Jaws – 50th Anniversary Edition by Peter Benchley – A Book Review

Jaws has been scaring people from swimming in the ocean for fifty years. Adapted from Peter Benchley’s 1974 book of the same name, the story follows a great white shark terrorizing the small town of Amity Island during the Fourth of July weekend and its sheriff who tries to keep his citizens safe. The book and movie overall follow the same story, yet there are different paths to getting there. 

After Chrissy Watkins’s body is found after skinny-dipping off the coast of Amity Island, Chief Brody must do what he can to protect the town’s citizens despite pushback from some of the town’s mayor and more prominent members.  Your big deaths are mostly kept intact; Alex Kinter, Ben Gardner, and Quint all find their demise similarly to their movie counterparts. There is one surprising death that makes sense in the book but not in the movie.

The Sleepy Sea Side Town

We still learn about the citizens of Amity Island, but they feel closer to the denizens of Twin Peaks than the townspeople in Spielberg’s adaptation. Benchley’s book focuses on the relationships of the people and the counterculture seeping into some of the residents. There are times when this feels like a small-town story with a shark attack as a catalyst.

This is present in the book’s second act. As the story shifts to a plot about Matt Hooper’s affair with Chief Brody’s wife, Ellen, and Mayor Larry Vaughn’s struggles navigating a real estate deal with the mob.  Both elements were purged from the Steven Spielberg film, but Larry Vaughn’s mafia problems appear in the sequel.

Quint’s intro is also different. The gruff fisherman is briefly mentioned at the beginning of the story but is unknown to the town. He is later simply hired. Quint still challenges Hooper’s skill on the Orca in the third act, but there is much more animosity. The book’s Matt Hooper feels closer to Larry Vaughn’s assessment of the character in the movie. Hooper wants to become famous and be featured in National Geographic. He has no intention of, or care for, the citizens of Amity Island except for one, Ellen Brody.

Comparing the Book and the Movie

While Benchley’s book is well-written, it falls into the same traps as Ian Fleming’s James Bond with its sexism and racism. Yes, while it may be a product of its time, the argument stands; it doesn’t mean it was right. The second act of the book drags a bit. A dinner party at the Brodys’ may kickstart the forbidden affair between Matt Hooper and Ellen Brody, but it doesn’t do much to move the book’s shark story forward. Benchley’s great white is a McGuffin, while Spielberg’s is the villain.

The movie has the distinction of being better than the book, in my opinion. As visceral as this book is in language and content, Spielberg’s lighter-toned movie has more deaths and suspense.  Spielberg’s Jaws works because its fear is accessible to anyone who watches it. As terrifying as the movie is, there is also an element of fun, which makes the shark attacks much more impactful when they occur.

Overall Grade: 7/10

Still, Jaws would not exist if Peter Benchley’s novel had not been written and sold all those years ago. The book was a catalyst for careers, genres, and the movie industry in many ways. Benchley had some regret as to how both the book and movie ultimately portrayed sharks as man-eaters and dangerous, but it is safe to say that after all this time, his words are still effective as long as the shark is still working. Read for yourself, available for purchase here.

Check out another book review by Forrest: Lorne: The Man Who Invented SNL

Are you a Jaws fan? Have you read the book? Let us know your thoughts!