Customer Reviews

Jaws 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have always felt that the great John Williams was on a roll from 1975 through 1984. From Jaws to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, you ABSOLUTELY could not find a film composer with a greater talent for motifs than good ol' Johnny Williams. Jaws 2's soundtrack is right smack in the middle of this awesome run of heavily-thematic scores, and is a fine example of Williams' talent.

What is most interesting to me regarding "Jaws 2" is that the score, unlike the film, surpasses the original score, much like "The Empire Strikes Back" surpassed "Star Wars." When listening, you get the feeling that he was genuinely enjoying himself. Once that surprise settles in, you'll begin to catch tidbits of phrases that had just appeared in Close Encounters, and the brassy bits hint at what is to come with the Indiana Jones scores. It's all here; a sort of cross-section of Williams' prime era canon. The "Menu" theme occasionally sounds like Lex Luthor's Theme from the then-upcoming Superman film, and, strangest of all, for all of you diehard Williams fans (and I am one),the Main Theme from Jaws 2 sounds VERY much like Christian Bale's character's theme from "Empire of the Sun," which was released in 1987! Take a moment, think about it, it will click!

The one tragic thing about this score is that, for most fans, it is unaccessible. Having a limited release, if you weren't among the few who knew of its existence, then you were stuck in that unfortunate boat, the same one in which many listeners who search for Williams' "Dracula" score find themselves in: you're just floating out there, with a bunch of greedy, slimy collector scum who picked all of the copies up and are now charging RIDICULOUS prices for the cd. They circle the boat, with their little dorsal fins out, waiting for you to bite the bullet and give in to their outrageous demands. To illustrate this, I actually had to pick up an old LP version on Ebay in order to finally hear this nice score. I only spent three bucks.

What would be excellent is if a two-disc set could be released, disc one being Jaws, and disc two being Jaws 2. Unfortunately, since this film didn't have Spielberg's name plastered on it, it's always been the red-headed stepchild, and the soundtrack has been cajoled along with it. The score does not deserve to be forgotten; I tell you, Williams is in his prime here, on this soundtrack.

Good luck to all of you out there, in finding a copy for a decent price. I got lucky, with a bit of a compromise. But at least I got to enjoy the great music.

A superior score to a movie which has been, in my opinion, needlessly villified--the director pretty obviously loved the original film and did his best to create a homage to the elements within it, successfully in my opinion. Not quite so successfully as James Cameron did with Ridley Scott's _Alien_; but then again Cameron has his own pretensions and happened to be talented enough to cash the checks his ego was writing. <G> I detected only a fondness and respect for the first film, in the story-structure and directorial aspects of the second film. They make for a good bookend piece.

None of which says anything about this score, but it seems normal to review the movie too, when talking about this score.<G>

In short, this is more pure John Williams, expounding and developing thematic material which he designed for the first movie. Is it superior to the first movie's score? I don't think so, but it stands very well on its own merits. (The disc is, admittedly, superior to the hack-job of the official soundtrack to the first movie; but then again, it also takes its tracks entirely out of sequence. On the other hand, there are useful and informative liner notes within the jacket, which also help put the music back in its proper order.)

The original JAWS music, while brilliantly effective in the film, was a somewhat empty listening experience. It was simple, moody music, with only one thing going on at any one time.

JAWS 2 is more of an action score, with more excitement and layered themes than the original. The moments before the attacks are not just suspenseful, the are actually creepy; dark and chilling, more like what Speilberg himself was expecting at first before Williams gave him the main theme. There are more attacks in this film, and they are more choreographed and spectacular, which works much better as far as music goes, giving the music more time to build, develope, and explode.

And as one reviewer mentioned, none of the tracks sound the same, which is true. While most of the attacks contain the main 2-note theme somewhere in them, they are rich in action and tension, with the horns and strings and percussion all doing their own thing but working beautifully together, much like the best of David Arnold's action music. And they are all remarkably different from one piece of music to the other.

So while JAWS 2 was an inferior movie, its more conventional, spectacular, action-driven approach makes for a far more exciting and reccommendable score.

First off, I thought Jaws 2 was a decent movie. I mean, there wasn't really anything that BAD about it. Some people say that the finale was a little unbelievable, tricking the shark into biting an electrical cable. But then, is it that realistic to ram an air tank down a shark's throat with your bare hands, and shoot a hole into it from a great distance, while the shark's mouth is half submerged? But that's getting off track.

I personally, thought that the musical score for Jaws 2 was in everyway as good as the original score. And one thing that I noticed, that I liked a great deal, was that the music for each track, in which the shark is on the attack, sounded COMPLETLEY different than all of the ones before it. The water kite sequence sounded NOTHING like the attack on the waterskier, or the helicoper, or even eddie's death. They were all very distinct, and didn't tend to overuse that famous string of high and low beats like the first jaws did.

I think that John William's truley perfected his work with the score for Jaws 2. And I'm glad that he returned to do it. And there's no better way to appreciate it than to hear it on CD! The music is crystal clear, and uncut. If you already own the original score for Jaws, do yourself a favour and get this one as well. It would make a great additon to any Jaws or John William's colleciton.

This very hard-to-find soundtrack is a gem! Far superior to the original 'Jaws' soundtrack in almost every way, it builds on the original 2-tone theme that signalled trouble - the arrival of the shark. Whereas the first film's score was somewhat limited & moody, this one involves more action music, not unlike 'Superman' (released the same year) and 'Star Wars' (the year before). Williams seems to have a formula he followed closely for the film scores he wrote between '77 and '89, and this one was no exception. Even as a predominantly action score, he manages to weave creepy, suspenseful elements into it in tracks such as 'Attack on the Water Skier', 'Fire Aboard & Eddie's Death', and 'Finding the Orca', which hinted a little at Quint's theme from the first one. I was lucky enough to find this CD about 5 years ago, and for the sake of movie score lovers, I hope Varese Sarabande will re-release it!

I believe Williams surpassed his score for "Jaws" with the original score for the 1978 sequel. I've heard few (if any) scores as musically evocative as this one. Williams flirts with brilliance again and again -- and occasionally misses altogether -- but with "Jaws 2" he absolutely could not have done better. This score should be at the top of any Williams collector or soundtrack aficianado.

Williams created a whole new score for this somewhat soggy sequel to the classic thriller. The beautiful underwater melodies are sprinkled with the classic JAWS shark theme, as if the boisterous boating music that underscores the teenagers doomed frolic. Not a classic, but still a wonderful soundtrack. Holds up well today.

This is equally as compelling as the original score. How sad then to see that heaps of the films music was missing on the soundtrack and the version we have is all out of order. Why the music industry do this is bizzare enough but its long overdue a revamp AKA Jaws, close encounters, Superman etc.

John Williams truly delivers here. While the movie certainly isn't quite as compelling as the original JAWS, the score is brilliant. Some of Williams' most evocative work is to be found on this soundtrack. If you can find this CD, it's worth the few bucks you'll spend on it.

This soundtrack took sometime for me to decide to buy after I saw the film. I listen to it all the time now! My favorite tracks are 2 and 4. I admit that the music wasn't enough for an oscar, but it should've at least have been nominated. Thank God that Jeannot Szwarc had got John back, because every other good actor besides Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton, were not there, and who else would there be to make the film exciting. Other composers in the Jaws trilogy have failed to add suspense to the film. The last Jaws film could only adapt the music and it still was not good enough. John Williams is the only man who could do the Jaws film.