MEMORIES:
davidf05 remembers...Jaws 3D is the only Jaws movie from the trilogy that I enjoyed watching when I first saw it back ... More »
Posted on 08/22/08
PHOTOS:
Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown had succeeded wildly with Jaws, made a healthy profit on Jaws 2, and figured the franchise had run its course. Though they were pitched a script for a spoof, entitled National Lampoon’s Jaws 3 People 0, the project never got off the ground, but then along came the 3-D boom of the early eighties, and soon, Jaws 3-D was in front of the cameras, filmed on location at Sea World Orlando.
Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid) is chief technician at Florida’s Sea World park. He and his scientist girlfriend, Kathryn Morgan (Bess Armstrong), are busy preparing for the grand opening of a new underwater attraction, Undersea Kingdom. Park owner Calvin Bouchard (Louis Gossett, Jr.) is busy glad-handing the press. Meanwhile, one of the divers is attacked and killed by a shark near the gate between the park’s main lagoon and the ocean.
The new underwater attraction is opened, and park guests discover the diver’s body floating near the viewing tubes. Mike and Kathryn take a small diving sub out, and discover a young great white shark, which gives chase. Certain that this small animal is not capable of killing a man, Kathryn agrees to put the young shark on public display. The shark soon dies.
But the park still isn’t safe; water skier Kelly Ann Bukowski (Lea Thompson) is attacked by a much bigger shark while riding a bumper boat in the lagoon. This is a new nemesis, a gigantic mother shark over thirty feet in length. The monster fish storms the Undersea Kingdom attraction and traps park guests. Perhaps celebrity shark hunter Philip Fitzroyce (Simon MacCorkindale) can handle the problem. (Perhaps not!)
Jaws 3-D was directed by Joe Alves, production designer for the first two Jaws installments. The highly experimental 3-D techniques proved troublesome, and the film ran over budget and behind schedule. This time around, the shark effects were created via several means; full scale mechanical sharks, miniature models, and even stop-motion animated puppets. Ambition was high, but the results were uneven, to say the least.
The chief asset of Jaws 3-D was its cast. Dennis Quaid later charmed audiences with The Right Stuff, Dreamscape and Enemy Mine. Lea Thompson starred in the smash hit Back To The Future, and the legendary flop Howard the Duck. Louis Gossett, Jr. achieved Oscar glory in An Officer and a Gentleman.
Jaws 3-D attracted decent crowds with its 3-D gimmick, but the novelty was not enough to stop unkind word of mouth. Currently, all video releases present the 2-D version, known simply as Jaws 3. It may not have a lot of admirers, but plenty of us have fond memories of donning cardboard shark glasses back in 1983-D.
