Jaws the Book vs. Jaws the Movie: Which is Better?

by

Scott D. Parker

I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for many summers: read Peter Benchley’s Jaws. 

The original hardcover came out in February 1974 and the movie the following summer. I’ll admit that it took me quite a long time to see the movie. I can’t remember the first time I saw it, but it might’ve been on one of the network broadcasts. It wasn’t until the 1990s that I finally saw the whole thing. 

But what about the book? I remember my mom reading the paperback in the late 70s. This is one with the movie poster as its cover so you can imagine how much my pre-teen self enjoyed that cover. Wink. My library had both the ebook and the audiobook available last month so I decided this was the summer.

Oh, and book spoilers from here on out.

The Similar Things 

The story is the same one you know from the movie: a great white shark terrorizes the little summer town of Amity, New York. The deaths that follow threaten the town’s annual livelihood so something has to be done about the shark. 

Police Chief Martin Brody is from out of town, a former cop from New York, and his initial instinct is to close the beaches. He’s married and has three kids (the movie only has two). Harry Meadows is the editor of the newspaper and he and Brody are friends. Meadows calls in shark expert, Matt Hooper, to investigate.

Meanwhile, Mayor Larry Vaughn does not want the beaches closed because it’ll mean tourists and their money won’t come. And Quint is a fisherman who takes the job of hunting and killing the great white.

The overall plot of the book matches the movie but the film jettisons certain subplots.

The Differences

Ellen Brody grew up as one of the richer “summer” people. These are the folks who live elsewhere and come to live in Amity for the summer. Now she finds herself living full time in Amity and she’s having doubts about her life. She’s a mom of three kids. She’s married to a man that she’s not sure if she truly loves anymore because, partially because he “took her away” from that other lifestyle. 

Matt Hooper is decidedly not how Richard Dreyfuss is in the film. Where Dreyfuss is short and nerdy, in the book, Hooper is tall, handsome, and way younger. He’s also the younger brother of a guy Ellen dated. And he’s from that other life. All of that plays out against Ellen’s midlife crisis and, well, she cheats on Martin with Matt.

I kept thinking she’d turn away or that Matt would stop himself but no, they have their fling. But as the story plays out, Ellen does lots of soul searching and ultimately comes to realize that she likes the choices she made and is happy with her life. And she’s ready to turn the page and renew her relationship with her husband…if he survives the shark hunt.

Mayor Vaughn in both the movie and book wants to keep the beaches open, but in the book, there’s more than just civic pride. Turns out he’s in deep water with the mob and he needs the beaches open so that his day job as a realtor can be successful and he won’t get into more trouble.

Quint is still just as dedicated to killing the shark as Robert Shaw is in the movie, but it’s just for the money. Nonexistent is Movie Quint’s time aboard the USS Indianapolis and the Arab-like hatred of sharks. 

The ending is different as well. Hooper dies in the shark cage and Quint, rather than being eaten, is dragged underwater by a rope that snagged his leg and drowns. And the finale? Well, the shark is swimming to Brody as he hangs on the sinking boat and then just dies. And Brody swims to shore.

The Verdict

I won’t bury the lede: stick with the movie. And the vastly better movie poster.

The class-related sub-plot with Ellen is interesting as is the midlife questioning of her life’s choices. Having the mayor be in debt to the was a nice wrinkle, one that gave the character more motivation than the movie version. 

Quint is way better in the movie than the book as is the whole shark hunt final act. The camaraderie the three characters experience is wonderful and I like how each man comes to see the other two a little bit differently, especially when Quint and Hooper compare scars.

Robert Shaw’s monologue about the Indianapolis is spellbinding and remains one of the best parts of the movie.

And the ending, when Brody shoots the oxygen tank in the shark’s mouth the beast explodes is exactly the kind of ending you want in a summer blockbuster. And Hooper lives and they both swim to shore together.

I’m glad I read Jaws by Peter Benchley and I encourage others to give it a chance if you are curious. But I think I’ll be sticking with the 1975 film from here on out. The wife and I watched it again last week and it holds up remarkably well.

