The sons of police chief Brody must protect civilians at a Sea World theme park after a 35-foot shark becomes trapped in the park with them.
As the franchise shifts from the 70’s to the 80’s we see it take up on a huge commercial gimmick.
Yes the 80’s saw “Jaws” go 3D, just like many films did during the decade. It was a hugely popular commercial gimmick for it’s time that was a sure fire money maker so it’s no surprise how many 3D films there where during this time and it’s no surprise that the “Jaws” franchise got caught up in it all.
In my opinion the film sounds good on paper but it actually all came about as a joke. David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck, producers of the first two films, originally pitched this as a spoof, based on a suggestion by Matty Simmons and John Hughes. Titled “National Lampoon’s Jaws 3, People 0”, Joe Dante was attached as director. Steven Spielberg rejected the idea and threatened to walk from his deal with Universal. When Zanuck and Brown learned of the rejection, they quit the studio.
Watching the film these days can seem a bit of a chore but I remember it terrifying me as a child, so much so that I flat out refused a visit to a Sea Life centre here in the UK incase a shark got through the glass, a thought that funnily enough still sticks with me. The 3D itself is truly very awful and ruins the otherwise fun nature of the film.
The films cast is quite good and includes a young Dennis Quaid, not tat he remembers, In an interview years later Dennis Quaid was asked about this film and answered “I was in Jaws what?”. This is also the only film ever directed by Joe Alves, take of that what you will.
“Jaws 3” isn’t a scratch on the first two films but it’s good for what it is, which is campy, outdated fun.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
According to the book “Roy Scheider: a film biography” (2002) by Diane C. Kachmar, Scheider, who starred in the first two Jaws movies, once said, “Mephistopheles….couldn’t talk me into doing [it]…They knew better than to even ask”. Reportedly, Scheider agreed to make Blue Thunder (1983) in order to ensure that he was definitely and contractually unavailable for this film. Scheider had made Jaws 2 (1978) reluctantly due to a contract issue with Universal Studios whereby he owed the studio two films after withdrawing from The Deer Hunter (1978). To get out of this situation, he opted to make to do Jaws 2 (1978), a picture he didn’t want to work on, in exchange for the studio releasing him from his contract.
Lea Thompson’s feature film debut.
The shark was 35 feet long, 10 feet longer than previous films.
Actress Lorraine Gary starred in three of the four “Jaws” films. This movie is the only one that she does not appear. It is also arguably the only one that Roy Scheider does not appear, given the fact that he appeared in the first two films, and the fourth, Jaws: The Revenge (1987), but in the latter only via the inclusion of a framed photograph, and archive footage used for flashbacks.
The film made $13,422,500 in its first weekend of release. At the time, that was the highest grossing opening for a 3-D film, it wouldn’t be until 20 years later when Spy Kids 3-D Game Over broke that record ($33,417,739).
This is the only Jaws movie in which the shark’s death occurs in the deep, and not on the ocean surface.
There wouldn’t be another fictional feature 3D shark movie after this film until 2011, when Shark Night 3D (2011) debuted.
In later interviews, writer Richard Matheson claimed that the film was bedeviled with script doctors that ruined the central premise of a white shark swimming upstream and becoming trapped in a lake.
Although most scenes in this film were actually shot in Sea World, where the film takes place, some environments depicted in the film do not exist at the actual theme park.
In 1982, Mickey Rooney was rumored to be starring in this movie.
This sequel did not use any actors from the first two Jaws movies, Jaws (1975) and Jaws 2 (1978).
The movie was part of an early 1980s cycle of 3D movies that also included Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985), Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983), Jaws 3-D (1983), Parasite (1982), Amityville 3-D (1983), Comin’ at Ya! (1981), Friday the 13th Part III (1982), Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983) and Treasure of the Four Crowns (1983).
The movie was directed by Joe Alves who had been the production designer on Jaws (1975) and Jaws 2 (1978) and was also the second unit director for on the latter. Trade paper ‘Variety’ said “Joe Alves was instrumental in the design of the first Jaws shark and was the unsung production hero in both the first two pictures”.
Veteran editor Verna Fields, who won an Oscar for editing the first film, recommended Joe Alves as director.
Actor Louis Gossett Jr. previously co-starred in Peter Benchley’s The Deep (1977). Gossett’s appearance in Jaws 3-D (1983), the second sequel to Benchley’s Jaws (1975), gave Gossett two star appearances in Benchley related movies.
One of several “third films” released in 3-D in the early eighties. The others include Friday the 13th Part III (1982) and Amityville 3-D (1983).
Dan Blasko is one of the animal trainers who helped train the dolphins, whales, and other animals.
The name of the new attraction at SeaWorld was “The Undersea Kingdom”.
The female Dolphin who called Sandy in the movie is really a male dolphin named Capricorn. He currently lives in Discovery Cove which is owned by Sea world and has interactions with guests like giving them rides and doing tricks for them. Capricorn is 50 years old.
In 1982, Universal won a lawsuit against the makers of The Last Shark (1981) for stealing ideas from the previous Jaws films. The film was withdrawn from theaters. Jaws 3 borrowed ideas from the film, namely: the length of the shark (35 feet), and the shark hunter in the mouth with bombs attached and someone else detonating them.
All the appliances seen in the film’s interior shots were Sears Kenmore-branded. However, this was not intentional.
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