Jaws 3-D

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Jaws 3-D
Jaws 3-D film poster
Directed by	Joe Alves
Produced by	Rupert Hitzig
Written by	Carl Gottlieb, Richard Matheson; Guerdon Trueblood (story)
Starring	Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Simon MacCorkindale, Louis Gossett Jr., John Putch
Music by	Alan Parker
Cinematography	Chris Cordon; James A. Contner
Editing by	Corky Ehlers; Randy Roberts
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	July 22, 1983
Running time	99 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million[1]
Preceded by	Jaws 2
Followed by	Jaws The Revenge
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Jaws 3-D (a.k.a. Jaws 3) is a 1983 horror–thriller film directed by Joe Alves. It is the second sequel to Steven Spielberg's 1975 Oscar winning classic Jaws.

As SeaWorld, a water park with underwater tunnels and lagoons, prepares to open, a great white shark infiltrates the barrier, attacking and killing water skiers and park empolyees. Once the baby shark is captured, it becomes apparent that a much larger shark is present (The Mother).

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 3 and Amityville 3-D. Cinema audiences could wear disposable cardboard polarized 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 the 3-D is ineffective in home viewing, the alternative title Jaws 3 is used for television broadcasts, VHS and DVD.^[1]

[edit] Synopsis

The oldest son from the first two Jaws films, Michael Brody (played by Dennis Quaid) now works for SeaWorld in Florida, which is preparing for the launch of its new "Undersea Kingdom," a set of tunnels where people can "view the wonders of the deep without ever getting wet." The film opens with a great white following a team of waterskiers, among them Kelly (Lea Thompson). Their boat stalls, but then its driver gets it going again before anyone is attacked.

Michael Brody is the chief engineer, and lives with his girlfriend, Katherine Morgan (Bess Armstrong), who is senior biologist at the park. Katherine and her assistants, Dan and Liz, wonder why the dolphins are acting so afraid of leaving their pen. As Sean (John Putch), Michael's brother, arrives to visit, he reveals a deep fear about the water caused by the events depicted in Jaws 2. Kelly, after meeting Michael, Sean, and Katherine in a bar, tries to dispel the phobia by playing in the water naked at nighttime.

Meanwhile, Shelby Overman (Harry Grant), one of the mechanics, dives into the water at dusk to repair the gates. He is attacked by a shark and killed. The next day, Michael and Katherine go down in a submarine to check the tunnels and find Overman. They decide to go into a piece of scenery, the Spanish galleon, although encouraged by Katherine's two dolphins to stay away. They continue the search, leaving the submarine, only to be assaulted by a great white. The dolphins respond to Kaye's waving hands, and allow Michael and Katherine to ride them back to the dolphin pen.

The baby great white is captured and nursed to partial health by Katherine and Liz. Calvin (Louis Gossett, Jr.) orders it exhibited as being the first Great White in captivity, but it dies within days.

Meanwhile, Kelly forces Sean to join her on the bumper boats, not granting any credence to his fear of the sea. But, at the underwater tunnel, a girl is terrified when she sees a hideous corpse, later revealed to be Overman, bob up to a window. Katherine reveals that the bites came from a shark with a mouth a yard across. That means that the shark's mother has also breached the gates of the park, but she can't convince Calvin of this fact until the shark herself shows up at the window of their underwater cafe. The shark exacts her revenge, first by causing a leak that nearly drowns everyone in the underwater tunnel. She then turns her attention to everyone on the beach. She fails to capture the waterskiers, but capsizes Sean and Kelly's bumper boat, and Kelly gets an laceration from the shark's coarse skin.

FitzRoyce (Simon MacCorkindale) leads the shark into the filtration pipes where the water from the ocean is brought into the lagoon, hoping to trap her inside. However, he drifts right into her mouth after his lifeline rope snapped. He prepares a grenade, but he is crushed to death before he can use it.

