"[10] After painting the shark, Kastel did the female swimmer. Here is the classic suspense novel of shark versus man that was made into the blockbuster Steven Spielberg movie. Later in life, Benchley came to regret writing such sensationalist literature about sharks, which he felt encouraged excessive fear and unnecessary culls of such an important predator in ocean ecosystems and became an advocate for marine conservation. It was released first in hardcover in February 1974,[1] then in the book clubs, followed by a national campaign for the paperback release. [37] For the adaptation, Spielberg wanted to preserve the novel's basic concept while removing Benchley's many subplots and altering the characterizations, having found all of the characters of the book unlikable. [15], In the meantime, the impact of the predatory deaths resemble Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People, with the mayor of a small town panicking over how a problem will drive away the tourists. The Jaws film, released in June 1975, omitted practically all of the novel's several subplots, mainly focusing on the shark and the characterizations of the three protagonists. [24], An unabridged audio adaptation read by Erik Steele was released by Blackstone Audio in both CD and downloadable format in 2009. [10] Bacon drew an enormous shark head, and Gotfryd suggested adding a swimmer "to have a sense of disaster and a sense of scale". Throughout the rest of the novel, Brody suspects the two have had a liaison and is tormented by the thought. "[28] Andrew Bergman of The New York Times Book Review felt that despite the book serving as "fluid entertainment", "passages of hollow portentousness creep in" while poor scene "connections [and] stark manipulations impair the narrative. The photographs then provided reference for a "ferocious-looking shark that was still realistic. Reviews were mixed, with many literary critics finding the prose and characterization lacking despite the novel's effective suspense. Jaws is a 1974 novel by American writer Peter Benchley. Much of the work had to be rewritten as the publisher was not happy with the initial tone. Quint dislikes Hooper, dismissing him as a spoiled rich College boy. [3], By 1971, Benchley was doing various freelance jobs in his struggle to support his wife and children. She instigates a sexual encounter with Matt Hooper, who is the younger brother of David Hooper, a man she used to date. [40] The director estimated the final script had a total of 27 scenes that were not in the book. However, just as the shark gets within a few feet of him, it succumbs to its many wounds. 87. [23] A 10-part abridged adaptation read by Henry Goodman was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018 as part of their Book at Bedtime program. Following a photoshoot for Good Housekeeping, Kastel requested the model he was photographing to lie on a stool in the approximate position of a front crawl. [34] Among the major changes were the removal of the adulterous affair between Ellen Brody and Matt Hooper and Mayor Larry Vaughn's connections to the mafia. Benchley wanted to be near New York, and the family eventually got a house at Pennington, New Jersey in 1970. Meadows also recruits ichthyologist Matt Hooper from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for advice on how to deal with the shark. Brody, now floating on a seat cushion, spots the shark slowly swimming towards him; he closes his eyes and prepares for death. Peter Benchley was an alumnus of the Allen-Stevenson School, Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University. The subsequent drawing became the eventual hardcover art, with a shark head rising towards a swimming woman. The great fish slowly sinks down out of sight, dragging Quint's still entangled body behind it. The novel grew out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of shark fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. [citation needed] Sea of Cortez signposted Benchley's growing interest in ecological issues and anticipated his future role as an impassioned advocate of the importance of protecting the marine environment. [36], Benchley's contract promised him the first draft of the Jaws screenplay. [14] Along with a carnivorous killer on the sea, Amity is populated with equally predatory humans: the mayor who has ties with the Mafia, an adulterous housewife, criminals among the tourists. [22] The success inspired the American Broadcasting Company to invite Benchley for an episode of The American Sportsman, where the writer wound up swimming with sharks in Australia, in what would be the first of many nature-related television programs Benchley would take part in. Benchley worked by winter in his Pennington office, and in the summer in a converted chicken coop in the Wessons' farm in Stonington. It eventually grossed over $470 million worldwide. Larry Vaughn visits the Brody house before Brody returns home and informs Ellen that