Jaws: Book vs. Movie
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws is based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel. A shark’s attacks on a seaside community put police chief Martin Brody under pressure to protect swimmers without closing the beaches.
From Books Adapted
What changed from the book
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The movie removes an affair and the mayor's Mafia ties
The movie follows the novel's shark attacks and hunt through their conclusion, but leaves out two stories about Amity's residents. In the book, Ellen Brody has an affair with Hooper, and Mayor Vaughn has ties to organized crime.
Spielberg said he wanted to concentrate on the sea hunt and did not see a place for Ellen's affair in that adventure. The affair was already absent from Benchley's early screenplay.
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Hooper survives, and the shark explodes
Hooper dies in the novel but survives the movie.
The movie also changes the shark's death: Brody shoots the air tank in its mouth and blows it up. That is not Benchley's ending. Benchley objected to the explosion as implausible before seeing how audiences responded to it.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Peter Benchley
- Year
- 1974
- Pages
- 368Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 9 hr 38 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Erik Steele
When a shark begins killing swimmers off Amity, police chief Martin Brody finds that closing the beaches threatens the town’s summer income and powerful local interests. As he struggles to protect the public, troubles within his marriage and the competing motives of the men around him complicate the effort to hunt the animal.
- Director
- Steven Spielberg
- Writer
- Carl Gottlieb, Peter Benchley
- Year
- 1975
- Runtime
- 2 hr 4 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
- Genre
- Adventure, horror, natural horror, science fiction, science fiction horror, survival, Suspense, Thriller
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
A swimmer’s death gives police chief Brody reason to fear a shark is feeding off Amity, but the mayor resists measures that would frighten away holidaymakers. As further attacks end any illusion of safety, Brody joins marine biologist Hooper and shark hunter Quint at sea, where their different skills and temperaments are put under mounting pressure.
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