Carl Gottlieb (born March 18, 1938) is an American screenwriter , actor, comedian, and executive. He is best known for co-writing the screenplay for Jaws (1975) and its first two sequels, as well as directing the 1981 film Caveman .
83-661: Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author. He is best known for his bestselling novel Jaws and co-wrote its movie adaptation with Carl Gottlieb . Several more of his works were also adapted for both cinema and television, including The Deep , The Island , Beast , and White Shark . Later in life, Benchley expressed some regret for his writing about sharks , which he felt indulged already present fear and false belief about sharks, and he became an advocate for marine conservation . Contrary to widespread rumor, Benchley did not believe that his writings contributed to shark depopulation, nor
166-429: A giant squid threatening Bermuda. Beast was brought to the small screen as a made-for-television movie in 1996, with the title The Beast . His next novel, White Shark , was published in 1994. The story of a Nazi-created genetically engineered shark/human hybrid, it failed to achieve popular or critical success. It was also adapted as a made-for-television movie titled Creature , with Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of
249-499: A bad season for movies. However, Universal Pictures decided to release the movie with extensive television advertising and it eventually grossed more than $ 470 million worldwide. George Lucas used a similar strategy in 1977 for Star Wars which exceeded the financial record set by Jaws , and hence the summer " blockbuster " movie practice was born. Benchley estimated that his income from book sales, movie rights and magazine/book club syndication, enabled him to work independently as
332-486: A few years before she met Brody. After Hooper attends a dinner party at the Brody's, Ellen, intent on recapturing her juvenescence and joie de vivre, decides to instigate a sexual encounter with him. The following morning, she telephones Hooper at his hotel and invites him to meet her for lunch at a restaurant several miles away from Amity. During lunch, the two have several drinks and after a sexually heated conversation, go to
415-531: A girl's complicated relationship with the sea, was his best-reviewed book and has developed a considerable cult following since its publication. Sea of Cortez indicated Benchley's increasing interest with ecological issues and anticipated his future role as an advocate of the importance of protecting the marine environment. Q Clearance , published in 1986, was written from his experience as a staffer in Johnson 's White House . Rummies (also known as Lush ), which
498-466: A gripping fish story. It is a tightly written, tautly paced study," which "forged and touched a metaphor that still makes us tingle whenever we enter the water." New York reviewer Eliot Fremont-Smith found the novel "immensely readable" despite the lack of "memorable characters or much plot surprise or originality"; Fremont-Smith wrote that Benchley "fulfills all expectations, provides just enough civics and ecology to make us feel good, and tops it off with
581-467: A man make love on the beach. Afterwards, she skinny dips alone in the ocean where she is attacked and killed by a massive great white shark . After finding her partially eaten remains washed up on the beach, investigators determine she was attacked by a shark. Amity Police chief Martin Brody orders the beaches closed, but mayor Larry Vaughan and the town's selectmen overrule him out of fear for damage to summer tourism, Amity's main source of commerce. With
664-503: A massive shark tooth stuck in it. Blaming himself for the latest deaths, Brody again attempts to close the beaches, while Meadows investigates the Mayor's business contacts to find out why he is determined to keep the beaches open. Meadows discovers Vaughan has ties to the Mafia , who are pressuring the mayor to keep the beaches open in order to protect the value of Amity's real estate, in which
747-406: A motel. Unable to reach Hooper nor Ellen by phone that afternoon, Brody begins to suspect they have had a liaison and he becomes obsessed and tormented by the thought. News of the shark attacks spread and with the beaches still open, tourists flock to Amity to glimpse the killer shark. Brody sets up patrols on the beaches to watch for the fish. After a teenage boy narrowly escapes another attack near
830-676: A movie writer for ten years. Benchley developed his second novel, The Deep , published in 1976, after a chance meeting in Bermuda with diver Teddy Tucker while writing a story for National Geographic . Benchley visited the wreck of the Constellation which he described as having sunk on top of two other wrecks, the Montana and the Lartington . This gave Benchley the idea of a honeymooning couple discovering two sunken treasures on
913-465: A new species of lanternshark had been found off the Pacific coast of South America, naming it Etmopterus benchleyi . Main researcher Vicki Vásquez noted the author's work in promoting ocean conservation, particularly sharks, as motivation. Jaws (novel) Jaws is a novel by American writer Peter Benchley , published in 1974. It tells the story of a large great white shark that preys upon
