Jaws: Memories from Martha's Vineyard: A Definitive Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Greatest Suspense Thriller of All Time Paperback – September 25, 2012

I have only two bits of advice for anyone thinking of readinng this book:1) Get the hardback - This book is so huge and the paper a nice heavy stock, that by the time oyu get to end of it, the wight pulls at the spine (And, yes, it is worth the $15 extra dollars!_2) If you want to purchase/read the Edith Blake or Carl Gottlieb's books, do so first - because after reading this one, you will wonder if there is anything more to know. (I only read Carl Gottlieb's - there was some overlap; I learned more about how it got made tho'.I would say even if you are not too interested in Jaws - I was into it more for nostalgia than anything - it is a GREAT book on how a movie of this types get made.I thought knowing so much about the technical aspects would detract from the movie, but it actually adds to it.To see what this crew did (professionals and locals alike), in the time they did it, without CGI - genius!Absolute.... genius!

I've had this book in my cart for years, the main reason I finally bought it was from reading the reviews, they were all very positive, and this one is also.This isn't a book about how Hollywood made the movie (that's 'The Jaws Log'), it's about how a very tight coastal community (can't get much tighter than an island) dealt with the influx of Hollywood into their quiet lives, which might sound pretty boring, but since Speilberg has a penchant for using locals for smaller parts there a lot of very cool, sweet, and funny anecdotes, not to mention photos galore.I'm not anywhere near done with this book because it's really densely packed, but I don't know if I'll ever really be done with it because I'm sure I'll look through it over and over again (and probably find new things each time).It's big, it's heavy, and if you're a Jaws fan you'll love it, if you're a making-of fan you'll love it, and if you're a fan of both you may as well click 'buy now', you won't regret it.My small nitpick is that because it is big and heavy the spine will probably crack if you attempt to lay it out too flat, the price to pay for having too much Jaws crammed into one book I guess.

This is not a traditional making-of book nor does it try to be. It's what its title indicates--memories from Martha's Vineyard--and it's great. I saw Jaws when it came out in LA (with the quickly cut estuary shots of kids getting eaten, which traumatized my twelve year old self) and was forever changed. Reading this book brought back all the innocence of those times. Not only does it present hundreds of facts and trivia about the film, along with hundreds of photos, but it also re-creates the feeling of 1974-75; the general culture, the attitudes, etc.I was not a Jaws expert before reading the book (and am still not), though I'd devoured Gottlieb's book after the film came out (and other rip off "tie-in" books), so was really happy to learn so much about the locals who played parts in front of and behind the camera; the deleted scenes; and the enormous drama around the various mechanical sharks. Without Bob Mattey and Lynn Murphy, at least as the book tells it, there would certainly be no Jaws.But no one should buy the book expecting interviews with the stars, director, or producers. Except for Joe Alves and a few other key production people, the book faithfully concentrates on telling the story of the Martha Vineyard residents--and reproduces quite a few articles from the local newspaper to nice effect by Edith Blake. But that doesn't mean Spielberg, Robert Shaw, Dreyfuss, Scheider, et al aren't there--stories are told about them and they are in quite a few behind the scenes photos, which tell their own mute but expressive stories.And there are a lot of photos--frankly, I know a few book designers who would have never let some of these photos into their books, as the photos are sometimes so bad as to be comical--but it doesn't matter. The book is like a family album and those photos play their role; and they are balanced by lots of much better photos. (My only real complaint--and something that could be fixed in reprints--is that the backgrounds behind some of the text should be ghosted for improved legibility.)But all in all, I didn't want the book to end I was having so much fun reading it. A unique book--I highly recommend it to Jaws fans but also to anyone interested in 1970s cinema and what it was like to film on real locations with real, massive, analog effects. There's nothing like them.

As an author I tend to be very picky about books, but all I can say about JAWS, Memories from Martha's Vineyard is WOW! This is a great "behind-the-scenes" expose on the making of Jaws with photos and anecdotes that you will not see or read anywhere else. Do not let the price scare you as it is worth every penny. There is even a story about "Pipit," the dog that get "taken out" early in the film. His owners fill in a brief biography of the dog and their role in the production. This would be an outstanding gift for any cinema devotee as it has stories that give life to a memorable film production.