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Review of Jaws 2 (John Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have lost patience with the original Jaws
score's famous themes and want to hear them integrated into a strong set
of fresh and surprisingly optimistic new ideas from John Williams for
this sequel.
Avoid it... if you live and die by the two-note rhythmic motif representing the shark, because Williams applies the idea in less frequent and far less intelligent ways in the sequel.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Jaws 2: (John Williams) The classic 1975 Steven
Spielberg film Jaws expended all the possible avenues that the
topic of a realistic predatory shark could have explored, and the
director and majority of crew for that classic project were dead set
against the idea of a sequel. Universal Studios, however, enthusiastic
about its discovery of the newfound concept of a summer blockbuster,
enlisted the co-writer of the first film to conjure a less gory,
PG-rated reprise of the limb-tearing menace from that narrative to reap
additional profits in 1978. While Spielberg and other key people refused
to be involved in Jaws 2, lead actor Roy Scheider wasn't as
lucky, reportedly forced by contract to appear in the film against his
will. The project rotated between writers and directors even after
shooting had started, confirming its many woes despite the advent of a
more sophisticated mechanical shark than the one that frustrated the
prior production. Ultimately, the vacation town of Amity is once again
terrorized by a man-eating shark that is intent on not only sinking
boats this time, but making them explode. So ridiculous are the
ambitions of shark #2 that it tackles an entire helicopter for lunch.
The obligatory scene of confrontation between Scheider and the beast
offers an even more unlikely method of shark annihilation than the
"mythbusted" conclusion to the previous film. In short, the majority of
the $20 million budget for Jaws 2 was spent conjuring new scare
tactics (some of which, like the water kite sequence, actually quite
adept), reinforcing the rigid character traits from the first film, and,
despite the lack of striking nudity this time around, dwelling upon the
teenage hormones of Amity's youth as they flirt their way towards a
quick demise. The concept would fuel several more feature films in the
subsequent decade, and all these sequels managed to accomplished was to
confirm the classic status of Spielberg's original. Among the few major
players from Jaws to return was composer John Williams, though he
too had reservations about the assignment, using the opportunity to
awkwardly dismiss his interest in scoring sequels, a statement which, in
retrospect, seems a bit strange.
Williams' music for the 1975 production had earned him a well-deserved Academy Award, launching the composer into a career-changing series of blockbuster scores that he was in the midst of when he returned for Jaws 2. One aspect of this sequel score that Williams really emphasizes (more than others, despite similar claims about all his sequel works) is its differences compared to the prior score. The composer was stuck with the same dilemma of re-conceptualizing his ideas for the franchise in an effort to approach it from a fresh new angle and, more than most other parts of the production, he actually succeeded in providing Jaws 2 with an interesting new sound while remaining loyal to the basic elements of the first score. Both primary themes from Jaws return in the sequel, but only in the bare minimum number of circumstances to address related action on screen. The buoyant (perhaps not the best word there) theme for the "Orca" is heard immediately upon the discovery of the boat by divers to the site of its sinking, and this fragmentary application of the idea by Williams is welcomed. Don't expect to hear it a second time. The main theme and its underlying thumping rhythm for the shark is a far more frequent element of Jaws 2, though not in the same keen sense with which Williams had applied it in Jaws. Sequences involving the animal sometimes go without fully developed statements of the rhythm, and usage of the overlying theme on brass is withheld to only the most frightening moments. Many of the action and suspense scenes are handled with more anonymous, dissonant strikes and ambience than in the previous work. Most unfortunately, Williams cheapens the use of the rhythmic motif in this score; whereas his previous effort only utilized the theme to represent the blood pressure of the shark itself, its applications here are more stereotypical in that they are included in scenes not actually featuring the shark. Pivoting away from the Orca's theme is Williams as he shifts his above-water music of bright enthusiasm in Jaws 2 to a new sailing theme. Just as the first film was highlighted by the Orca's high adventure theme for the full ensemble, Williams treats the catamaran and other open seas scenes here with a dedicated theme of pure optimism. The bubbly, accelerated, and jovial nature of the sailing theme in Jaws 2 accompanies the carefree actions of the teens in the plot, heard prominently three times in the score (including the "End Cast" sequence). The brilliance of the seas is conveyed in "The Catamaran Race" and "The Open Sea" with the kind of majesty that one would have expected from Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Basil Poledouris, though Williams' style of addressing this shimmering scenery is distinctly rooted in his own sound. The more popular new theme in Jaws 2 is ironically one that is only employed once in full in the picture, and it is the remarkable piece that closes it after Scheider has once again proved victorious. The sense of relief in "End Title" is carried with a spirit of New England Americana that you would expect to hear in one of Williams' lofty concert compositions. It was obviously the composer's way of saying farewell to the concept with the undeniably triumphant tone of his own voice. Among the other aspects of note in the score for Jaws 2 is the employment of harps. In "Finding the 'Orca' (Main Title)" and "Ballet for Divers," the composer uses fluttering, rhythmic harp figures to establish an environment of mystery for the sea, arguably a motif for the wondrous underwater scenes. Although not original in concept, Williams employment of the instrument here is intelligently engrained in some of the score's best, slightly dissonant unease. For a long time, the score's only release on CD matched the composer's own LP presentation, and that 1991 product was long out of print by the time that Intrada Records provided an expanded 2015 treatment of the score that matched its definitive examination of the original Jaws the same year. An additional ten minutes of music from the film version of the score is joined by another ten of alternate takes and, on a second CD, the original album presentation. All of this is in remastered condition, the result a welcomed improvement over not only the prior album but, of course, the original Jaws score, which never made a proper stereo presentation possible. Overall, Jaws 2 is a strong sequel score that, despite its rather disappointing dumbing-down of the use of its main shark motifs, introduces enough new material to sustain itself outside the shadow of its predecessor. Its outstanding finale cue will be worth the cost of the album alone for enthusiasts of the composer, many of whom contend that this work is much more accessible on album than its more famous sibling. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1991 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 41:11
2015 Intrada Album: Total Time: 101:29
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of both albums include extensive information about the score and film,
albeit in tiny type on the 1991 Varèse product.
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