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#1732775539878996-409: A non-fiction book about pirates, and a novel depicting a man-eating shark terrorizing a community. This idea had been developed by Benchley since he had read a news report of a fisherman catching a 4550-pound (2060 kg) great white shark off the coast of Long Island in 1964. The shark novel eventually attracted Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon , who offered Benchley an advance of $ 1,000 resulting in
1079-405: A possible tryst between them. A heated argument ensues with Brody strangling Hooper for several seconds. The first two days at sea are unproductive, but the three come in contact with the shark by the end of the second day. Upon seeing the fish for the first time and estimating the shark to be at least 20 ft (6.1 m) in length and weighing in at roughly 5,000 lb (2,300 kg), Hooper
1162-546: A really terrific and grisly battle scene". In the years following publication, Benchley began to feel responsible for the negative attitudes against sharks that his novel engendered. He became an ardent ocean conservationist. In an article for the National Geographic published in 2000, Benchley writes "considering the knowledge accumulated about sharks in the last 25 years, I couldn't possibly write Jaws today ... not in good conscience anyway. Back then, it
1245-493: A restaurant in New York: We cannot agree on a word that we like, let alone a title that we like. In fact, the only word that even means anything, that even says anything, is "jaws". Call the book Jaws . He said "What does it mean?" I said, "I don't know, but it's short; it fits on a jacket, and it may work." He said, "Okay, we'll call the thing Jaws . For the cover, Benchley wanted an illustration of Amity as seen through
1328-444: A result, for years, he had considered writing "a story about a shark that attacks people and what would happen if it came in and wouldn't go away." This interest grew greater after reading a 1964 news story about fisherman Frank Mundus catching a great white shark weighing 4,550 pounds (2,060 kg) off the shore of Montauk, New York . In 1971, Benchley worked as a freelance writer struggling to support his wife and children. In
1411-458: A small Long Island resort town and the three men who attempt to kill it. The novel grew out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he read about the exploits of Frank Mundus , a shark fisherman from Montauk, New York , in 1964. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel in 1971, a period when Benchley worked as a freelance journalist. Through a marketing campaign orchestrated by Doubleday and paperback publisher Bantam Books , Jaws
1494-477: A survivor of the World War II USS ; Indianapolis disaster, and changing the cause of the shark's death from extensive wounds to a scuba tank explosion. The director estimated the final script had a total of 27 scenes that were not in the book. Amity was also relocated; while scouting the book's Long Island setting, Brown found it "too grand" and not fitting the idea of "a vacation area that
1577-406: A title about dentistry". Gotfryd tried to get Minor to do a new cover, but he was out of town, so he instead turned to artist Paul Bacon . Bacon drew an enormous shark head, and Gotfryd suggested adding a swimmer "to have a sense of disaster and a sense of scale". The subsequent drawing became the eventual hardcover art, with a shark head rising towards a swimming woman. Despite the acceptance of
1660-472: A total of 125,000 copies. The paperback version was even more successful, topping book charts worldwide, and by the time the film adaptation debuted in June, 1975, the novel had sold 5.5 million copies domestically, a number that eventually reached 9.5 million copies. Worldwide sales are estimated at 20 million copies. The success inspired ABC to invite Benchley for an episode of The American Sportsman , where
1743-434: Is credited as the first summer blockbuster movie and was the highest grossing film in motion picture history up to that time. Three sequels followed the film, which were met with mixed to negative responses. Jaws is set in the fictional town of Amity, a small, seaside resort located on the south shore of Long Island , halfway between Bridgehampton and East Hampton . One night, a young woman named Christine Watkins and
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#17327755398781826-583: Is there evidence that Jaws or any of his works did so. Benchley was the son of author Nathaniel Benchley and Marjorie (née Bradford), and grandson of Algonquin Round Table founder Robert Benchley . His younger brother, Nat Benchley , is a writer and actor. Peter Benchley was an alumnus of the Allen-Stevenson School , Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University . After graduating from college in 1961, Benchley travelled around
1909-444: Is visibly excited and in awe at the size of it. Before Brody returns home, Larry Vaughan visits the Brody house and informs Ellen that he and his wife are moving from Amity. Vaughan tells her that he always thought he and Ellen would have made a great couple. After he leaves, Ellen reflects that her life with Brody is much more fulfilling than any life she might have had with Vaughan. She realizes her mistake over her thoughts of missing
