Jaws 2 is Good and I’m Tired of Pretending It’s Not

The sequels to Jaws get a bad rep. And, for two of them, it’s justified. There’s no hyperbole when describing Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge as two of the worst films ever made. They’re terrible. But they are so bad that they’ve tainted the reputation of everything but the original. Jaws 2 is often lumped into same fetid fish tank as the next two films but that’s deeply unfair. Jaws is a perfect movie and no sequel is ever going to match it, we have to accept that, but rewatching Jaws 2 for the first time in years made clear that it is closer in quality to that first film than the other sequels. It’s a genuinely solid movie that deserves a better reputation.

I hadn’t seen Jaws 2 since I was a kid. It was one of the first DVDs I ever owned. My local supermarket Somerfield (now defunct and remembered solely for Hot Fuzz) had all the Jaws sequels on DVD, which I purchased one at a time when pocket money would allow. At that time, I thought the quality of the film was directly proportional to the size of the shark, so Jaws 3-D was my favourite. I then grew up, developed critical thinking (debateable), and cast all the sequels aside as terrible expansions on the perfect original. But I shouldn’t have. Watching it again this week, it was clear Jaws 2 deserved to stay on my shelf rather than sent to where DVDs go to die: Oxfam.

Firstly, Jaws 2 looks great. Director Jeannot Szwarc may not be Spielberg but he is a director in the Spielberg mold: coming up through the industry on a similar path, directing the same kinds of TV shows (Rockford Files, Columbo) before moving to feature films. It’s handsomely, competently shot and Szwarc maintains the heart of the original. The soul of the first film is intact. It’s nice to spend more time with these characters, with many of the same actors returning, and have them feel like the same characters in the same world with the same tone. Returning writer Carl Gottlieb is also to thank for this, bringing back some of the smaller details which make the film feel real and lived in, like the ceiling light in the Brody house being too low and people subtly knocking it every time they walk past.

Spielberg might not be back but John Williams is. And he’s not just cashing a cheque, he’s on good form. In particular, the score when the teens are playing on their boats is classic Williams, sounding like a precursor to the basket chase music from Raiders of the Lost Ark. And, of course, that brilliant main theme. It takes the film’s great opening sequence to the next level: it begins with calm, beautiful, majestic music, and then a few brilliant seconds of aching silence before that two-note track kicks in and the shark is back. It also features an early example of the modern sequel cliché of the wreck of a ship from the previous film being discovered in the next, the sunken ruins of the Orca found, like the start of Alien: Romulus or a Star Wars movie, which I’m always a sucker for.

On the surface it may seem like Jaws 2 is just the same film again but dive a little deeper and you’ll see that it’s actually plenty different. The shark disappears for a large chunk of the movie and it might just be the best part. It’s a story about Chief Brody not being believed, which is just a tiny part of the first film. Here, it’s the main conflict, and it forces the film into being a character examination of Brody as he’s ripped apart by everyone in town, claimed to be a fearmonger with PTSD over his claim another shark has entered Amity’s waters.

A great detail is the photos from an underwater camera, which Brody claims are clear proof of a shark, but where he sees an eye, the mayor sees some undefined dark mass. The film’s best scene is so good for years I remembered it being part of the first film rather than the sequel: Brody incorrectly thinking he’s seen a shark, sprinting down the beach waving and shooting his gun, causing a panic, and getting promptly fired.

Jaws 2 resembles a slasher movie, so much so you could mistake it for following a trend but in many ways it predated the height of the slasher genre, releasing a few months before John Carpenter’s Halloween. There’s a large cast of seventies-looking teenagers, identified not by names but their increasingly terrible haircuts. In a fun twist, the films transplants American car culture to the open sea, these teens obsessed with boats like the cast of American Graffiti were cars. Jaws 2 also follows the rules of the slasher pic: the teens who stop to have sex are the first to die.

And die they do, with Jaws 2 having the highest on-screen kill count of the series. Mainly because the shark actually works this time. I think the film finds a good balance of showing the shark more than the original and still keeping it somewhat hidden and scary. The shark is burned early on, making it identifiable and different than the first, a scarred streak across its face, also like a slasher villain. Wisely, there isn’t an attempt at a wider shark masterplan or voodoo curse like Jaws: The Revenge. In fact, we get the line, “sharks don’t take things personally, Mr Brody.” It’s just another shark in the same area. A one-sided personal conflict. And one thing the sequel does better than the original: using the fin. It’s a fantastic image, racing through the water, hinting at the terror beneath the waves, both showing and not showing the shark, and it’s the sequel that makes it truly iconic.

Returning for his only Jaws sequel, star Roy Scheider wasn’t happy to be back. Locked into a Universal contract, Scheider might not have wanted to return but his grumpiness works in a meta way. We see him initially a begrudging hero of the town, dragged to a hotel opening, and then a despised, misunderstood villain claiming there’s another shark with seemingly no evidence. I think he’s fantastic in Jaws 2, a performance comparable with the first film. He gets more to do, a wider range to play, and he’s the star throughout rather than splitting screentime with two co-leads for the back half like the first film. What a decade of brilliant films Roy Scheider had: Jaws 2 was sandwiched between William Friedkin’s Sorcerer and Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz.

It all builds to a pretty fantastic final sequence. Brody, with no help this time, has to captain a boat himself and save the teens, including two of his own children, from the shark terrorising their flotilla. It really plays up the idea that he’s a cop from the mainland with no experience of seafaring to great effect. It’s that classic 70s/80s classic hero struggling to get by, making it up as he goes along idea, like Indiana Jones. Brody can barely work the radio, let alone pilot the boat, and doesn’t understand nautical directions so has to shout at people to point. Of course, he saves the day, all while wearing short shorts.

For a sequence that features teens screaming for about 30 minutes, it’s shockingly watchable and not annoying at all. Even good movies like that have me reaching for the mute button (I’ve never been able to sit through the end of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre without turning the volume down low). It’s a great set piece, including a brief fight between a shark and a helicopter, piloted by a man with the worst beard in human history, although perhaps it could have done with killing a couple more of the teens. It’s hard to think up a new way to kill the shark but I think it’s a good death, tricked into biting a power line, bursting into flames and, I imagine, smelling real tasty. And the second the shark is dead, the credits begin to roll. While the original film truly culminated and paid off its themes and ideas when the shark was killed, Jaws 2 feels like it needs a five minute epilogue on dry land to wrap up its story. Did Brody get his job back? Did the island accept there was another shark?

Jaws 2 was the highest grossing sequel ever when it released in 1978 but almost fifty years later it is in danger of being forgotten. It’s forever tainted by the next two films, taking the brunt of the damage to the legacy of Jaws so the original can continue to live on, unburdened and faultless. I really hope that changes. Jaws 2 is a solid, if not strong sequel. It’s a really fun movie with great shark action and scares, all while putting Brody in a fascinating position. Jeannot Szwarc does a good job captaining the ship and John Williams is operating on the same level he did as the first film. At the moment Jaws 2 is only remembered for having one of the best taglines of all time, but the appreciation should run deeper.