft, and Brody's paranoia was more overt in this one and then toned down in the next one.
"As related earlier, Howard Sackler’s first idea for Jaws 2 was really a prequel, which Sid Sheinberg shot down immediately in favor of a return to Amity. Sheinberg and the producers were also wise to the fact that teenagers had loved the first Jaws. In Richard Zanuck’s words, “Kids ate it up…[Jaws] was X-rated for anyone over 70.”[33] Sheinberg instructed Sackler to write the story around “children in distress.” And so he did. Though his script would be heavily revised by Dorothy Tristan and Carl Gottlieb in the future, allegedly it contained all the familiar tropes from the finished Jaws 2: the attack on the water skier, shark vs. helicopter, and the group of teenagers attacked at sea.[34] A notable difference was that the first draft featured a mysterious young man, nicknamed Sideburns, who comes into town. It turns out to be Quint’s son, out to collect the reward money his father would have received had he lived through the first film. For some reason, he and Mike Brody team up to try and kill the new shark (this could be a misinterpretation of the actual story, though). Someone didn’t take to Quint Jr., and so he was replaced with a mystery man who comes to Amity in an effort to exploit its shark legend in Sackler’s second treatment. To be more specific, the character is named Boyd. In this case, he’s not related to Quint, but he has bought Quint’s old business and turned it into the “Shark O’ Rama Shark Den”—which more or less exploits the town’s tragedy. The Len Peterson character is also present, and Mayor Vaughn is trying secure funds for a new real estate development being pushed by Peterson. A paranoid Sheriff Brody wants to secure funds for a huge underwater fence to be put around the beach instead. Sackler’s version didn’t have as many teenagers, and zeroed in on the two Brody brothers, along with Andy and Doug who made the cut into the final film. Teenaged lovers Ed and Tina also appear in this draft, but with smaller roles (and yes, Ed still gets eaten). Brody is even more paranoid in Sackler’s treatment than he is in the film. Brody has a nightmare so intense that it teeters on the edge of parody. In the nightmare, Brody sees sharks in every body of water that he looks at, including a swimming pool! Notably, the aborted spoof Jaws 3, People 0 begins with a shark in Peter Benchley’s swimming pool that eats him. One has to wonder if Zanuck and Brown remembered this nightmare scene from Sackler’s Jaws 2 and utilized it in their unproduced parody.
"Anyhow, Sackler’s Jaws 2 nightmare ends with Brody’s dead body washing up in the surf at Ellen’s feet. The killer whale scene is present (considering this treatment was written at some point in late 1975, the theory that the dead Killer Whale scene was a jab at 1977’s Orca would seem to be unfounded). When Brody sees the whale, he’s convinced that a shark is to blame. He takes a police boat out and somehow manages to wreck it in what becomes an embarrassment to the town, and Brody is fired. What’s interesting about the firing of Brody is that it would be done away with in the next draft, but the idea was re-instated in the final film. Sackler’s ending is too much of a rehash of Jaws. Brody must team up with Boyd and Peterson to hunt the shark on Peterson’s boat. In the middle of the action, Boyd falls off the side of the ship after the shark rams them. With Peterson at the wheel, they race to Boyd’s location. Brody extends a hand and pulls half of Boyd into the boat—the shark had bitten the lower half off. One has to wonder if Quint’s son in the previous iteration shared the same fate? Brody then gets an idea as the shark continues to batter the boat. Peterson’s boat is a twin-engine. If the shark happened to come into contact with the large propellers, it would chop it to pieces. Brody has Peterson raise the twin engines, which he then centers himself in between. Brody kicks his feet into the water, enticing the shark to charge him. At the last possible second, Brody hoists himself back into the boat while Peterson drops the engines. The shark plunges headfirst into the spinning propellers, and a bloody mess is created. While this ending isn’t bad, the one created by Dorothy Tristan in rewrites was much better. And speaking of rewrites, onto the next chapter…
LeMay, John; Mullis, Justin. Jaws Unmade: The Lost Sequels, Prequels, Remakes, and Rip-Offs (pp. 53-54). Bicep Books. Kindle Edition. "
And reading the book further apparently the "Quint's son" angle was put back in the film only when Hancock started shooting so none of the draft versions of Tristan evidently had this subplot. But it also confirms Tristan as the one responsible for the shark's demise of biting the cable, and also the whole idea of the shark as a pregnant female by the first shark that Searls ran with in the novelization was in fact based on an idea of Tristan's. So now it looks like Searls must have been working from some outlines or perhaps even conversations with Tristan to go further with what he did in the novelization.
