VOTD: Learn The Differences Between 'Jaws' And The Book That Inspired It

Jaws is one of the most well known movies of all time, right down to the iconic theme music composed by John Williams. However, there are likely plenty among general audiences out there who don't know that the 1975 thriller directed by Steven Spielberg was based on a book by Peter Benchley. The book is also called Jaws, but there are quite a few differences between the book and what ended up on the big screen.

See the Jaws movie compared to the book after the jump.

There are some minor changes such as the name of the young girl who is killed by the shark at the beginning of the movie, but there are also some huge changes to the plot and characters. For example, Steven Spielberg went out of his way to make the main characters in the movie much more likeable than they are in the book. Otherwise, people would have been rooting for the shark to tear these people apart.

In addition, there's a whole subplot regarding Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and his wife (Lorraine Gary) arguing a lot, leading the latter to have an affair with Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) due to being unhappy in her marriage, having given up life as a New York socialite to come live in this dinky little beach town. That would have certainly changed the dynamic of the characters on screen, but it probably would have been distracting from the more pressing matter at hand.

There are plenty more differences between the movie and the book which are explained in the video, but if you really want to get all the details, you should just read the book yourself and watch the movie again.