Jaws 3-D

Jaws 3-D (also known as Jaws 3) is a 1983 thriller film directed by Joe Alves and starring Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Lea Thompson and Louis Gossett, Jr. It is the second sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

As SeaWorld, a water park with underwater tunnels and lagoons, prepares for opening, a young great white shark infiltrates the park from the sea, seemingly attacking and killing water skiers and park employees. Once the baby shark is captured, it becomes apparent that it was the mother, a much larger shark who also entered the park, who was the real killer.

The film is notable for making use of 3-D film during the revived interest in the technology in the 1980s, amongst other horror films such as Friday the 13th Part III and Amityville 3-D. Cinema audiences could wear disposable cardboard polarized 3D glasses to create the illusion that elements penetrate the screen.^[2] Several shots and sequences were designed to utilise the effect, such as the shark's destruction. Since 3-D was ineffective in home viewing until the advent of 3D televisions in the late 2000s, the alternative title Jaws III is used for television broadcasts, VHS and DVD.^[1]

Plot

The film begins with the great white shark moving throughout the ocean as it starts to follow an unsuspecting team of water skiers. The driver, Richie, stalls the boat and manages to get it going again before the shark can attack anyone. The shark follows the water skiers into the park and throws the gate off its rails while it is closing. Meanwhile, Florida announces the opening of SeaWorld's new underwater tunnels.

A man in a wetsuit and a man in scuba gear enters the park in a small rowed inflatable boat to steal coral to sell. The diver slips into the water quietly, but something catches him, leaving only his diving mask drifting in the water. The other man disappears also; then something sinks the inflatable.

Katherine "Kay" Morgan (Bess Armstrong), the senior marine biologist, and her assistants wonder why the dolphins, Cindy and Sandy, are so afraid of leaving their dolphin pen. Shelby Overman (Harry Grant), one of the mechanics, dives into the water to repair and secure the gates. He is attacked by a large shark and killed, leaving only his severed right arm. The next day, Michael Brody (Dennis Quaid) and Kay are informed of Overman's disappearance. They go down in a submarine to look in the tunnels to find Overman's body. Kay suggests the filtration pipe but Mike says that the current is too strong and and that it flows into the lagoon every hour. They decide to go into a piece of scenery, the Spanish Galleon, despite the two dolphins attempting to keep them out. As they search the Spanish Galleon they encounter a small great white shark. The dolphins rescue Kay and Mike but the shark escapes back into the park.

The news of the shark is disbelieved by Calvin Bouchard (Louis Gossett, Jr.), the SeaWorld park manager, although the news is exciting to his hunter friend, Phillip FitzRoyce (Simon MacCorkindale), who states his intention to kill the shark on network television. Kay protests, arguing that while killing the shark would be good for one headline, capturing and keeping a great white shark alive in captivity would guarantee TV crews and money constantly rolling into SeaWorld. The baby shark is captured and Kay and her staff nurse it to health. However, Calvin, desperate to start the money rolling in immediately, orders it moved to an exhibit as "the first great white in captivity". However, the baby shark dies in the exhibit.

At the underwater tunnel, a girl is terrified when she sees part of Overman's corpse bob up to a window. Forcing Mike and a paramedic to let her review Overman's corpse, Kay realizes that the shark that killed him must be the young shark's mother, and that since Overman was killed inside the park, the mother shark must also be inside the park; the shape of the bite shows that the shark's mouth must be about 3 feet wide and thus the shark about 35 feet long. She captures the attention of FitzRoyce, but she cannot convince Calvin until the enormous shark herself shows up at the window of their underwater cafe, terrifying the customers. Flushed out from her refuge inside the filtration pipe, the shark begins to wreak havoc on the park and attacks water skier Kelly Ann Bukowski (Lea Thompson) and Sean Brody (John Putch). The shark injures Kelly in the left leg and leaves. Sean is unharmed but the shark causes a leak that nearly drowns everyone in the underwater tunnel. FitzRoyce and his assistant Jack (P. H. Moriarty) go down to the filtration pipe in an attempt to trap the shark back inside to kill it. FitzRoyce leads the shark into the pipe but his lifeline rope snaps and the shark attacks him. FitzRoyce grabs a grenade and prepares to use it, but before he can get his other hand to the grenade to pull its safety pin he is crushed and chewed, in the shark's mouth as it swallows him fins first, cylinder and all as far as it can.