Sidenote: The wife read that Roy Scheider used his movie The French Connection to help Steven Spielberg to cast him as Brody. So I’ll give you one guess as to the next movie we watched.  

"Hit Man" Is a Nice Piece of Counter Programming for Summer 2024

By

Scott D. Parker

Well, that wasn’t what I expected.

But maybe I should have.

“Hit Man” debuted on Netflix last Friday after spending a few days in the theater. Glen Powell stars as Gasy Johnson, a college professor who moonlights as a hit man for the cops. No, he’s not really a hit man. He just take a meeting, gets the perps on tape asking for a murder-for-hire, and then the cops swoop in.

The movie was inspired by a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth dating back twenty-four years. Gary isn’t just some ordinary joe meeting people in bars or restaurants. He’s a psychology professor who digs deep into his marks, figuring out what makes them tick, and then presents a “hit man” likely to align with the mark’s impression of what a hit man would look and act like. This gives actor Glen Powell the change to change his appearance—just like the real Gary—coming out in wigs and fake teeth and affected accents. It’s all quite fun.

Until Gary meets Madison (Adria Arjona). She wants her abusive husband dead and Gary does the unlikely thing of talking her out of it. She walks away happy. Gary’s cop co-workers can’t believe it. And Gary? Well, he kind of likes the version of himself he created for Madison. He ends up seeing her again. And again. And again. 

Now we have a different tale, just like the entire movie.

It’s the Richard Linklater Effect

I should have known that a movie directed and co-written (with Powell) by fellow Texan Linklater would be a different kind of hit man movie. I mean, this is the same guy who gave us Dazed and Confused (and added Matthew McConaughey’s “Alright, alright, alright” to the movie lexicon) and Slacker, a film that helped spawn the independent film movement of the 1990s.

So this is a movie about a hit man with a lot of talking and zero moments of gun fire (outside of a gun range). Gary and Madison talk about identity and what it’s like to be a hit man, a trait Gary constantly deflects because, well, he’s a psych professor. In fact, while with Madison, Gary begins to like his alter ego better than himself. And a different Gary emerges.

One he has to keep hidden from the cops.

And then things take a weird, funny turn.

What makes this decidedly Hollywood-ized version of this story is the truth at its core. Gary Johnson was a real guy—he actually did his work here in Houston even though the movie takes place in New Orleans—and that’s wilder than any movie. 

A good movie and a nice bit of counter programming for all the usual movies we get during the summer months. Have a look. It’s on Netflix. You don’t even have to leave your couch.

How’d You Spend the 99 Days of Summer 2023 (Part 1)?

by
Scott D. Parker

I read at lot and watched a lot of movies.

There. End of post. See ya.

What did I see and read? I'll recap the reading next week. Here's what I watched...and hopefully you did, too.

Summer 2023 Movies Were Great

When was the last time we had a summer movie season like this? I think many of us earmarked certain dates on the calendar to get ourselves to the movie theater. I did that nearly every weekend this year. The end result was that, with the exception of the Pixar film, Elemental, I saw every movie I wanted to see this summer. And I enjoyed just about every one of them.

The nostalgia of seeing Michael Keaton as Batman was one of the highlights. The film was quite good and I seriously loved the cameos. Speaking of nostalgia, it was great to see Indiana Jones one last time in a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. Heck, it even prompted me to rematch Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls (and it’s not as bad and you or I remember).

And how visually stunning was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse? Is that the best example of what you can do with animation to tell a rich, engrossing story like that? Asteroid City was another example of a visually interesting movie by local Houstonian, Wes Anderson.

Then there was Barbenheimer. Two great films, polar opposites, but the same weekend. The wife and I saw Oppenheimer on opening night. How stunning was it that a 3-hour movie largely consisting of people in rooms talking went by so fast? And that last line? Barbie was phenomenal. I found myself laughing one moment and tearing up the next. Such a bold, fresh, exuberant film. It’s probably the best of the summer.