1992-564: The Book of the Month Club and paperback original houses. The Book of the Month Club made it an "A book", qualifying it for its main selection, then Reader's Digest Condensed Books also selected it. The publication date was moved back to allow a carefully orchestrated release. It was released first in hardcover in February 1974, then in the book clubs, followed by a national campaign for
2075-464: The New York Times saying it "looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than any fish". Also in 1994, Benchley became the first person to host Discovery Channel's Shark Week . In 1999, the television show Peter Benchley's Amazon was created, about a group of airplane crash survivors in the middle of a vast jungle. During the last decade of his career, Benchley wrote non-fiction works about
2158-699: The 1960s, of the San Francisco improvisational comedy troupe The Committee . They made one feature film: A Session with the Committee . He began writing comedy for TV, contributing to The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour for which he won an Emmy Award in 1969, The Music Scene, The Bob Newhart Show , All in the Family , and The Odd Couple . He also appeared on camera on Ken Berry 's Wow Show variety summer television program in 1972. Minor acting roles have included Robert Altman 's M*A*S*H and
2241-621: The Bacon cover by Doubleday, Dystel did not like the cover, and assigned New York illustrator Roger Kastel to do a different one for the paperback. Following Bacon's basic concept, Kastel illustrated his favorite part of the novel, the opening where the shark attacks Christine Watkins. For research, Kastel went to the American Museum of Natural History , and took advantage of the Great White exhibits being closed for cleaning to photograph
2324-538: The Bermuda reefs — 17th century Spanish gold and a fortune in World War II-era morphine — and who are victimized subsequently by a drug syndicate. Benchley co-wrote the screenplay for the 1977 movie release, along with Tracy Keenan Wynn and an uncredited Tom Mankiewicz . Directed by Peter Yates and featuring Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset , The Deep was a financial success, and one of
2407-560: The Mafia has invested a great deal of money. Meadows also recruits Matt Hooper, a young ichthyologist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for advice on how to deal with the shark. Meanwhile, Brody's wife, Ellen is lamenting the loss of her youth and the affluent lifestyle she had before marrying Brody and having children. Coincidentally, when Ellen was a teenager, she dated Hooper's older brother
2490-439: The Mafia." Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown , film producers at Universal Pictures , both heard about the book before publication at the same time. Upon reading it, both agreed the novel was exciting and deserved a feature film adaptation, even if they were unsure how to accomplish it. Benchley's agent sold the adaptation rights for $ 150,000, plus an extra $ 25,000 for Benchley to write the screenplay. Although this delighted
2573-459: The Sea , Thomas B. Allen 's Shadows in the Sea , and David H. Davies' About Sharks and Shark Attacks . Benchley procrastinated finishing the novel and only began writing in earnest once his agent reminded him that if he did not deliver the manuscript, he would have to return the writer's advance. As this money had been spent, Benchley had no choice. His hastily written first-draft partial manuscript
Peter Benchley - Misplaced Pages Continue
2656-578: The Town Hall corridor and the Tiger Shark scene). He wrote a book, The Jaws Log , about the notoriously difficult production of the film. He was enlisted under similar circumstances to work on the Jaws 2 screenplay. He co-wrote the screenplays for The Jerk , in which he played Iron Balls McGinty, and Jaws 3-D . Gottlieb contributes to Jaws related activities, such as interviews (including
2739-479: The Water and Leviathan Rising . Benchley regarded other ideas, such as The Jaws of Death and The Jaws of Leviathan , as "melodramatic, weird or pretentious". Congdon and Benchley brainstormed about the title frequently, with the writer estimating about 125 ideas raised. The novel still did not have a title until twenty minutes before production of the book. The writer discussed the problem with editor Tom Congdon at
2822-496: The author, who had very little money at the time, it was a comparatively low sum, as the agreement occurred before the book became a surprise bestseller. After securing the rights, Steven Spielberg , who was making his first theatrical film, The Sugarland Express , for Zanuck, Brown and Universal, was hired as the director. To play the protagonists, the producers cast Robert Shaw as Quint, Roy Scheider as Brody and Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper. Benchley's contract promised him
2905-430: The collusion of Harry Meadows, editor of the local newspaper, the attack is hushed up. A few days later, the shark kills a young boy and an elderly man within half an hour of each other. Amity's authorities hire Ben Gardner, a local fisherman to kill the shark but he disappears at sea. Brody and his deputy, Leonard Hendricks discover Gardner's deserted boat anchored off-shore, covered with large bite holes, one of which has