"As related earlier, Howard Sackler’s first idea for Jaws 2 was really a prequel, which Sid Sheinberg shot down immediately in favor of a return to Amity. Sheinberg and the producers were also wise to the fact that teenagers had loved the first Jaws. In Richard Zanuck’s words, “Kids ate it up…[Jaws] was X-rated for anyone over 70.”[33] Sheinberg instructed Sackler to write the story around “children in distress.” And so he did. Though his script would be heavily revised by Dorothy Tristan and Carl Gottlieb in the future, allegedly it contained all the familiar tropes from the finished Jaws 2: the attack on the water skier, shark vs. helicopter, and the group of teenagers attacked at sea.[34] A notable difference was that the first draft featured a mysterious young man, nicknamed Sideburns, who comes into town. It turns out to be Quint’s son, out to collect the reward money his father would have received had he lived through the first film. For some reason, he and Mike Brody team up to try and kill the new shark (this could be a misinterpretation of the actual story, though). Someone didn’t take to Quint Jr., and so he was replaced with a mystery man who comes to Amity in an effort to exploit its shark legend in Sackler’s second treatment. To be more specific, the character is named Boyd. In this case, he’s not related to Quint, but he has bought Quint’s old business and turned it into the “Shark O’ Rama Shark Den”—which more or less exploits the town’s tragedy. The Len Peterson character is also present, and Mayor Vaughn is trying secure funds for a new real estate development being pushed by Peterson. A paranoid Sheriff Brody wants to secure funds for a huge underwater fence to be put around the beach instead. Sackler’s version didn’t have as many teenagers, and zeroed in on the two Brody brothers, along with Andy and Doug who made the cut into the final film. Teenaged lovers Ed and Tina also appear in this draft, but with smaller roles (and yes, Ed still gets eaten). Brody is even more paranoid in Sackler’s treatment than he is in the film. Brody has a nightmare so intense that it teeters on the edge of parody. In the nightmare, Brody sees sharks in every body of water that he looks at, including a swimming pool! Notably, the aborted spoof Jaws 3, People 0 begins with a shark in Peter Benchley’s swimming pool that eats him. One has to wonder if Zanuck and Brown remembered this nightmare scene from Sackler’s Jaws 2 and utilized it in their unproduced parody.
"Anyhow, Sackler’s Jaws 2 nightmare ends with Brody’s dead body washing up in the surf at Ellen’s feet. The killer whale scene is present (considering this treatment was written at some point in late 1975, the theory that the dead Killer Whale scene was a jab at 1977’s Orca would seem to be unfounded). When Brody sees the whale, he’s convinced that a shark is to blame. He takes a police boat out and somehow manages to wreck it in what becomes an embarrassment to the town, and Brody is fired. What’s interesting about the firing of Brody is that it would be done away with in the next draft, but the idea was re-instated in the final film. Sackler’s ending is too much of a rehash of Jaws. Brody must team up with Boyd and Peterson to hunt the shark on Peterson’s boat. In the middle of the action, Boyd falls off the side of the ship after the shark rams them. With Peterson at the wheel, they race to Boyd’s location. Brody extends a hand and pulls half of Boyd into the boat—the shark had bitten the lower half off. One has to wonder if Quint’s son in the previous iteration shared the same fate? Brody then gets an idea as the shark continues to batter the boat. Peterson’s boat is a twin-engine. If the shark happened to come into contact with the large propellers, it would chop it to pieces. Brody has Peterson raise the twin engines, which he then centers himself in between. Brody kicks his feet into the water, enticing the shark to charge him. At the last possible second, Brody hoists himself back into the boat while Peterson drops the engines. The shark plunges headfirst into the spinning propellers, and a bloody mess is created. While this ending isn’t bad, the one created by Dorothy Tristan in rewrites was much better. And speaking of rewrites, onto the next chapter…
LeMay, John; Mullis, Justin. Jaws Unmade: The Lost Sequels, Prequels, Remakes, and Rip-Offs (pp. 53-54). Bicep Books. Kindle Edition. "
And reading the book further apparently the "Quint's son" angle was put back in the film only when Hancock started shooting so none of the draft versions of Tristan evidently had this subplot. But it also confirms Tristan as the one responsible for the shark's demise of biting the cable, and also the whole idea of the shark as a pregnant female by the first shark that Searls ran with in the novelization was in fact based on an idea of Tristan's. So now it looks like Searls must have been working from some outlines or perhaps even conversations with Tristan to go further with what he did in the novelization.