But not my favorite. I only saw one movie twice in the theaters and that was Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part 1. It’s all there, in this film, everything you’ve come to love about M:I films, and this time, we get Henry Czerny back, chewing up scenery and dialogue. Hailey Atwell is a great addition to the franchise, and her chemistry with Tom Cruise is right there on the screen. And that final sequence…with the train? Fantastic. Just as breathless the second time as the first…and I knew what was coming. Love, love, love.

I saw an enjoyed other new films including Meg 2 (it’s exactly what you think it’ll be), Haunted Mansion, and, after watching the first one, Book Club 2. How frigging charming are those movies? More please.

I had the hankering to watch Mad Max: Fury Road (the fourth one) but after about 30 minutes, my wife suggested we go all the way back and start with the original. After the first two (which were interesting), she told me that I was going to feel compelled to watch Thunderdome but that I shouldn’t. She nailed it. What the heck was that? Fury Road was quite good.

There was some great TV as well. The finale of Ted Lasso! Season two of The Bear, especially that episode entitled “Forks.” A stunning hour of television. The old TV series “Brothers and Sisters” and our new favorite thing we’re catching up on: Parenthood. Oh, and on Netflix, there’s a spellbinding documentary called “Cave of Bones.”

Those are the highlights of what I watched this summer. Come back next week when I talk about what I read.

Drowning by T.J. Newman is the Best Movie You'll Read This Summer

By Scott D. Parker

From the opening, harrowing moments of the first three chapters to the last 30 minutes of the audiobook, this book did not let up.

A few weeks ago, I finished T. J. Newman’s debut, FALLING and eagerly jumped into her brand-new book, DROWNING. In the book, a plane suffers mechanical failure two minutes after takeoff from Honolulu and crashes into the ocean.

Unlike those famous airplane disaster movies from the 1970s that takes a quarter of the movie to introduce the characters and get the plane in the air, Newman puts you on the plane just after takeoff from the first sentence. By Chapter 3, the plane is down.

And those three chapters are incredibly harrowing and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. How suspenseful you might ask? Suspenseful enough to elicit an emotional response. Heart pounding in the chest and a sting of tears in the eyes.

And that was only the beginning.

The race against time aspect never let up, even in the flashbacks where we see what makes these three individuals tick. A father and his daughter are on the plane as it goes down. The estranged wife is an underwater construction expert. Naturally, you can see how this goes. Even the other characters were given enough to make you root for them or not.

But the drama was organic and relentless.

By the end of the audiobook, I had a driveway moment where I slowed the car down. I then sat in my garage in Houston in the summer for about five minutes as I finished a chapter. When I walked into the house, my wife asked if I was just sitting in the garage. “Yeah,” I confessed, “and I’m going to have to finish this book now.”

I did. And it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

You won’t need to wait for the movie. You can see it all in your mind. It’s a definite summer blockbuster of a story.

Jurassic World: Dominion: A Wonderful Summer Blockbuster

By

Scott D. Parker

I’m not sure what movie some folks watched but it sure wasn’t the one I saw.

When it comes to movies, I make it point not to read any reviews ahead of seeing a movie I want to see. If the trailer hasn’t grabbed my attention and compelled me to watch—or the pedigree of the actors, writers, and director—then I don’t seek out the Rotten Tomato score to sway me. This is not the same with books in which I will happily read and take into consideration the opinions of dozens of fellow writers when they recommend books.

But once I’ve seen a movie, I am curious to know the general consensus and see if it lines up with my experience. When I saw the 2.5 hours of Jurassic World: Dominion (AKA Jurassic World 3 AKA Jurassic Park 6), I was enthralled, entertained, and emitted more than a few utterances of “Yeah!” and “Cool!” It ended the 6-movie franchise quite well, introducing the original Park actors with the new World actors in a way that felt organic. The music was nicely used throughout, including the elegant main theme from John Williams—both the orchestral as well as the softer piano version. There were dino-on-dino fights, a kick-ass motorcycle/dinosaur chase through a European city, and a dino/airplane chase. There were dinos in the water, dinos in caves, and dinos in snow. All things we’ve not seen before.