2988-612: The documentary The Shark Is Still Working ) and attended JawsFest on Martha's Vineyard in June 2005. Gottlieb joined the Writers Guild of America in 1968 and became interested in Guild politics and with a desire to serve fellow writers following writers' strikes in the 1970s and 1981. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 1983, and re-elected for numerous terms thereafter, including two stints as vice-president (1991–1994). He
3071-484: The early drafts of the screenplay, Carl Gottlieb (along with the uncredited Howard Sackler and John Milius ) wrote the majority of the final script for the Spielberg movie released in June, 1975. Benchley made a cameo appearance in the film as a news reporter on the beach. The movie, featuring Roy Scheider , Robert Shaw , and Richard Dreyfuss , was released during the summer season, considered traditionally to be
3154-474: The ending featuring a confrontation with the shark; Quint even dies the same way as Captain Ahab . The central character, Chief Brody, fits a common characterization of the disaster genre , an authority figure who is forced to provide guidance to those affected by the sudden tragedy. Focusing on a working class local leads the book's prose to describe the beachgoers with contempt, and Brody to have conflicts with
3237-487: The family eventually got a house at Pennington, New Jersey in 1970. Since his home had no space for an office, Benchley rented a room above a furnace supply company. By 1971, Benchley was doing various freelance jobs to support himself and his family. During this period, when Benchley would later declare he was "making one final attempt to stay alive as a writer", his literary agent arranged meetings with publishers. At these meetings, Benchley would frequently pitch two ideas:
3320-486: The film Clueless . Gottlieb also cowrote David Crosby 's two autobiographies, 1989's Long Time Gone and 2006's Since Then . Gottlieb was hired as an actor to appear as Harry Meadows, the editor of the local newspaper, in Jaws . He was hired by his friend, Steven Spielberg , to redraft the script, adding more dimensions to the characters, particularly humor. His redrafts reduced the role of Meadows (who still appears in
3403-445: The film posters and advertising, albeit slightly bowdlerized with the woman's naked body partially obscured with more sea foam. The original painting of the cover was stolen and has never been recovered, leaving Bacon to speculate that some Hollywood executive now has it. The story of Jaws is limited by how the humans respond to the shark menace. Much detail is given to the shark, with descriptions of its anatomy and presence creating
Peter Benchley - Misplaced Pages Continue
3486-427: The first draft of the Jaws screenplay. He wrote three drafts before passing the job over to other writers; the screenplay is credited to Benchley and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb who wrote the majority of the final script and appears in the film in the small role of newspaper editor Harry Meadows. Benchley also has a cameo role in the film, playing a TV news reporter. For the adaptation, Spielberg wanted to preserve
3569-641: The first four chapters, and the full manuscript received a $ 7,500 total advance. Congdon and the Doubleday crew were confident, seeing Benchley as "something of an expert in sharks", given the author self-described "knowing as much as any amateur about sharks" as he had read some research books and seen the 1971 documentary Blue Water White Death . After Doubleday commissioned the book, Benchley then started researching all possible material regarding sharks. Among his sources were Peter Matthiessen 's Blue Meridian , Jacques Cousteau 's The Shark: Splendid Savage of
3652-406: The humans are particularly likable or interesting" and confessed the shark was his favorite character "and one suspects Benchley's also." Steven Spielberg shared the sentiment, saying he initially found many of the characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to "win", a characterization he changed in the film adaptation. Critics also derided Benchley's writing. Time reviewer John Skow described
3735-425: The jaws of a shark. Doubleday's design director, Alex Gotfryd, assigned book illustrator Wendell Minor with the task. The image was eventually vetoed for sexual overtones, compared by sales managers to the vagina dentata . Congdon and Gotfryd eventually settled on printing a typographical jacket, but that was subsequently discarded once Bantam editor Oscar Dystel noted the title Jaws was so vague "it could have been
3818-404: The life she had before marrying Brody. On the third day, Hooper wants to bring along a shark-proof cage , in an attempt to kill the fish with a bang stick . Initially, Quint refuses to bring the cage on board, considering it a suicidal idea, but he relents after Hooper and Brody get into another argument. After several unsuccessful attempts by Quint to harpoon the shark, Hooper goes underwater in
3901-501: The local government, in an era when divorces were on the rise, unemployment was high, and the presidential scandal of Nixon. In the meantime, the impact of the predatory deaths resemble Henrik Ibsen 's play An Enemy of the People , with the mayor of a small town panicking over how a problem will drive away the tourists. Another source of comparison raised by critics was Moby-Dick , particularly regarding Quint's characterization and
