Jaws

Jaws

Released: 1975

MPAA Rating: PG

Genre: Predatory Animal

Nuts and Bolts: The small New England hamlet of Amity Island is thrown into chaos when two people are discovered to have been killed by a twenty-five foot great white shark. Police Chief Brody, along with a shark hunter and an oceanographer, must do everything he can to stop this marine killer.

Summary: A group of teenagers are partying by a night-time campfire on South Beach off the coast of Amity Island in New England. One of the partiers, Chrissie Watkins decides to go for a swim. Her drunken boyfriend tries to follow after her, but passes out on the sands of the beach. Chrissie swims out to a buoy and is attacked by an unseen underwater menace. After being pulled about the water for a few turns, the screaming bather sinks beneath the waves.

The following day, the drunken teen reports the events to local police. Chrissie Watkins body washes ashore and her remains are left in the care of Police Chief Martin Brody. Although he’s not positive, he suspects that her death may be the result of a shark attack. He orders Deputy Hendricks to post CLOSED signs on all of the beaches.

News of the beach closings reaches the ears of Mayor Larry Vaughn. Vaughn explains to Brody that Amity needs summer dollars to survive and that closing the beaches will cripple the island’s economy. With the right amount of spin doctoring by the Mayor and Chief Medical Examiner, Chrissie Watkins death is now considered to be the result of a boating accident. The beaches remain open.

The following day, Brody sets up a watch on the beach in case anything suspicious should occur. Little Alex Kintner takes his raft out into the water and is attacked and eaten by a shark. Brody commands everyone out of the water and the beach is shut down for the rest of the day.

An emergency town council meeting is immediately called and it is here we learn that Alex’s mother is posting a $3,000 dollar reward for the capture of the shark that killed her son. When asked what measures are being taken to ensure safety, Brody explains that he intends on closing down all the beaches. Vaughn pulls rank on him and amends the decision. Beaches will only be closed for twenty-four hours.

As the city council erupts into a flare of controversy, we meet the sailor known as Quint. Quint is a middle-aged Scottish salt-of-the-sea. He proposes that he will accept the $3000 dollar bounty for finding the shark, but he will catch and kill him for no less than $10,000 dollars.

The following day, fishermen from all over New England sail down anxious to earn the reward money. Brody goes into the Harbor Office where he meets Matt Hooper from the Oceanographic Institute. Matt is a pragmatic scientist who has little tolerance for leatherneck working class heroes. The two head towards the ME’s office to view the remains of Chrissie Watkins. Hooper knows immediately that her death was not caused by a boating accident.

Meanwhile, a group of fishermen have captured a twelve foot tiger shark. The entire community breathes a sigh of relief as they believe the waters around Amity to be safe again. Brody and Hooper go to the dock to inspect the find. Upon a cursory examination, Hooper concludes that there is no way that this could be the shark that killed Chrissie Watkins and Alex Kintner.

Later that night, Hooper stops at the Brody home for dinner. After several glasses of wine, the two decide to perform an autopsy on the tiger shark to confirm whether or not it is indeed the one they are after. They soon discover that the captured shark is not the one they are looking for. Heavily inebriated, the two decide to take Hooper’s boat out to look for the animal.

They come upon the remains of a vessel owned by fisherman Ben Gardner. Hooper scuba dives to inspect the debris and finds Gardner’s shredded corpse floating in one of the lower cabins. He also finds a tooth imbedded in the hull which tells him that the shark they are looking for is actually a great white. The two try to plead their case to Vaughn, but the Mayor is adamant about keeping the beaches open. It is the weekend of July 4th and he fully intends for it to be most lucrative summer ever.

The following day, Brody has coast guard boats patrolling the waters. He himself maintains a steady vigil as tourists begin frolicking about the water. The citizens of Amity receive a great scare when a shark’s fin is sighted a few yards off the beach. The coast guard vessels quickly converge on the scene but it turns out to only be two boys swimming in a cardboard fin made to look like a shark.

Just as everyone begins to relax, Brody is alerted to some trouble brewing in a nearby estuary. A shark is sighted in the same area of pond water where Brody’s own son Michael is playing. Racing down there, he is too late to stop the great white from eating Michael’s boating instructor. Staring directly into the animal’s eyes, Michael falls into a state of shock.

The following day, Brody gets the authorization from Vaughn to charter Quint to kill the shark. Despite his fear of water, Brody decides to attend the expedition. Matt Hooper comes along as ballast chief and he loads oxygen canisters and an anti-shark cage aboard Quint’s ship the Orca.