Well, I’m pretty sure we haven’t. I’ve pretty much got the first movie memorized. The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, a little. Jurassic World I remember decently and I all but forgot World 2: Fallen Kingdom.

But I remember the closing show of Fallen Kingdom well, accompanied by Jeff Goldblum’s voiceover. Dinosaurs now live among humans and we’re going to have to learn to co-exist as best as possible. And that’s how Dominion starts. It shows us a world like that. Granted, it’s not one I’d prefer to live in—don’t need the possibility of my plane flight being overtaken by a pterodactyl—but it is one original author Michael Crichton envisioned and that Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm keeps talking about in every movie he’s in. So in that respect, Dominion gets it correct.

So imagine my surprise when I hop on over to Rotten Tomatoes on Monday night—after eagerly relating all the fun and cool stuff in the movie to my wife who didn’t go—that the critical consensus was so poor. Again, what movie did these folks watch?

Okay, the plot. There are two threads. The World Plot has Owen and Claire trying to protect Maisie from the rest of the world because she’s a clone. Blue the velociraptor lives nearby and has unexpectedly produced a young raptor called Beta. (It shouldn’t be unexpected because “Life always finds a way.”) Bad guys kidnap both younglings and Owen and Claire follow.

The Park Plot involves our three original cast members and boils down to Laura Dern’s Ellie Sadler researching why formerly extinct massive locusts are eating some crops but not others. If they’re not stopped, there will be a global famine, yet the locusts don’t seem to be eating crops grown from seeds provided by Biosyn, the new bad-guy company a la InGen from the Park movies. She makes the assumption—with an assist from Malcolm—that Biosyn is behind both the seeds and the locusts. She enlists the help of Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and they set off in search of proof at Biosyn’s giant lab/breeding ground/dinosaur habitat in Europe.

Which is exactly where the kidnappers are taking Maisie and Beta. Naturally, the World characters and the Park characters will meet—the selling point of the film—and they’ll battle enemies both dino and human. Along the way, there are wonderful set pieces that are the definition of a summer blockbuster. In fact, as Owen is racing through the streets on his motorcycle, trained raptors on his tail, you see the aforementioned plane start to warm up. I leaned over to my son and said, “I bet he jumps into the open plane in midair.” Viola! That’s exactly what happened.

Yes, that entire sequence felt like an espionage film (Bond, Bourne, Mission Impossible) but who cares? It was thrilling. There were lots of other thrilling moments as our heroes fight to stay alive, but not without some humor along the way.

But there are also some great character moments. Goldblum is having a field day as Malcolm, just chewing scenery left and right and I loved every second of it. The quiet moments are also good, like when it’s just Ellie and Alan seeing each other for the first time in decades, subtly lamenting lost time. Yes, their story line got a little bumbly as they tried to escape from the locust lair but it was minor.

I also liked how certain scenes were set up so that you *think* you know what’s going to happen but then your expectations are subverted. Case in point: Goldblum’s Malcolm is stuck holding a flaming piece of a spear-like metal pole and there’s a dino looking at him. In Park 1, he doesn’t know to throw the light source and freeze. Well, I said to my son, I bet he’s learned now. Nope. Not what happens. But it’s way cooler.

Scott Campbell, as the bad guy, plays Lewis Dodgson oddly. He is all bad at one moment and then weirdly like an absent-minded professor the next. I liked that they used him as a character although in the movie, it isn’t explicitly stated that he was the character in the original Jurassic Park who pays Wayne Knight’s Dennis Nedry to steal embryos in the Barbasol shaving cream can. But said can is a trinket in Dodgson’s office as he tries to escape. And I won’t even tell you what happens to him, but if you’ve seen Park 1, you have an idea.

Speaking of that, I like the little subtle Easter eggs like when Ellie takes off her sunglasses in a manner almost identically to Alan from Park 1. Nice touch.

The nostalgic part of me would have liked one last shot of all the Park characters together. Sadly we don’t get that, but we do get some resolution for everyone. And character growth. And bad guys getting what’s coming to them. And dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs.