3984-443: The meantime, his literary agent scheduled regular meetings with publishing house editors. One was Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon , who met with Benchley seeking book ideas. Congdon did not find Benchley's proposals for non-fiction interesting, but instead favored his idea for a novel about a shark terrorizing a beach resort. Benchley sent a page to Congdon's office, and the editor paid him $ 1,000 for 100 pages. These pages comprised
4067-440: The models. The photographs then provided reference for a "ferocious-looking shark that was still realistic." After painting the shark, Kastel did the female swimmer. Following a photoshoot for Good Housekeeping , Kastel requested the model he was photographing to lie on a stool in the approximate position of a front crawl . The oil-on-board painting Kastel created for the cover would eventually be reused by Universal Pictures for
4150-681: The next year, 1964. By then Benchley was in New York, working as television editor for Newsweek . In 1967 he became a speechwriter in the White House for President Lyndon B. Johnson , and his daughter Tracy was born. Once Johnson's term ended in 1969, the Benchleys relocated out of Washington and lived in various houses, including one in Stonington, Connecticut where son Clayton was born in 1969. Benchley wanted to be near New York, and
4233-499: The novel as "cliché and crude literary calculation", where events "refuse to take on life and momentum" and the climax "lacks only Queequeg 's coffin to resemble a bath tub version of Moby-Dick ." Writing for The Village Voice , Donald Newlove declared that " Jaws has rubber teeth for a plot. It's boring, pointless, listless; if there's a trite turn to make, Jaws will make that turn." An article in The Listener criticized
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#17327755398784316-460: The novel in a makeshift office above a furnace company in Pennington, New Jersey during the winter months. In the summer, he moved to a converted turkey coop on the seaside property of his in-laws in Stonington, Connecticut . Congdon dictated some changes to the rest of the book, including a sex scene between Brody and Ellen which was changed to Ellen and Hooper. Congdon did not feel that there
4399-409: The novel's basic concept while removing Benchley's subplots and altering the characterizations, having found all of the characters of the book unlikable. Among the notable omissions were the adulterous affair between Ellen Brody and Matt Hooper and Mayor Larry Vaughn's connections to the mafia. Harry Meadows, a major character in the novel, is reduced to a peripheral character in the film. Quint became
4482-570: The novel's first entry on California's best-seller list was caused by Spielberg and producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown , who were on pre-production for the Jaws film, buying a hundred copies of the novel each, most of which were sent to "opinion-makers and members of the chattering class". Jaws was the state's most successful book by 7 p.m. on the first day. However, sales were good nationwide without engineering. The hardcover stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 44 weeks – peaking at number two behind Watership Down – selling
4565-616: The novelist submitting the first 100 pages. Much of the work was rewritten as the publisher was not happy with the initial style. Benchley worked by winter in his Pennington office, and during summer in a converted chicken coop at the farm of his in-laws in Stonington. The idea was inspired by the several great white sharks caught in the 1960s off Long Island and Block Island by the Montauk charterboat captain Frank Mundus . Jaws
4648-423: The paperback release. Bantam bought the paperback rights for $ 575,000, which Benchley points out was "then an enormous sum of money". After Bantam's rights expired years later, they reverted to Benchley, who subsequently sold the rights to Random House , who has since published all the reprints of Jaws . Upon release, Jaws became a great success. According to John Baxter 's biography of Steven Spielberg ,
4731-435: The plot, stating the "novel only has bite, so to say, at feed time," and these scenes are "naïve attempts at whipping along a flagging story-line." Andrew Bergman of The New York Times Book Review felt that despite the book serving as "fluid entertainment", "passages of hollow portentousness creep in" while poor scene "connections [and] stark manipulations impair the narrative." Some reviewers found Jaws 's description of
4814-413: The prose and characterizations amateurish and banal. Film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown read the novel before its publication and purchased the film rights. Steven Spielberg was selected to direct the movie adaptation, Jaws , released in June 1975. The film omitted all of the novel's subplots and focused primarily on the shark and the characterizations of the three protagonists. Jaws
4897-400: The rich outsider Hooper. "I knew that Jaws couldn't possibly be successful. It was a first novel, and nobody reads first novels. It was a first novel about a fish, so who cares?" –Peter Benchley Benchley says that neither he nor anyone else involved in its conception initially realized the book's potential. Tom Congdon, however, sensed that the novel had prospects and had it sent to
