Stormy Weather

When Brody arrives at the dock at the beginning of Chapter Fourteen, Quint is already waiting for him, "sharpening a harpoon dart on a Carborundum stone" like a latter day Queequeg. He is dressed for foul weather in "yellow oilskins" and - just to make sure we don't miss the significance of the "dark sky" - Benchley inserts a brief exchange between the police chief and the fisherman:

"Brody looked up at the scudding clouds. 'Gloomy enough.'
'Fitting,' said Quint, and he hopped aboard the boat."

Quint has brought along the carcass of a sheep as bait and Brody's remark about sacrifice is one more signifier that the shark might just be an agent of the devil. Brody is about to cast off the stern line when the Times reporter Bill Whitman drives up to the pier and tries to hitch a ride ("If you're going to catch that fish, I want to be there."). It's a curious episode, and suggests that perhaps in an earlier draft of the novel the newspaper man had a bigger role. As it is, he's left high and dry without the scoop his editor has ordered him to get. It's unlikely that he would even bag the exclusive rights to Brody's story beyond the chapter's end as these would surely go to Harry Meadows in return for his reputation-saving editorial.

The movie was filmed in bright sunlight and any shots of grey overcast skies that Verna Fields was forced to include were cleverly hidden in the editing mix. Had Jaws 2 remained true to its original premise and its original director, it might have preserved some of the original book's dark tone. In the end, the sequel dumbed down the story with teenage high jinks.