Again, I’m just not understanding why the dislike for the film. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 79% so clearly it’s resonating with folks. It resonated with me quite well and I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

A Few Recommendations for Summer 2022

by
Scott D. Parker

Every now and then when it comes time for me to write a Saturday post, a large, overarching one about a single topic, I realize I don’t have one. So I’m going to provide a few recommendations of things I’m listening to, watching, or reading.

Top Gun: Maverick

Now THIS is how to do a legacy sequel. Age up the characters in real time, address the passage of time, and provide a wonderful piece of closure with a legacy co-star. Oh, and incredible action sequences. Holy cow was this a great movie. I took my wife who didn’t necessarily want to see it but she emerged very entertained. Not as entertained as I was: now I want to see this film in IMAX.

And please tell me I’m not the only one who saw the movie and kept having to slow down the car while driving home.

Def Leppard: Diamond Star Halos

Taking a page from the legacy artist idea I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, Def Leppard released their newest album last Friday. Fifteen tracks (17 if you buy from Target) of classic rock goodness. Much like the modern band, The Struts, the Joe Elliott-led five piece band wear their influences on their sleeves, and it starts with the album title.

There’s a whimsical vibe to these songs from the opening chord progression of “Take What You Want” to open the album to the last few notes of “From Here to Eternity.” Allison Krauss lends her vocals to a pair of tunes but make no mistake: this is a rock/pop/metal album just like the band used to make in their heyday.

Lyrically, the guys know their age and acknowledge it throughout the entire record. This was an album I looked forward to ever since it was announced and boy did they deliver.

And yes, we listened to Def Leppard on the way to and from seeing Top Gun: Maverick.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

The third thing released last Friday, this is a Star Wars series I’ve been eagerly anticipating since it was announced as well. In fact, I even held off reading the old Extended Universe novel.

We knew what we were going to get from the trailers: an older, wiser(?) Obi-Wan, living on Tatooine, watching over a ten-year-old Luke Skywalker. What I didn’t expect was his sister, Leia. In fact, it is her plight that propels the series.

I appreciate the slower roll, just like I did for the Mandalorian. I have zero issues with the actors on the show either (so a certain segment of the Star Wars fandom can just go home).

As big a Star Wars fan as I am, I didn’t watch the animated shows so everything in Obi-Wan Kenobi is new to me.

Oh, and so great to see Darth Vader back to being the feared force he is. But I’ll say something that might make a few of y’all look at me askance. I’m fine with James Earl Jones voicing Vader, but how about some more intense inflection, huh? I mean Vader/Anakin finally lays eyes on Kenobi after ten years and it’s like their talking over tea. The last thing Anakin yelled at Kenobi in Episode III was pure hatred. Where’s that emotion in Vader’s inflection?

No Time to Spy by Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens

If you like James Bond, might I point you in the direction of this trilogy of book by Collins and Clemens. The premise is pure fun: the main character is John Sand, a real spy who worked with Ian Fleming and the latter author based James Bond on John Sand. Sand, now outed as a spy, marries a rich Texas oil heiress. Despite his retirement, action and adventure follow Mr. and Mrs. Sand.

While I’ve not read all three books—Come Spy With Me; Live Fast, Spy Hard; To Live and Spy in Berlin—a compilation ebook is on sale *this weekend* for only $0.99. You read that correctly: for a dollar(!), you get three novels. Seriously, it’s an impulse buy at that point.

Here’s the Amazon link.

Roll With It by Jay Stringer

Yesterday, Jay broke the news that his latest novel is now available as an audiobook on Audible. As a person who primarily consumes books in that manner, this was great news.

But Jay went above and beyond and made available a few promo codes. These are US only—UK codes will be forthcoming—so if you haven’t had a chance to read his post from yesterday, head on over and see if any of those codes are still available.

Even if they’re not, the book is only 1 credit ($13.96 if you just want to buy it) so get on over to Audible and get a copy. Also, for you library folks out there, be sure to request your library to buy the book and help spread the word.