4980-433: The screenplay for the movie adaptation. But the movie version of The Island , featuring Michael Caine and co-featuring David Warner , failed financially when released in 1980. During the 1980s, Benchley wrote three novels that did not sell as well as his previous works. However, among them was Girl of the Sea of Cortez , a fable influenced by John Steinbeck 's The Log from the Sea of Cortez . Benchley's novel, about
5063-473: The sea and about sharks, advocating their conservation. Among these was his book entitled Shark Trouble , which illustrated how hype and news sensationalism can interfere with the public's understanding of marine ecosystems and potentially cause negative consequences as humans interact with it. This work, which had editions in 2001 and 2003, was written to help a post- Jaws public to more fully understand "the sea in all its beauty, mystery and power". It details
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#17327755398785146-426: The sense of an awesome, unstoppable threat. Elevating the menace are violent descriptions of the shark attacks. Along with a carnivorous killer on the sea, Amity is populated with equally predatory humans: the mayor who has ties with the Mafia, a depressed, adulterous housewife and criminals among the tourists. The novel contained 1970s cultural themes of a frayed marriage, a financially strapped town and distrust of
5229-586: The shark attacks entertaining. John Spurling of the New Statesman asserted that while the "characterisation of the humans is fairly rudimentary", the shark "is done with exhilarating and alarming skill, and every scene in which it appears is imagined at a special pitch of intensity." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt praised the novel in a short review for The New York Times, highlighting the "strong plot" and "rich thematic substructure." The Washington Post ' s Robert F. Jones described Jaws as "much more than
5312-478: The shark cage. The shark attacks the cage, something Hooper did not expect. After destroying the cage, the shark kills and eats Hooper. Brody is horrified and informs Quint that the town likely will no longer pay him, but Quint is now determined to kill the shark regardless of the money. Quint and Brody return to sea the next day. After the shark attacks the Orca and Quint harpoons it several more times, it leaps out of
5395-482: The shark reaches Brody, it succumbs to its wounds and dies before it can attack. Slowly, the shark begins to sink. The lone survivor of the ordeal, Brody watches as the dead shark disappears into the depths and then he begins to paddle back to shore on his makeshift float. Peter Benchley had a long time fascination with sharks, which he frequently encountered while fishing with his father Nathaniel in Nantucket . As
5478-509: The shore, Brody closes the beaches and hires Quint, an eccentric, crusty professional shark hunter, to find and kill the shark. Brody and Hooper set out on Quint's vessel, the Orca and the tension between the three men soon escalates. Quint dismisses Hooper as a spoiled, rich kid; Hooper is angry over Quint's methods when he disembowels a blue shark and uses an illegally caught unborn baby dolphin as bait. Brody's suspicions about Hooper and Ellen increase, as more circumstantial evidence points to
5561-470: The son of Elizabeth, a medical administrative assistant, and Sergius M. Gottlieb, an engineer. Gottlieb studied drama at Syracuse University where he befriended character actor Larry Hankin . After graduating, he was drafted into the U.S. Army , serving as an entertainment specialist in the Special Services division from 1961 to 1963. Following his discharge, he became a member, later in
5644-467: The studio was arranging a deal for sequels. Benchley disliked the idea, saying, "I don't care about sequels; who'll ever want to make a sequel to a movie about a fish?" He subsequently chose a one-time payment of $ 70,000 for each of the three sequels, relinquishing continuing royalties for future sequels. Carl Gottlieb Gottlieb was born to a middle class Jewish family in New York City,
5727-596: The top 10 highest-grossing movies in the US in 1977, though its financial tally was much less than that of Jaws . However, the movie inspired a number of technical firsts and was a Best Sound nominee at the 1978 Oscars. The Island , published in 1979, was a story of descendants of 17th-century pirates who terrorize pleasure craft in the Caribbean, resulting in the Bermuda Triangle mystery. Benchley again wrote
5810-769: The victim; for, worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed than the oppressors." He was also one of the founding board members of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI). In 2006, Benchley died of pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 65. Due to Peter Benchley's long record of shark conservation and educating the public about sharks, the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards have been instituted by Wendy Benchley and David Helvarg as his legacy. In 2015, researchers confirmed
5893-455: The water and onto the stern of the boat, tearing a huge hole in the aft section. As the Orca is sinking, Quint plunges another harpoon into the shark's belly; however, as the fish settles back into the water, Quint's foot becomes entangled in the rope attached to the harpoon, and he is pulled underwater and drowns. Brody, now floating on a seat cushion, watches as the shark slowly swims toward him; he closes his eyes and prepares for death. Just as
