The Jaws Log - by Carl Gottlieb

Writer/actor Carl Gottlieb tells the entertaining story of how Jaws made its torturous, and now legendary, journey from the pages of a best-selling novel to movie theater screens across the United States and cinema history.

It's embarrassing for me to admit that it has taken me 33 years to get around to reading Carl Gottlieb's The Jaws Log, a behind-the-scenes journal of the making of what I consider to be the greatest movie ever made.

Please note that I said movie and not film, the two are not the same.  2001 is a film, while Star Wars is a movie.  If you cannot tell the difference, simply watch them back to back and you'll be able to see the difference quite clearly.  (And please try to watch as many of both as you can, it will help you appreciate them ever so much more.)  Also take note that my consideration is acknowledged as being completely subjective and if you consider the greatest movie ever made to be Footloose or Top Gun, then fine.  You enjoy yours while I enjoy mine.  That's why there's more than 31 flavors, you know?

Now, back to Gottlieb's book, which is essential reading for any movie buff, regardless of whether or not you like/love Jaws, or you find it to be overrated tripe of the lowest order.  Even if you know all the painful details of the now proverbial textbook case of the "movie shoot from hell," reading the story in Gottlieb's breezy "I was not only there, I helped to create the damn thing" narrative voice makes the story read as fresh as if the movie had been made last year, and not last century.  The only complaint that I can make about the book, at least this version of it, is that it hasn't been expanded to include a chapter discussing the phenomenal success of the film, or a section for Gottlieb to talk about the "eleventh hour" rewrites for the sequels (Jaws 2 and Jaws 3-D, respectively) that he worked on.  There are so many stories left to tell about the film and its sequels and, with the deaths of Roy Scheider and Peter Benchley, I can only hope that Gottlieb or someone else manages to collect them and write them down before they are all lost forever.

End note: For a complete 365 degree view of the making of Jaws, one that couples Gottlieb's insider view with that of a bemused Martha's Vineyard resident, I cannot recommend tracking down an edition of Edith Blake's excellent On Location on Martha's Vineyard: The Making of the Movie Jaws.  It's every bit as much essential reading for Jaws fans as The Jaws Log.

Comments

[Dave]

While i agree with your comment of FILM/MOVIE. I have to disagree with your classification of Jaws as a MOVIE. The reason i like it is because it is a GREAT FILM. Put together with talent in all categories.