Jaws The Revenge (Part 2)

We rejoin Hoagie and Ellen the same night they had their awkward dancing scene at the local festival. Hoagie drops Ellen back at Michael’s house. Michael watches the pair with suspicion from the window as torrential rain streams down. You would think Michael would have more important things to worry about other than his Mum finding happiness years after her husband passed away. The big arse shark that tried to eat his boat being one of them.

Fast forward to New Year’s Eve, and Ellen, Hoagie, Michael, Jake and his wife/girlfriend (still don’t know what her name is), are at a casino/nightclub. As the group celebrate, Jake almost drops a clanger by mentioning the huge shark that he and Michael are hoping to start researching, much to Michael’s wide eyed annoyance. It’s not a great night for Michael as he is suspicious of Hoagie’s intentions and doesn’t like the attention he is giving Ellen, and it’s safe to say Hoagie is all over her tonight. After breaking up Hoagie and Ellen’s slow dance, Ellen tells Michael not to be jealous and that she has decided that she was wrong to think the shark had targeted Sean and it was just a freak accident. When we see Michael’s reaction over Ellen’s shoulder, showing his true feelings in a very soap opera fashion, it’s clear that he is in fact worried about the shark now reappearing in the Bahamas, and he seems to think the shark is now after the family.

The day after, Michael and Jake are discussing what to do about the shark situation. Jake is keen to put their research of sea snails on hold and study the shark but, understandably, Michael is not overly happy about doing that, seeing as the shark seems like he’s up for tasting another member of the Brody family. The pair eventually agree to study the shark for a few days and then go back to their normal work.

The pace of the film then slows right down as we get a glimpse of Michael’s home life. Carla is upset because he has forgotten to take the bins out three times in a row. Given that the film is about a killer shark, I’m not sure if waste disposal is a strong enough subplot. The scene ends with the two making up, weirdly with Carla holding up a welding torch to keep Michael away from her, whilst he quips “I’ve always wanted to make love to an angry welder, I’ve dreamt of nothing else since I was a small boy”. Seems like a bit of a dysfunctional relationship if you ask me.

The day after, Michael and Jake are back out at sea with a masterplan to lure the shark. With a massive chuck of meat suspended by a rope over the side of the boat, Jake will lean out across the sea, held in place by an intricate rope pulley system so that he can attach a tracker to the side of the shark as it jumps out of the water for a munch. Sounds safe enough.

The shark eventually makes an appearance but sadly the shot used shows the shark coming towards the camera, fin out of the water, very very slowly in a very unthreatening manor. In “Jaws 3” there were lots of sped up footage of real sharks, which didn’t work. Real sharks move fast enough to appear threatening without tampering with the image, however some of the footage here could really do with running a bit faster. I realise that probably wasn’t possible due to the fact the waves would then also be sped up which would have given away the illusion. “Jaws 2” had some very effective fast shark footage which was very dramatic and it’s a real shame they weren’t able to replicate some of that here.

The shark dips back underwater but resurfaces right next to Jake, enabling him to attach the tracker before the shark dives back underwater. The shots of the shark taking the bait and being stabbed are actually quite good, and you may have noticed that the shot of the shark breaching the water is the same one that was used at the beginning of the film when Sean was attacked, but sadly the shots of the shark retreating are hampered by the shark being very slow moving.

We then catch back up with Ellen and Hoagie and their blossoming relationship. It is very sweet and the pair do seem to have chemistry. This is the part of the plot that Lorraine Gary really excels in; maybe because it’s the more believable element when compared to the “middle aged woman vs shark” story.

Back at sea, Michael and Jake are on the trail of the shark. I must say that the shots of the ocean are beautiful and there is a great sense of action as the boat glides across the sea. Sadly the pair are unable to locate the shark but we do then cut to a shot of the shark underwater. The shot is not good. Firstly we get a proper look at the “seam” again and then the metal contraption attached to the shark can be seen on the ocean floor. What’s more, as the shark travels in front of the camera, something appears to knock into the camera making it shake. Why was this left in? It so easily could have been cut before that happened. Furthermore, do we really need this shot at all seeing as it is virtually identical to an earlier shot just after the tracker was attached to the shark – apart from that one didn’t show the workings of the shark! It’s a very odd choice but things are going to get even worse… just you wait!