Hearing the shark has been lured into the pipe, Michael goes down to repair the underwater tunnel so the technicians can restore air pressure and drain the water, with Kay to watch his back. He welds the repair piece and Calvin orders the pump shut down to suffocate the shark, but all shutting the pump down does is let her break free from the pipe and attack Mike and Kay. They escape thanks to help from Cindy and Sandy, who attack the shark to distract her briefly. They make their way back to the control room with Calvin and the technicians, but the shark appears in front of the window and smashes its way through the glass and floods the room. Calvin manages to swim out and rescue one technician but another technician is killed in the process. Mike notices FitzRoyce's corpse still in the shark's throat with the grenade in his hand trailing into its mouth, and uses a bent pole to pull the grenade's pin, killing the shark. In the aftermath, Mike and Kay celebrate with Cindy and Sandy, who survived their brush with the shark.

Cast

• Dennis Quaid as Michael 'Mike' Brody
• Bess Armstrong as Kathryn Morgan
• Simon MacCorkindale as Philip FitzRoyce, 16th Earl of Haddenfield
• Louis Gossett, Jr. as Calvin Bouchard
• John Putch as Sean Brody
• John W. Wilson as 3D Shark
• Lea Thompson as Kelly Ann Bukowski
• Harry Grant as Shelby Overman
• P. H. Moriarty as Jack Tate
• Dan Glasko as Danny
• Liz Morris as Liz
• Lisa Maurer as Ethal
• Kaye Stevens as Mrs Kellender

Production

David Brown and Richard Zanuck, the producers for the first two films, originally pitched the second Jaws sequel as a spoof named Jaws 3, People 0.^[3] Matty Simmons, fresh off the success of National Lampoon's Animal House, was brought in as producer, with Brown and Zanuck taking on executive producer roles. Simmons outlined a story and commissioned National Lampoon writers John Hughes and Todd Carroll for a script.^[4] Joe Dante was briefly pursued as a director.^[5] The project was shut down due to conflicts with Universal Studios.^[4] David Brown later said a spoof would have been a mistake and that it would be like "fouling in your own nest."^[3]

Alan Landsburg bought the rights to produce the film.^[6] He attempted to involve experimental filmmaker Murray Lerner in Jaws 3, telling him that people at the Marineland theme park in Florida had seen his 1978 3-D film Sea Dream. Lerner said that his "heart sank" when he was sent the first script of Jaws 3-D, saying "I can't really get involved in this". As the production already had an art director, Lerner, who didn't like the script, declined to be involved in the film.^[6]

The film was directed by Joe Alves, who was the production designer for the first two films and was the second unit director for Jaws 2. It had been suggested that Alves co-direct the first sequel with Verna Fields when first director John D. Hancock left the project.^[3] It was filmed at SeaWorld Orlando, a landlocked water park; and Navarre, Florida, a community in the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola.^[7]

As with the first two films in the series, many people were involved in writing the film. Richard Matheson, who had written the script for Steven Spielberg's celebrated 1971 television film Duel, says that he wrote a "very interesting" outline, although the story is credited to "some other writer".^[8] Universal forced Matheson to include Brody's two sons, which the writer "thought was dumb". They also wanted it to be the same shark that was electrocuted in Jaws 2.^[8] Matheson was also requested to write a custom-role for Mickey Rooney, "which I did so successfully that when Mickey Rooney turned out not to be available, the whole part was pointless".^[9] The writer was unhappy with the finished film.

