Jaws

Jaws

1975

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writer: Peter Benchley and Carl Gottieb

124

Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) has a problem. He is afraid of the water. Chief Brody has a crisis. There is a killer shark in the water. Chief Brody has a dilemma. The people of Amity want to keep the beaches open, so the town’s tourism doesn’t suffer.

But, you need this scene.

In the opening scene, a handful of teenagers are partying at the beach. They’re drinking, playing guitar, and enjoying what could be a great Memorial Day weekend. Two people, boy and girl, run off together in hopes of skinny dip in the dark ocean waters.

Excitingly, the girl strips down and jumps into the ocean. The boy, a little more intoxicated, falls to the sand and passes out. The girl treads water and waits for him. From underneath, the camera creeps in. But, you know it’s not a camera. It’s a shark.

Above water, the girl gets bumped. Then bumped again. Then pulled under. Then finally dragged side to side, back and forth, until finally Mr. Spielberg cuts to the boy lying on the beach with no clue he’s not getting laid.

Like I said, you need this scene.

You need to set the tone of the film. Here, a bunch of kids wanted to have fun, have sex, and it was ruined by a bloodthirsty shark. In the film, a community wants to enjoy the summer, make some money, and it’s ruined by their own greed and complacency. And a bloodthirsty shark.

Because in all horror films, you need that sin. You need the character(s) in the film to commit a sin. Sex before marriage, selling your soul, bad parenting, or greed are sins. And the devil (or shark) will come to collect.

What makes Jaws so incredible is that you (almost) never see the shark. The power of the unknown is scarier than knowing. In the scene above, if you had seen the shark, you’d realize you could kill it. You wouldn’t have been as scaried. But, when the shark pulls the dock away from the island, you never see the shark – you just know it has the power to destroy a dock. And even at the end, Brody harpoons orange drums into the body of the shark and you see him drag them, take them underwater, and finally get ride of them.

But you (almost) never see the shark.

And that’s because they had so many problems with the shark. One, the model of the shark was never tested in water, so when they first put it into the wawter, it sank to the ocean floor and had to be recovered. Moreso, the shark (named ‘Bruce’) was constantly malfunctioning, thus it was easier to film docks moving and drums sinking. It was an accidentally success, which a lot of great films bank on.

All in all, Jaw goes down as one scary, intense film that doesn’t disappoint. It presented a certain fear to stay out of the water and needing a bigger boat. That, combined with one kick-ass two-note soundtrack is why Jaws is an incredible piece of art.

But, how disappointed was that boy in the beginning when he woke up and realized a shark ate his easy-lay girl. Total bummer.