20 Things You Somehow Missed In Jaws

Jaws is often considered one of the very few film adaptations where it improves on the original novel. When Steven Spielberg read the book, he hated the characters and found himself rooting for the shark.

In producing the script, many of the subplots were eliminated in order to have more focus on the main characters and how they would kill Bruce. An example of a significant change is when Hooper has an affair with Brody’s wife and is later killed in the cage by the shark. This was omitted from the film and Hooper was allowed to survive.

In the book, the Orca came home every night but Spielberg altered it so that the men would stay on seas until the job was done, to create a more thrilling climax. He further amplified this by making sure no shots of land were in the background of the final climax as it created more of an urgency to kill the monster. And naturally, some aspects of the book were too gory to depict in a PG rated film and had to be slightly watered down.

Even author Peter Benchley liked how Spielberg eliminated many unnecessary subplots fotr the movie. Furthermore, he later admitted to wishing he’d never written the book and went on to become an advocate for marine conservation.

Ultimately, Spielberg made the characters much more engaging and rootable with an added layer of palpable tension for the story. In doing so, he created one of the most beloved movies of all time.