Unaware of this, Michael has gone down to repair the underwater tunnel so the technicians can restore air pressure and drain the water, with Katherine to watch his back. He welds the repair piece, but, with no pressure in the pipe to restrain her, the shark attacks but are protected by the dolphins. They return to the control room with Calvin and the technicians. But, the shark smashes through the acrylic glass, flooding the room. As everyone tries to escape, Mike notices that FitzRoyce's body is still resting in the shark's mouth with the grenade. Mike uses a pole to detonate the grenade and it explodes.

[edit] Production history

David Brown and Richard Zanuck, the producers for the first two films, originally pitched this idea as a spoof named Jaws 3, People 0 after the success of Airplane!.^[1] However, Brown says that it would be like "fouling in your own nest."^[3]

The screenplay was based on Guerdon Trueblood's story about a white shark swimming upstream and becoming trapped in a lake.^[4] The script was written by Carl Gottlieb and Richard Matheson. Gottlieb had revised the screenplays for the first two Jaws films, and Matheson had written the script for Spielberg's celebrated 1971 television movie Duel.^[5] However, Matheson has reported in interviews that the screenplay was revised by "script doctors".^[4]

The film was directed by Joe Alves, who had worked on the first two films as production designer and as 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]

[edit] 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 3 could also make dual use of the number three.^[1] The gimmick was also advertised in the tagline "the third dimension is terror."^[4]

The shark's jaws coming towards the screen after its destruction. Audiences might perceive that they were coming into the auditorium.

Cinema audiences could wear disposable cardboard 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.

It is a common misconception^[6] that Jaws 3-D was filmed using two cameras simultaneously to achieve the effect. In fact, as the credits of the movie indicate, it was shot using the Arrivision 3D system.^[7] This is a means of shooting 3D movies in normal colour 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 35mm 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 movie, 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 (provided the required lens is obtained), since it does not require two projectors running simultaneously through the presentation - something most cinemas are not equipped to handle.

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 18mm 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 one exception, 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 35mm film frame, the picture resolution is noticeably poorer than would normally be expected of a movie shot on 35mm.

The above-mentioned exception was a 1986 release of the movie 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.^[8]

TV3 in Malaysia tried to broadcast the 3D version of the film in 2001. The event was advertised heavily and required viewers to buy a pair of anaglyph glasses to fully enjoy the movie; this was an anaglyph 3D version of the film created from the Arrivision original.^[9][10]

This film was referenced in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II. When Marty McFly arrives in Hill Valley in the year 2015 he sees that a movie theatre that is playing "Jaws 19", as in the 19th installment of the franchise. The shark from the poster leaps out at him, "eating" him, taking him by surprise and causing him to cower in fear. The shark disappears, revealing it to be a 3-D model. He gets up off the ground, shrugs, and calmly says, "The shark still looks fake."^[11]

[edit] 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.^[12][13] It was Parker's first feature score, but he would later work on What's Eating Gilbert Grape and American Gothic.^[14] 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.

[edit] Track listing

Side one
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)

Side two
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)

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office performance

The film grossed $13,422,500 on its opening weekend, 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.^[15] This illustrates the series' diminishing returns, since Jaws 3-D has earned nearly $100,000,000 less than the total lifetime gross of its predecessor^[16] and $300,000,000 less than the original film.^[17] The final sequel would attract an even lower income, with around two thirds of Jaws 3-D's total lifetime gross.^[18]

[edit] Reviews

Reception for the movie was generally weak. Variety calls it "tepid" and suggests that Alves "fails to linger long enough on the Great White."^[19] It has a 11% fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com.^[20]

The 3-D was criticised as being a gimmick to attract audiences to the aging series^[6] and for being ineffective.^[21] All Movie Guide, 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."^[22]

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."^[23] Others are disappointed that Matheson and Gottlieb produced this script given their previous success.^[4]

Although most critics agree 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.^[14]

Although there are many flaws, some critics describe the film as "marginally entertaining."^[24] 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.^[4]

[edit] Awards

It 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"). However, it "won" none.^[25]

[edit] References