I'm a good storyteller and I wrote a good outline and a good script. And if they had done it right and if it had been directed by somebody who knew how to direct, I think it would have been an excellent movie. Jaws 3-D was the only thing Joe Alves ever directed; the man is a very skilled production designer, but as a director, no. And the so-called 3-D just made the film look murky - it had no effect whatsoever. It was a waste of time.^[8]

Guerdon Trueblood is credited for the story; a reviewer for the website SciFilm says that the screenplay was based upon Trueblood's story about a white shark swimming upstream and becoming trapped in a lake.^[10] Carl Gottlieb, who had also revised the screenplays for the first two Jaws films, was credited for the script alongside Richard Matheson.^[11] Matheson has reported in interviews that the screenplay was revised by script doctors.^[10]

The film did not use any actors from the first two Jaws films. Roy Scheider, who played Police Chief Martin Brody in the first two films, laughed at the thought of Jaws 3, saying that "Mephistopheles ... couldn't talk me into doing [it] ... They knew better than to even ask".^[12] He agreed to do Blue Thunder to ensure his unavailability for Jaws 3-D.^[12]

3-D

There was a revival in popularity of 3-D at this time, with many films using the technique. Jaws' second sequel integrated the technology into its title, as did Amityville 3-D. Friday the 13th Part III could also make dual use of the number three.^[13] The gimmick was also advertised in the tagline "the third dimension is terror."^[10] As it was Joe Alves' first film as director, he thought that 3-D would "give him an edge".^[13]

Cinema audiences could wear disposable polarized glasses to view the film, creating the illusion that elements from the film were penetrating the screen to come towards the viewers. The opening sequence makes obvious use of the technique, with the titles flying to the forefront of the screen, leaving a trail. There are more subtle instances in the film where props are meant to leave the screen. The more obvious examples are in the climatic sequence of the shark attacking the control room and its subsequent destruction. The glass as the shark smashes into the room uses 3-D, as does the shot where the shark explodes, with fragmented parts of it apparently bursting through the screen, ending with its jaws. There were many difficulties in making the green screen compositing work in 3-D, and a lot of material had to be reshot.^[6]

Jaws 3-D had two 3-D consultants: the production started with Chris Condon, president of StereoVision,^[14] and Stan Loth was later added to the team for the Arrivision 3-D. Production began using the StereoVision, but this was dropped after a week for the Arrivision system, "which Alves believed was a superior system because it has a wider variety of lenses".^[13] According to Alves, inferior systems lead to ghosting and blurring, leaving audiences with headaches. He says that "the left and right images [in Jaws 3-D] are very well-matched, and the photography is very clean; it's restful to the eye, and though we do have the occasional effects where things do emerge toward the audience from the plane of projection, you come out of the film without a headache."^[13][15] Historian R. M. Hayes says that the film was shot using both the Arrivision and StereoVision single strip-over-and-under units.^[16] Both cameras were used in conjunction with each other. This is a means of shooting 3D movies in normal color with a single camera and single strip of film: the Arrivision 3D technique uses a special twin-lens adapter fitted to the film camera, and divides the 35 mm film frame in half along the middle, capturing the left-eye image in the upper half of the frame and the right-eye image in the lower half - this is known as "over/under". This allows filming to proceed as for any standard 2D film, without the considerable additional expense of having to double up on cameras and film stock for every shot. When the resultant film is projected through a normal projector (albeit one requiring a special lens that combines the upper and lower images), a true polarised 3D image is produced. This system allows 3D films to be shown in almost any cinema since it does not require two projectors running simultaneously through the presentation - something most cinemas are not equipped to handle. What is required of the theatre is both the special projection lens and a reflective "silver" screen to enable the polarized images to reflect back to the viewer with the appropriate filter on each eye blocking out the wrong image, thus leaving the viewer to see the film from two angles as the eyes naturally see the world. According to the company that built the underwater camera housings for Jaws 3-D, the underwater sequences were shot using an Arriflex 35-3 camera with Arrivision 18 mm over/under 3D lens.^[2]

This kind of 3D effect does not work on television without special electronic hardware at the viewer's end, and so with two exceptions, the home video and broadcast TV versions of Jaws 3-D were created using just the left-eye image, and with the title changed to "Jaws 3" or "Jaws III". Because the left-eye image only takes up half the 35 mm film frame, the picture resolution is noticeably poorer than would normally be expected of a film shot on 35 mm.