5976-472: The ways in which man seems to have become more of an aggressor in his relationship with sharks, acting from ignorance and greed as several of the species become threatened increasingly by overfishing. Benchley was a member of the National Council of Environmental Defense and a spokesman for its Oceans Program: "[T]he shark in an updated Jaws could not be the villain; it would have to be written as
6059-537: The world for a year. The experience was told in his first book, a travel memoir titled Time and a Ticket , published by Houghton Mifflin in 1964. After his return to the United States, Benchley had six months reserve duty in the Marine Corps , and then became a reporter for The Washington Post . While dining at an inn in Nantucket , Benchley met Winifred "Wendy" Wesson , whom he dated and then married
6142-641: The writer swam with sharks in Australia, in what would be the first of many nature-related television programs Benchley would take part in. In 2023, the book was banned, in Clay County District Schools, Florida . A 6-part abridged adaptation read by John Guerrasio was broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in 2008. A 10-part abridged adaptation read by Henry Goodman was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018 as part of its Book at Bedtime program. An unabridged audio adaptation read by Erik Steele
6225-474: Was "any place for this wholesome marital sex in this kind of book". After various rewrites, revisions, edits and sporadic advance payments, Benchley delivered his final draft of the untitled manuscript in January, 1973. Shortly before the book went to press, Benchley had still not chosen a title. Benchley had many working titles during development, many of which he called "pretentious", such as The Stillness in
6308-426: Was derided by Congdon, who did not like its comic tone. Congdon only approved the first five pages, which made it into the published book without any revisions, and asked Benchley to follow the tone of that introduction. After a month, Benchley delivered a broader outline of the story and rewritten chapters to which Congdon gave his approval. The manuscript took Benchley a year and a half to complete. Benchley worked on
6391-458: Was generally accepted that great whites were anthropophagus (they ate people) by choice. Now we know that almost every shark attack on a human is an accident: A shark mistakes a human for its normal prey." Upon his death in 2006, Benchley's widow Wendy declared the author "kept telling people the book was fiction", and comparing Jaws to The Godfather , "he took no more responsibility for the fear of sharks than Mario Puzo took responsibility for
6474-417: Was incorporated into many book sales clubs catalogues and attracted media interest. First published in February 1974, Jaws was a great success; the hardback remained on the bestseller list for 44 weeks and the subsequent paperback edition sold millions of copies, beginning the following year. Although literary critics acknowledged the novel's effective suspense, reviews were generally mixed, with many finding
6557-471: Was lower middle class enough so that an appearance of a shark would destroy the tourist business." Amity was thus changed from a coastal town on Long Island, to a small island in New England, filmed on Martha's Vineyard , Massachusetts . Released in theaters in 1975, Jaws became the highest-grossing film ever at the time, a record it held for two years until the release of Star Wars . Benchley
6640-412: Was published in 1974 and became a great success, a bestseller for 44 weeks. Steven Spielberg , who would direct the movie version of Jaws , has said that he initially found most of the characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win. Several book critics shared the sentiment and found the characters banal and the writing amateurish but the book was popular nonetheless. Although Benchley had written
6723-458: Was published in 1989, is a semi-autobiographical work, inspired partly by the Benchley family's history of alcohol abuse. While the first half of the novel is a relatively straightforward account of a suburbanite's development of alcoholism, the second part, which is set at a New Mexico substance abuse clinic, is written as a thriller. He resumed nautical themes for 1991's Beast written about
6806-433: Was released by Blackstone Audio in both CD and downloadable format in 2009. A French translation, Les Dents de la Mer , read by Pascal Casanova was released exclusively by Audible Studios in downloadable format in 2018. Despite the enormous commercial success of Jaws , reviews of the novel were mixed. The most common criticism focused on the human characters. Michael A. Rogers of Rolling Stone declared that "None of
6889-415: Was satisfied with the adaptation, noting how dropping the subplots allowed for "all the little details that fleshed out the characters". The film's success led to three sequels , with which Benchley had no involvement despite them drawing on his characters. According to Benchley, once when his payment of the adaptation-related royalties didn't arrive as expected, he called his agent and she informed him that
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