That night Michael has a dream about the shark (I thought he only dreamt about angry welders?) which is comprised of a quick montage of shots which is actually pretty effective. The next day we virtually get a shot for shot remake of a scene from “Jaws” as Michael is sat at a kitchen table with Thea and she begins to copy what he does while Ellen watches from the corner of the room like some strange voyeur. It’s a scene that I wasn’t really a fan of in the original movie so I find its inclusion here a bit of a drag. It’s supposed to be a heartwarming family moment but I just find it overly cutesy. Maybe I have no heart.

The next day, we join Michael and Jake at sea again and this time Michael is down in the submersible tagging some sea snails when the monitor linked to the shark tracker begins to bleep up on the boat. Jake tells Michael to get up and out of the water as quickly as possible but the shark is already upon him. The shark rams into the submersible, which is quite effective, followed by a shot that shows the metal arm holding the shark model underneath it. Again, it seems strange this was left in. The way it’s framed looks like the cameraman was intentionally trying to show the audience the mechanics of the shark.

The shark continues to attack the submersible, leaving Michael no choice but to leave it behind and swim away. Noticing Michael has escaped, the shark begins to follow him. The shark footage here is pretty good, apart from suffering from the same speed issue as stated previously. Michael makes his way into a conveniently placed shipwreck for refuge but the shark follows him in. We get some very effective imagery of the shark creeping through the wreckage before it finally catches up with Michael and goes in for a teethy kiss which he narrowly avoids.

Now trapped in a part of the shipwreck, Michael decides to use his oxygen tank to thrust himself to the surface just before the shark breaks through the wall. As it does, something resembling a balloon inflates in the sharks mouth and then deflates. I suspect it’s probably a mistake and due to the rest of the scene being ok, they decided to leave it in. On closer inspection though, the scene isn’t ok as yet again we can see the workings of the shark, but this time with various pipes coming out of the side of it.

Michael pops back up at the side of the boat and clambers back on board. The whole chase scene is pretty ambitious, featuring some great music and for the most part works well – when we don’t see the mechanics of the shark that is. The BBC once broadcast a version of “Jaws The Revenge” that wasn’t cropped, so it showed the shark’s workings in almost every scene, and the chase scene was the worst offender for this. There are some side by side comparisons of this version and the UK DVD release which is an interesting watch. It does make me wonder though, why did “Universal” make this version available? The amount of shark mechanics we see in the cropped version is bad enough, let alone having the film full screen.

A few weeks ago I went through a big box of VHS tapes (yes, I still have a VHS player) as I was sure I had recorded this version from the telly but sadly it was a fruitless exercise. I believe the un-cropped BBC version also includes the original ending, but more on that later. Someone recently created a new version of the shipwreck chase scene, inserting new shark footage. It is brilliantly done and actually quite scary, especially the moment the shark first attacks the submersible.

The next day, Michael decides to head back underwater to try and find the shark, despite it being the unveiling of Carla’s new art piece just hours away. I’m not really sure what he hopes to achieve but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. The shark doesn’t seem to be nearby though, but Michael still gets a fright when a moray eel lunges at him.

Meanwhile at the beach, a crowd has gathered for the presentation of Carla’s awful modern art. The town’s mayor (played by legendary blaxploitation actor Melvin Van Peebles) is giving a speech when Thea asks her mum if she can go out on the banana boat. Carla agrees and Thea runs off, not realising the danger that lays ahead.

It’s not long before Ellen starts to sense that the shark is nearby and sure enough, the iconic fin soon appears. This time at a pretty decent speed but you can clearly see there is no shark underneath the fin which is a shame. When the shark does come above the surface, it attacks the banana boat but misses Thea and grabs the woman at the back of the boat.

