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Jaws 3-D

JAWS 3-D was a late entry in the wanning 3-D craze of the early 1980s, managing a box office take that nearly overtook that same year's RETURN OF THE JEDI. The third in the franchise, JAWS 3-D's scoring duties fell to composer Alan Parker. Not only was Parker relatively new to the blockbuster Hollywood scoring scene, but he also had a interesting challenge: "It was very daunting to try and follow John Williams, especially since they wanted me to use his famous theme," remarked Parker. Yet Parker not only met the challenge, he composed a thrilling score loaded with new themes, while providing a fresh take on Williams' shark motif. He used that instantly recognizable motif, always floating beneath new, energetic variations -- jumping back and forth from the musically familiar and Parker's own, darkly adventurous voice. One of the more striking, eerie techniques Parker uses is his use of brass and string clusters -- a piercing, low tone that creeps about the score. It's a modernistic sound that Elliot Goldenthal would later use in ALIEN 3 and INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE almost a decade later. Parker constructed a trumpeting, effervescent fanfare theme for Sea World on which he could easily switch from sunny to ominous, with a musical shark skimming just below the surface. For all the pizzaz of the Sea World theme and menace of the underwater suspense and action music, Parker's favorite part of the score is the bittersweet love theme, elegantly capturing the relationship's imperfect nature. Parker also composed a bright and colorful theme for the dolphin stars that itself could almost leap out of the water. Filled with non-stop suspense that acknowledges its parentage while managing to show unique melodic teeth of its own, JAWS 3-D stands as adventurous listen from a composer whose main ambition was to outswim a famous motif and put his own teeth mark in the ongoing saga.