he and his wife are leaving Amity. After Quint manages to harpoon it several times, the shark leaps out of the water and onto the stern of the Orca, tearing a huge hole in the aft section which causes the boat to start sinking. [35] To play the protagonists, the producers cast Robert Shaw as Quint, Roy Scheider as Brody and Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper. [3] Benchley's agent sold the adaptation rights for $150,000, plus an extra $25,000 for Benchley to write the screenplay. [16][17][18] The central character, Chief Brody, fits a common characterization of the disaster genre, an authority figure who is forced to provide guidance to those affected by the sudden tragedy. Benchley would frequently pitch two ideas, a non-fiction book about pirates, and a novel depicting a man-eating shark terrorizing a community. Copyright © 2020 Wendy Benchley. "[33] Upon his death in 2006, Benchley's widow Wendy declared the author "kept telling people the book was fiction", and comparing Jaws to The Godfather, "he took no more responsibility for the fear of sharks than Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia. [44] According to Benchley, once his payment of the adaptation-related royalties got late, he called his agent and she replied that the studio was arranging a deal for sequels. I said, "I don't know, but it's short; it fits on a jacket, and it may work." He is known as the author of the bestselling novel Jaws and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Call the book Jaws. On the third day, after seeing the size of the shark, Hooper wants to bring along a shark-proof cage, to take photos of it and then to use it in an attempt to kill it with a bang stick. There is another similarity in the 1916 incident and the book where kids are attacked in a body of water other than the ocean - in the 1916 incident a child and an adult who attempted to save him were attacked and killed in Matawan Creek, a brackish/freshwater creek and in the film adaptation Mike Brody is nearly killed in the "pond" which in reality is a small inland cove that connects to the open ocean through a small tributary. "[16], Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, film producers at Universal Pictures, both heard about the book before publication at the same time. [34] After securing the rights, Steven Spielberg, who was making his first theatrical film, The Sugarland Express, for Zanuck, Brown and Universal, was hired as the director. Lead researcher Vicki Vásquez noted the author's work in promoting ocean conservation, particularly sharks, as motivation. The publication date was moved back to allow a carefully orchestrated release. Brody and deputy Leonard Hendricks find Gardner's boat anchored off-shore, empty and covered with large bite holes, one of which has a massive shark tooth stuck in it. [6] In the meantime, his literary agent scheduled regular meetings with publishing house editors. [36] Benchley also appears in the film playing a brief onscreen role as a TV reporter. After a boy narrowly escapes another attack close to the shore, Brody closes the beaches and hires Quint, a professional shark hunter, to kill the shark. Beast was brought to the small screen as a made-for-television film in 1996, under the title The Beast. The lone survivor of the ordeal, Brody watches as the dead shark disappears into the depths and then he paddles back to shore on his makeshift float. Benchley disliked the idea, saying, "I don't care about sequels; who'll ever want to make a sequel to a movie about a fish?" Congdon and Gotfryd eventually settled on printing a typographical jacket, but that was subsequently discarded once Bantam editor Oscar Dystel noted the title Jaws was so vague "it could have been a title about dentistry". Vol. [8] The film's success led to three sequels, with which Benchley had no involvement despite them drawing on his characters. "[27] An article in The Listener criticized the plot, stating the "novel only has bite, so to say, at feed time," and these scenes are "naïve attempts at whipping along a flagging story-line. ", "Jaws at 40 – is Peter Benchley's book a forgotten masterpiece? His younger brother, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor. The writer discussed the problem with editor Tom Congdon at a restaurant in New York: We cannot agree on a word that we like, let alone a title that we like. Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. [2] One of them was Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon, who had lunch with Benchley seeking book ideas. [7], Despite the acceptance of the Bacon cover by Doubleday, Dystel did not like the cover, and assigned New York illustrator Roger Kastel to do a different one for the paperback. During this period, when Benchley would later declare he was "making one final attempt to stay alive as a writer", his literary agent arranged meetings with publishers.
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