MEMORIES:
A sequel to Jaws was inevitable, and expectations were bound to be high. Jaws 2 had its share of production problems, including a number of script rewrites, and the firing of the film’s first director. And once again, the mechanical shark proved uncooperative. Still, Jaws 2 came through as a successful sequel.
Several years have passed since Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) faced down the marauding shark. Two divers find the submerged wreck of the Orca, the boat sunk by a great white shark that had once terrorized Amity Island. As they photograph their find, the divers are attacked by a new menace. Later, when a water skier and her boat driver attempt to fight off the giant fish, they accidentally blow up their craft. The shark’s face is burned in the process.
Chief Brody fears that Amity has a new shark threat, but there is little concrete evidence; a dead killer whale on the beach (with bites taken out of it), a blurry photo from the divers’ camera, and the charred remains of the ski boat driver. Mayor Larry Vaughan (Murray Hamilton) doesn’t believe any of this means there is a shark problem.
Brody loads his revolver with cyanide tipped bullets and watches the beach from a tower. Thinking he has spotted a shark, he begins firing his gun, causing a panic, and embarrassing Ellen, her clients, her boss, and Mayor Vaughan. Martin is fired from his post.
Even Brody’s own sons face an attack as the scar-faced begins claiming one victim after another. (Even a Coast Guard helicopter is no match for the hungry beast.) Will Martin Brody rescue them in time?
Ultimately, Jaws 2 wound up as something of a “teens in peril” movie at sea. The young cast spent months learning to sail, and spent the majority of production time off the coast of Florida, which provided better filming conditions than Martha’s Vineyard. Among the stalwart teens was Keith Gordon, soon to make his name in Dressed To Kill and Christine.
Roy Scheider provided a link to the first film, but Richard Dreyfuss, busy filming Close Encounters of the Third Kind, couldn’t return as originally planned. John Williams provided another tense and exciting musical score.
Director Jeannot Szwarc decided to give the shark plenty of screen time, unlike the first film, which kept its monster hidden or seen in brief glimpses. Szwarc felt that audiences already knew what the creature looked like, so there was no need to keep it a mystery. Jaws 2 was a hit, and before long, talk of another installment began.
