Did anyone read Peter Benchley's JAWS? Ugh!!

[DerekG]

No offense to the late writer, but what a piece of crap! A goddamn soap opera, chock full of unlikable characters, seedy affairs, an occasional appearance by the shark, and an anti-climactic ending to end all anti-climactic endings.

Sometimes, a book deserves to be butchered.

Steven Spielberg: I salute you!

[Seneca]

1. Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" was much the same way

The novel was a huge hit when it was released in 1969. It would remain the best-selling book in modern publishing history until the awful "Bridges of Madison County some 25 years later. In 1971, he wrote the screenplay too (with help from Coppola), which proved that scripts were a much better medium for Puzo's talents than novel writing.

Sometimes, the movie is better than the book.

[jobycom]

4. Exactly what I was thinking. nt

[Seneca]

5. Scary!

Between Puzo and Roger Waters, we could write our own concept album: "The Pros and Cons of Bestselling Novel Screenplay Adaptations". :D

[jobycom]

6. Ha! This is becoming a habit lately.

:rofl:

[Seneca]

23. The soundtrack could be recorded with vuvuzelas

Oh, the possibilities...

[Dr. Strange]

8. I, for one, would purchase that album!

:o

[bigwillq]

9. Bridges, the book, was awful, imo

But I thought the movie was well-made.

[Seneca]

13. I was referring to the book

I worked as a bookseller back then, and I tried reading it so I could stay current, and couldn't get past the first 2 pages, lol.

[edbermac]

2. I did years ago.

The movie was a hundred times better. Benchley had a great idea but you're right, it was a piece of soap opera crap.

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. Great... just GREAT!!!!!

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I guess I can just throw this away now.
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Nah... I think I'll hold onto it for awhile.
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[mreilly]

7. Will never understand...

... the police chief's wife affair. Daisy the stuck-up bimbo. Matt Hooper's personal peccadilloes. The other needless drek. It should all have been shark, police chief, town (and the political struggles which WERE interesting; mayor wanted beaches open for tourist business and chief wanted them closed for safety), beaches. I guess there was just too much filler on the part of Benchley.

[Dr. Strange]

10. It's the editor's fault.

Because the editor said,
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wait for it!
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"You're gonna need a bigger book!"



With apologies to MiddleFingerMom.

[Bucky]

11. I have bad news for you

Life itself is a piece of crap, goddamn soap opera, chock full of unlikable characters, seedy affairs, an occasional shark appearances. And as far as life goes, an anti-climactic ending is actually somewhat desirable.

[DerekG]

14. Fuck life!

I want an entertaining movie, chock full of sympathetic characters, no superfluous love affairs, lots of shark appearances, and an ending where Roy fucking Scheider annihilates the goddamn leviathan with his righteous rifle!

Spielberg, I want to have your baby! And I'm not even female!

[Bucky]

19. .

[Orrex]

15. The truth is no excuse for bad fiction

[SoxFan]

16. The Real Housewives of Wasilla

[gmoney]

12. There was a shark? How about a spoiler alert!

Unrec...

[Twillig]

17. Spoiler:

In the book, didn't Hooper get eaten by the shark?

That was about comeuppance for fucking Brody's wife, if I remember correctly.

Forgive my memory from the age of 12 years old if I am wrong.

What a piece o' shit.

BTW, does anybody still wonder why Stephen King Novels are better as movies (that he has no involvement in)?

[blogslut]

18. While I agree about the soap opera junk

I remember the beginning of the book being quite interesting in describing the mystery of deep sea life. I realize that apparently, Benchley had no damned idea what he was talking about but at the time, 200ft monsters, swimming at the bottom of the sea, fascinated my teenaged mind.

True story: That book was forbidden on my Jr. High campus so we kids would conceal it with false covers and read it anyway. I don't exactly remember why it was forbidden but I think it was probably because of the dirty bad sex parts.

[applegrove]

20. I have "The Deep" also by him. I'll read it once my mom has finished with it.

Is he a good writer?

[qb]

21. A kid on my block was only allowed to read Jaws only after his mom taped together

the pages with sex!

[Yavin4]

22. There's A Sequel to Jaws Coming Out by Peter Griffith called Much Bigger Jaws

In the sequel, there's a much bigger Jaws, so the original Jaws, the Chief, and Hooper team up to fight the much bigger Jaws.

[lunatica]

24. I feel the same way about Love Story

and I didn't like the movie either.