Let's Hear it for the Movies of Summer 2018

By
Scott D. Parker

With the arrival of Labor Day, the season of summer movies is over.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I really love summer movies. It is an annual thing for me and (most) of my family to see nearly all the summer movies. The big ones. The tentpole movies. The loud films where you need giant speakers to fully get the experience. Thinking about it, many of my favorite all-time movies debuted in the summer: Star Wars (and Empire and Jedi), Raiders of the Lost Ark (and Temple of Doom and Last Crusade), The Dark Knight (and the entire Christopher Nolan trilogy), When Harry Met Sally, Guardians of the Galaxy (and many other Marvel films), Batman ’89, Die Hard, many Pixar films, and the list could go on. Yeah, that’s a bunch of a certain type of movie, but it’s the kind of movie I love.

Back in mid April 2018, the slate of films to come out in Summer 2018 was massive. Heck, “summer” started on 27 April when Avengers: Infinity War was released. So, to commemorate the end of Summer 2018, I’m going to chat a little about some of my favorite films. They are in chronological order with, ironically, the last one being my favorite. The only ones I haven’t yet seen are CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (likely on Labor Day itself), the Mr. Rogers documentary, and CRAZY RICH ASIANS.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - Really, what’s not to love? It’s a giant team-up movie with nearly every Marvel hero on screen. And they broke out into various smaller teams, which I always a treat in the comics. Giant spectacle, great action, more humor than you’d expect, and some genuinely heartfelt moments (Spider-Man’s last scene). The audience was also fantastic, with gasps and shouts to the screen.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY - A perfectly fine film that would have done much better at the box office had it debuted December 2018 rather than a mere six months after last year’s THE LAST JEDI. It was a movie I didn’t particularly want or need, but it was enjoyable. An odd thing to say about a Star Wars movie, but if they keep churning them out, then the sense of “this is an event!” will fade and you’ll just have another Star Wars movie. The reveal at the end, though: great!

INCREDIBLES 2 - Wonderful film! Really, really enjoyed it. Laugh out loud moments and pure domestic emotions all usually within five minutes of each other. THE INCREDIBLES was, arguably, one of the best superhero movies of all time. The sequel doesn’t quite reach that level, but it is heads and shoulders above many, many other superhero films. And the Michael Giancchino soundtrack? Golden! He even leans harder into the James Bond-ian hooks. Funny note here: while driving back home after seeing this film, I commented we only had a week until the next blockbuster. My wife looked at me askance. Nevertheless, the following week, we saw…

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM - And, frankly, have forgotten most of it. The one image instilled in my memory was of the gentle brontosaurus lowing at the departing boat, doomed to die a fiery death. Oh, and Bryce Dallas Howard’s non-high heeled shoes. Other than that, not as exciting as the first Jurassic World movie, and nowhere near as good as the original Jurassic Park.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP - Three years ago, the first ANT-MAN debuted and it was a breath of fresh air in the superhero genre. A funny one. Intentionally funny. And Paul Rudd was so not like every other chiseled hero out there. Now, with the sequel, it is still a darn good time at the movies. Rudd plays Ant-Man as a real human, with real emotions. The movie is really entertaining with some great laugh out loud moments.

Now, all of those movies are good and ones I really wanted to watch. But there was one movie that was so darn entertaining, thrilling, funny, and more that I actually saw it twice. Moreover, I spent over seven hours listening to director Christopher McQuarrie deep dive about the movie on the Empire podcast. Yes, I’m talking about my favorite movie of the summer…

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT - I’ve already devoted an entire blog about it and another about the McQuarrie interviews. A phenomenal film. The first time, I grinned like a goofball, wholly entertained about what I was watching. The second time, having heard McQuarrie discuss this and that scene, I enjoyed it for the piece of film making it is. And it is still just as enjoyable the second time around. Even the audience for that second viewing—about a dozen or so folks—gasped in wonder at what was transpiring on screen. I’m now looking forward to the DVD where there will be even more behind-the-scenes material…and I’ll get to watch the film a third time.

So, those were my favorite summer movies of 2018. What were yours?