Like any great movie, a nip here and a tuck there usually improves the pacing and moves the story along. Tear away too much, though, and you end up taking out the small details that make something truly great. Such is the case with the documentary included on Universal's 25h Anniversary Edition of JAWS, that has been shortened by over an hour from its original laserdisc incarnation to fit neatly along with the movie, all on one disc. Comparing the two versions, they really are quite similar in overall content, so it's pretty much the small details that have been removed from the short version that end up making it a broader look at the making of Spielberg's shark epic than the original.

Here's some of what's missing from the "new and improved" shorter version:

• A brief discussion of shooting the underwater opening POV shots, only to discover that the filmmakers had in fact 20 minutes of very visible "beaver" shots of actress Susan Backlinie that had to be darkened to hide the naughty bits.
   
• Spielberg's explanation of two scenes exclusive to the draft of the script that he wrote himself, neither of which made it to the screen:
   
  The first is a different introduction to the Quint with the grizzled fisherman watching Moby Dick at the local theater and laughing out loud (ala CAPE FEAR) at the absurdity of it all. One of the reasons that it never made it to film was Gregory Peck's refusal to let the filmmaker use the footage because he wasn't that proud of it.
   
  The other abandoned scene was to have the harbor master watching DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER while in window behind him, we would see the masts of lined up boats begin to wave back and forth one after another to indicate that the shark was swimming directly underneath them. This scene, when it was deemed too difficult to shoot technically, was replaced by the "roast on a hook" scene that does appear in the film.
   
• There are wonderful stories about the late Robert Shaw and his seriously competitive, but ultimately professional, nature that are missing in the new version. A story is told of a day when Shaw was extremely ill on the set and barely had enough energy to get out the line, "Hooper you idiot, ain't you watchin' where you're going?" and pretty much collapsing as soon as Spielberg yelled cut. Richard Dreyfuss also talks at length of his competitive nature and how they didn't always get along on set...
   
• The "Discovery of Chrissie" scene and the hand that is shown is a topic of discussion with the film's effects crew creating what would have been appropriate looking from a realistic standpoint but an effect that Spielberg just thought looked fake. He opted to simply shoot someone's real hand sticking out of the ground because it looked better to him. Not more accurate, just better. At one point, Spielberg headed to the producer's office to quit as director. Knowing that the director was about to give up the ship, producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck quickly threw on JAWS T-shirts before his arrival and abruptly interrupted him when he entered with praise of how great a job Spielberg was doing on the film.
   
• Spielberg talks about the test screenings that were held and goes into more detail about reshooting the Ben Gardner head in the boat scene. He discloses various ways that the shot was altered and the deciding factor in the used shot. After telling how that first scream with the new shot was now louder than the scream they got in the first test screening when the shark first appears out of the water, that shark appearance only received half the scream that they got at their first screening. Spielberg reasons that the audience didn't trust him after the first jolt and were ready for something to happen when the second scream came around.
   
• The end of the film differed from the book with the shark simply getting caught up in cables and drowning. Spielberg changed the ending to get the audience on its feet cheering. Author Peter Benchley disagreed with the decision though and told the director that it was a preposterous end that simply wouldn't happen. Missing here is a short admission by the author that Spielberg was absolutely correct in his decision to change the ending.
   
• An entire section on the rating of JAWS is missing that involves the film's original R rating. The producers argued that the violence was nature and that impressionable children were not going to run out after the movie and imitate the behavior of the shark. A few frames of the severed leg did have to be removed though in order to secure the PG rating that the film eventually got.

Finally, a major main omission from the new documentary are the individual chapter stops that were included on the laserdisc. Each section had its own chapter for direct access, but the DVD documentary has no direct access points. Each section started with a title card and music that are sorely missed here.