It’s a pretty decent scene and Judith Barsi is great as Thea as she screams in terror watching the horror in front of her. It’s quite grizzly, if fairly bloodless, especially as you see the woman thrashing around in the sharks mouth as the banana boat speeds away. Sadly the decision was made to slow the scene down for dramatic effect but I can’t help but feel that it would have been far more violent and scary if it were at normal speed.

Now knowing what she must do, Ellen heads off in Michael and Jake’s boat (which is odd seeing as I thought they were out in it) and goes after the shark. Again, why? Just stay away from the water and the Brody family will be fine. Also, what is she going to do when she finds the shark? Wave her giro at it?

Back at the house, Carla is comforting a virtually comatose Thea when Michael arrives. Carla is understandably pissed that Michael didn’t mention the shark before but he hasn’t got time to talk, as realising his mother has gone A.W.OL. he rushes back out to find Jake and go after Ellen.

Michael and Jake head out in a small boat but bump into Hoagie who is out fishing and offers to take them up in his plane as it will be easier to spot her from the sky. Sure enough they find her, just as the shark is closing in on her. “Come and get me you son of a bitch” Ellen says. Surely this is in the film to try and replicate the “get away from her you bitch” line from “Aliens”. Sadly it’s just a bit weak.

The shark “jumps” out of the water towards the boat, but Hoagie flies low which I think stops the shark from attacking properly. It’s a pretty impressive shot though, and must have been a miracle to get the timing right of the plane flying low with the shark breaching the water at the same time (if indeed it was all done in camera, which to my eyes looks like it is). Sadly a quick shot shows one of the models used in the scene is just the head of the shark and it’s pretty obvious but for the most part, the large shark model is used and it’s well done.

Hoagie decides to land the plane on the water so they can join Ellen on the boat which is a pretty good stunt. Once landed, Michael and Jake swim across to the boat but Hoagie stays put to “keep it busy”. The shark appears, leading Hoagie to look straight at it and shout “oh shit”, before the shark starts munching on the plane. The movement of the shark isn’t great here and looks a bit cumbersome.

Moments later, Hoagie appears at the side of the boat and climbs on board while complaining about the shark’s bad breath. Famously, Michael Caine’s shirt is bone-dry in this scene despite just having been in the ocean. This is also an issue with some of the shark footage as it seems the shark model has been above the water for some time, and therefore dried, but surely they could have just chucked a bucket over it before calling action or something?

Jake turns on his tracking machine to monitor the shark and decides to create a remote device that should give the shark an electric shock, as long as they are able to get it into the sharks mouth. The shocks won’t be enough to kill the shark but it should be enough to make it retreat. The device used to control the shocks looks like a sort of strobe/torch thing which doesn’t seem to make much sense but fuck it, we’ve made it this far, may as well go along with it. Now for the tricky part… getting it into the sharks mouth.

The shark disappears momentarily but the gang can’t work out if it’s just Jake’s equipment conking out or not to which Hoagie quips “maybe he had a heart attack, humans are full of cholesterol”. Just a little bit insensitive don’t you think Hoagie, seeing as the shark has already eaten one of Ellen’s sons and another woman, and Ellen’s husband died of a heart attack?

Jake climbs onto the boats bowsprit (the wooden pole that extends at the front of the boat) in the hope of dropping the device into the sharks mouth as it tries to attack. Sure enough, the shark resurfaces and “jumps” out of the water with it’s mouth wide open so Jake manages to drop the device in with ease.

Jake loses his footing and falls back into the sharks mouth. As the shark takes hold of Jake, it also manages to bite through the bowsprit leaving quite a sharp, splintered point that I’m sure won’t be important later on.

As Michael shouts Jake’s name in despair, we get a shot of Jake struggling in the shark’s mouth underwater. It’s quite cool but there’s some sort of pole sticking out of Jake’s leg as the shark takes him past the camera. Now, I guess this could be the pole with the device attached to it but it looks more like something that was needed to achieve the stunt.