One of the above-mentioned exceptions was a 1986 release of the film for the now-obsolete VHD video disc system (not to be confused with LaserDisc). This required a special 3D VHD player, or a standard VHD player with a hardware 3D adapter, and a set of LCD glasses that shuttered the viewer's eyes according to control signals sent by the player, allowing the polarised 3D effect to work.^[17] The other exception was the Sensio 3-D DVD of Jaws 3-D released in February 2008. The Sensio 3-D Processor is needed for 3-D home viewing.^[18]

TV3 in Malaysia broadcast the 3D version of the film in 2001. The event was advertised heavily and required viewers to buy or obtain a pair of anaglyph glasses to fully enjoy the movie; this was an anaglyph 3D version of the film created from the Arrivision original.^[19][20]

Music

The score was composed and conducted by Alan Parker, who had previously provided music for British television shows including Van der Valk and Minder.^[21][22] It was Parker's first feature score, but he would later work on What's Eating Gilbert Grape and American Gothic.^[23] John Williams' famous shark motif is, however, integrated into the score. The soundtrack album was released by MCA Records which was absorbed by Geffen Records. The soundtrack was later released on CD by Intrada and was limited to only 3000 copies.^[24]

Track listing

1. "Jaws 3-D Main Title" (2:59)
2. "Kay and Mike's Love Theme" (2:18)
3. "Panic at Seaworld" (2:07)
4. "Underwater Kingdom and Shark Chase" (4:20)
5. "Shark Chase and Dolphin Rescue" (1:22)
6. "Saved by the Dolphins" (2:05)
7. "The Shark's Gonna Hit Us!" (2:42)
8. "It's Alive/Seaworld Opening Day/Silver Bullet" (2:34)
9. "Overman's Last Dive" (1:18)
10. "Philip's Demise" (4:59)
11. "Night Capture" (4:53)
12. "Jaws 3-D End Titles" (4:06)

Reception

The film opened in more than a thousand screens across the U.S. There were many promotions to accompany the release of the film. As with Jaws 2, Topps produced a series of trading cards.^[25] Television stations were encouraged to broadcast the featurette, Making of Jaws 3-D: Sharks Don't Die, in a prime-time slot between July 16 and July 22, 1983 to take advantage of an advertisement in that week's issue of TV Guide.^[26] Alan Landsburg Productions found itself in trouble for using 90 seconds of footage from the National Geographic's 1983 documentary film The Sharks in the featurette without authorization.^[27]

Box office

The film grossed $13,422,500 on its opening weekend,^[28] playing to 1,311 theaters at its widest release. This was 29.5% of its total gross. It has achieved total lifetime worldwide gross of $87,987,055.^[29] Despite being #1 at the box office, this illustrates the series' diminishing returns, since Jaws 3-D has earned nearly $100 million less than the total lifetime gross of its predecessor^[30] and $300 million less than the original film.^[31] The final sequel would attract an even lower income, with around two thirds of Jaws 3-D's total lifetime gross.^[32] However, the film was still drawing huge audiences when it was pulled from theaters; film historian R.M. Hayes says this action "was pure nonsense considering some cinemas were actually turning over more money per screen than the latest Star Wars film".^[16]