Jake’s death is an interesting sequence so I want to break it down a little bit. Firstly, it’s all in slow motion which is a shame. I’d love to see it at normal speed as I suspect it would look far more menacing. The shot of the shark initially coming out of the water looks good, although you can just about see something coming out of the bottom of the model and it looks more like it’s attempting to walk on water rather than jump.

When Jake falls back into the shark’s mouth, the model appears to be totally stationary. It reminds me of those scenes in cartoons when a villain would just have its mouth wide open so its unsuspecting victim runs straight into it. There’s also some odd editing here, mostly given away by the fact the score seems to jump unnaturally as if something was cut out and they didn’t have time to re-do the music to fit the new cut. Sure enough there were a couple of seconds cut from this scene, which is available to view online. This shows Jake in the sharks mouth being bashed against the bowsprit before the shark bites the end off of it.

It looks pretty violent which I’m guessing is the reason for its removal but it does leave the scene feeling slightly incomplete and it’s only with repeated viewings have I actually been able to understand what properly happens. In fact, I’m still not 100% sure if the shark does actually bite the wood or if it’s just the weight on the shark against it which makes it snap. Either way, there is no way Jake could possibly survive an attack like that.

Another thing to note during this part of the film is that the ocean seems to go from deep to shallow, but that’s the least of the problems with this climax, as we will soon see. After munching on Jake, the shark turns around towards the boat again as Michael starts playing about with the controller for Jake’s electric shock device. As the shark gets closer, Ellen begins to have flashbacks to scenes where she wasn’t present (in sepia for some reason), or if she was, the scenes are not shown from her point of view. She sees Sean’s death, Thea being attacked on the banana boat and bizarrely, Chief Brody about to kill the shark in the original “Jaws”. Chief Brody must have explained what happened to Ellen in great detail.

Michael begins to shock the shark using Jake’s device which causes the shark to flay around in pain in the distance. The shots of the shark here are pretty good but in slow motion again and the shark roars… like a lion… there’s not much more to say about that really.

Ellen starts steering the boat toward the shark as it keeps resurfacing in agony until eventually the splintered end of the bowsprit stabs the shark (which is intercut with the famous shot from “Jaws” and the words “smile you son of a bitch!”) causing the shark to…

EXPLODE! WHAT?!

Why? How? This doesn’t make sense and this has to be the worst special effect I have ever seen. Imagine seeing this plasticine shark model stabbed by a matchstick on a cinema screen. Jesus wept. It’s as if they got to this point in the film and just said “fuck it, that’ll do”.

The fact of the matter is, that might not be too far from the truth as this ending is a reshoot. Now, most of the time reshoots are commonplace and are to improve a film, not that you would get that impression if you watch any click bait youtubers who seem to think a film is going to be awful if reshoots are involved (seriously – grow the fuck up), but in this case the reshoots are worse than the original ending. The fact the shark explodes multiple times suggests they tried to redo the ending several times with limited success so just decided to include all of the takes.

Originally the final confrontation ends with the shark being impaled, bleeding heavily as it flays about and then sinks, taking half of the boat with it. This is a far better ending than the shark exploding, even if it isn’t totally clear what happens and seems like a few shots are missing, just like with Jake’s death scene. Anyway, once the shark has exploded, we cut to footage from the original “Jaws” showing the shark drifting to the bottom of the ocean, whilst up top Michael, Ellen and Hoagie fall into the sea.

We then cut to the group floating on the water (with the water in the background hitting the backdrop making it obvious this was shot in a swimming pool with a painted skyline) and look who is still alive… it’s Jake! There is no way Jake would have survived that attack, but not only is he alive, he also has enough energy to tell a joke.

Again this is due to reshoots. Apparently audiences liked Jake so wanted him to survive at the end. That’s fair enough, I liked Jake, but it doesn’t mean I want to make the film even more unrealistic by bringing him back even though he should be in two pieces by now. A character people liked died, audiences would have got over it.

We then cut to Hoagie’s plane as Ellen hops onboard ready to head back to Amity. The music feels slightly off here as when the plane takes off, the score goes a bit sinister as if we were about to find out the shark was not actually dead and is piloting the plane. Actually, that would have been amazing. That’s a reshoot I’d like to have seen!

When I was at college studying media, we had to do something similar to “show and tell” whereby someone would stand up, give a little speech about a passion of theirs and then the rest of the group could ask questions about the topic. One lad in the class spoke about his love of sharks, and in particular the “Jaws” films. He explained there were three films in total, so I (probably taking far too much pleasure in doing so) asked “what about the one with Michael Caine?”, to which the lad said he didn’t know about that one. Now to give some context, that was in the early 2000’s, so I find it hard to believe he just didn’t know about the fourth film in the series. I suspect there was a bit of embarrassment about acknowledging “Jaws The Revenge” existed. There really shouldn’t have been though because there are far worse films out there. Sure, I acknowledge that “Jaws The Revenge” is not a masterpiece, nor could you sincerely describe it as a “good” film, but it is essentially a high budget, high concept, B movie, which I suppose is what the first “Jaws” film should have been, but it was given far more depth and drama by the fantastic performances, the natural and believable dialogue, and by not revealing the monster too much. “Jaws The Revenge” sadly doesn’t have fantastic performances, or believable dialogue, and shows the shark too much. But despite this I still love the film.

Let’s talk about the good points: the cinematography is gorgeous and the underwater scenes are beautiful to look at. The ocean looks crystal clear. Of course the fatal flaw with that is we see more of the shark than we should do, although I can’t work out why that has happened. If the coverage they got showed some of the sharks mechanics and they couldn’t get a better shot then fair enough, but in some cases we see more than we should because it’s left on screen for too long, so is that down to the editing?

Speaking of which, there are some odd editorial choices such as: cutting Michael Caine off mid-sentence when flying, the unnecessary flash backs in sepia which are massively jarring, and the over reliance on using slow motion when the shark is on screen which totally takes away any of the menace the model has.

I actually find the shark model quite intimidating in some scenes, such as the shot used repeatedly of it bursting above the water and when it’s chowing down on Jake. Other times it is all too clear it’s a model, such as when we see the mechanics of it or the teeth falling out. The less said about the re-shot ending the better. The model was on display at “Universal” studios for years but sadly wasn’t looked after and someone made a video for YouTube showing the model’s deterioration over the years before being driven away (presumably for scrap). It’s actually quite a sad video. Rest in peace vengeful shark model.

The performances are a little bit weak and sadly Lorraine Gary is not strong enough to hold the film together. Lance Guest is pretty good as Michael, and rocking an excellent beard, but Mitchell Anderson is ear gratingly annoying as Sean, although does perform his death scene well. Michael Caine does slightly better, just being Michael Caine. Jake is probably the most likeable character so fair play to Mario Van Peebles. A special mention also to Judith Barsi who played Thea. Her real life story is incredibly sad as a year after this film was made she was murdered by her father. Child actors can often be hit and miss (with a large emphasis on miss) but Judith Barsi plays Thea well and her performance does not grate. The scene when she is comforted by her mum after being traumatised by the shark is sensitively handled and surprisingly downbeat and realistic.

The score by Michael Small is good. Whilst I acknowledge that most of this is because it’s reworking John Williams’ classic theme from the first film, the way it has been adapted is really good and the new music works well. There are some very ominous moments, which when coupled with shots of the vast ocean and the unknown of what lurks beneath the surface is genuinely unnerving.

“Jaws The Revenge” has been the butt of many a joke (the number of goofs in the shark footage probably doesn’t help with this) but it’s really not that bad and it’s definitely not boring to watch. Is it what a 23 million dollar film should be like? Probably not, but it is what it is and I can’t help but love the madness of it all. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a case where there is a good film trying to get out, nor is it so bad it’s good, it’s just a curiosity to me and maybe I keep going back to it because I just can’t quite get my head around it and this wouldn’t be the case if it wasn’t part of such a high profile franchise. But in some ways, “Jaws The Revenge” carries on the tradition of these films; they are big budget B movies, it’s just that this one is a bit more eccentric than the others, and that should be celebrated.