Critical response

Reception for the movie was generally poor. Variety calls it "tepid" and suggests that Alves "fails to linger long enough on the Great White."^[33] It has an 13% 'rotten' rating at Rotten Tomatoes.^[34] The 3-D was criticized as being a gimmick to attract audiences to the aging series^[35] and for being ineffective.^[36] Allrovi, however, says that "the suspense sequences were made somewhat more memorable during the film's original release with 3-D photography, an attribute lost on video, thereby removing the most distinctive element of an otherwise run-of-the-mill sequel."^[37] Derek Winnert says that "with Richard Matheson's name on the script you'd expect a better yarn" although he continues to say that the film "is entirely watchable with a big pack of popcorn."^[38] Others are disappointed that Matheson and Gottlieb produced this script given their previous success.^[10]

Although most critics are in agreement that Jaws 2 is the best of the Jaws sequels, some are unsure if Jaws-3-D is better than Jaws: The Revenge. One reviewer says of Jaws 3-D:

Campy performances, cheesy special effects, and downright awful dialogue all contribute to making Jaws 3 a truly dismal experience for just about everyone. It's not only hard to believe that a sequel this downright abominable didn't kill the franchise, but that it actually would be followed by a movie that was arguably worse—Jaws: the Revenge.^[23]

Amongst some flaws, some critics describe the film as "marginally entertaining."^[39] The sound design has been commended, however. The moment when an infant's cry is heard when the baby shark dies in the pool is particularly praised by one reviewer.^[10] Gossett, Jet magazine says, was the "only cast member to survive the generally negative reviews".^[28]

In her screenwriting textbook, Linda Aronson suggests that its protagonist, played by Quaid, is a major problem with the film. She says that after taking too long for him to be introduced, the character is "essentially a passive onlooker." There is no hunt until the climax when the shark is terrorizing the people in the aquarium; only then does Mike Brody become centre of the action. She also highlights inaccuracies in the plot. For instance, she refutes the idea of a "mother shark protecting her offspring [as] sharks do not mother their young," and points out that dolphins can attack sharks.^[40]

Leonard Maltin calls the film a "road-company Irwin Allen type-disaster film" and notes that its premise is similar to the 1955 sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon.^[41]

Jaws 3-D was nominated for five 1983 Golden Raspberry Awards, including worst picture, director, supporting actor (Lou Gossett, Jr.), screenplay, and newcomer (Cindy and Sandy, "The Shrieking Dolphins"), and received none.^[42]

DVD release

The film was released in a standard 2-D format on DVD by Universal on June 3, 2003 under the title Jaws 3. With the exception of one theatrical trailer, no bonus features were included.

See also

• Revenge of the Creature, a 1955 3-D sequel film, featuring an attack on a Floridian marine mammal park by a piscene antagonist.
• List of killer shark films

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Aronson, Linda (2000). Scriptwriting updated: new and conventional ways of writing for the screen. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1876351039 
• Bensman, Marvin R. (1990). Broadcast/cable regulation (3 ed.). University Press of America. ISBN 0819176613 
• Hayes, R. M. (1998). 3-D movies: a history and filmography of stereoscopic cinema. McFarland. ISBN 0786405783 
• Kachmar, Diane C. (2002). Roy Scheider: a film biography. McFarland. ISBN 0786412011 
• Lofficier, Randy (2003). Into the Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide. iUniverse. ISBN 0595276121 
• McGee, Mark Thomas (2001). Beyond Ballyhoo: Motion Picture Promotion and Gimmicks. McFarland. ISBN 0786411147 
• Pohlen, Jerome (2003). Oddball Florida: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556525036 
• Weaver, Tom (2006). Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s Through 1960s. McFarland. p. 318. ISBN 0786428570 
• Winnert, Derek (1993). Radio Times Film & Video Guide 1994. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-57477-1 
• Zone, Ray (2005). 3-D filmmakers: Conversations with creators of stereoscopic motion pictures. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810854376 

External links

• Jaws 3-D at the Internet Movie Database
• Jaws 3-D at AllRovi
• Jaws 3-D at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jaws 3-D at Box Office Mojo