The three set off from the harbor and begin chumming for sharks. Quint and Hooper find themselves constantly at odds with one another. Hooper uses state of the art technology while Quint prefers the old tried and true methods of sharking.

Before long, something snags along Quint’s fishing line. Hooper doubts that it’s a shark, but Quint wrestles with it anyway. Before anyone can identify it, the line is bitten in two. They set the Orca out another five miles and Brody resumes the duty of scooping chum. While the others have their backs turned, Brody sees the shark rear up out of the water. Aghast, he suggests to Quint that they radio the mainland and acquire a bigger boat.

Hooper strings up some floating kegs while Quint readies his spear gun. The shark comes around for another pass and Quint fires a harpoon into its flank. Two barrels spiral off the boat into the water. The shark submerges itself and heads away from the Orca.

As day turns to night, the three find no more evidence of the shark. They go down into the lower cabin to exchange stories as well as shots of brandy. As the night carries on, the shark returns and rams the Orca. Snapping to attention, they scramble to put out fires caused by the damaged motor. Quint appears dockside and spears the shark a second time. Brody unloads his .44 into it, but to no avail.

Hooper decides that the only way they are going to stop the shark is by tranquilizing it. Brody and Quint lower Hooper down into the waters with his anti-shark cage. The shark appears and quickly tears through the cage. Hooper manages to stab it with the tranquilizer before seeking shelter behind some coral.

The shark surfaces again and begins chewing its way through the Orca. As the ship begins to sink, Quint’s body is thrown forward. The shark latches on to Quint and bites him in half. Not content with merely eating Quint, it then comes after Brody. Brody shoves a canister of compressed air into its gaping mouth and then begins ascending the mast.

As the Orca begins to slip beneath the waves, the shark turns around for a final charge. Brody, armed with a rifle steadies himself on the mast. As the shark lunges one final time, Brody fires into its mouth. The bullet hits the compressed air canister and the shark explodes. Hooper returns to the surface and the two begin paddling to shore.

Acting/Dialogue: Both Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss along with the late Robert Shaw put forth some of the best performances of their careers here. The dialogue is organic and flows naturally between the characters. There is no room left for doubt that these guys ARE their characters. They were truly born for these roles. Scheider, Dreyfuss and Shaw each represent a different aspect of the overwhelming super-ego that feeds into the collective Ahab persona of the group. Scheider is effective as the practical able-bodied police chief whose primary concern is to keep the people of Amity safe. Shaw expertly slips right into the role of Quint, the obsessed hunter that has a hands-on pedigree of life at sea. If indeed Quint represents the Captain Ahab of the group, then Richard Dreyfuss is most definitely Starbuck. As Matt Hooper, Dreyfuss plays the studious oceanographer that is constantly in a state of humble awe when faced with the reality that this shark represents. The surrounding cast all deliver as well and each one brings their own blend of spices to this big ole pot of shark stew.

Gore: There is not a great amount of gore, but we receive the prerequisite dosage one would expect from a film about a killer shark. We see part of an autopsy from the first victim including a severed arm. We see magazine photos depicting survivors of real life shark attacks, scars and all. We find the pickled corpse of Ben Gardner floating around with only one eye. And last but not least, we get to see Captain Quint get chewed in half by the shark.

Guilty Pleasures: In the beginning we can almost see the shadowed out nipple of victim Chrissie Watkins. This is probably more of a trick of the camera supplemented by our own imaginations however. The MPAA was pretty stern in regards to nudity back in 75 so we are left to deal with this darkened teaser.

The Good: Jaws is a film that satisfies on every level. What makes a movie like this so compelling is that it is projected to us completely within the framework of feasible reality. Although some aspects of the film may run into the extremes, it is still every bit believable. By not abusing the audience’s suspension of disbelief, the intrinsic horror of such a film remains palpable and accessible. The more real you make something, the more it terrifies us. Film audiences are not likely to be scared by rotting zombies or blood-slurping vampires, and that is because such creatures don’t exist. No matter how horrifying a film may seem, there is still that rational nudging in the back of our minds that tells us, “It’s okay. It’s not real.” But Jaws throws the horror genre into an entirely new perspective. The threat level in this film is very real and it is a reality that read about in newspapers every day. Unlike other horror movie icons, the shark is not the sort to only seek out libidinous whores or drunken rabble-rousers. It kills indiscriminately. As the audience, we know that none of us are ever truly safe.

Director Steven Spielberg uses an often-imitated Horror movie trick known as the ‘less is more’ formula. Since the killer in this particular film spends the bulk of its time underwater, we have only our imagination to rely upon as to exactly where he is or how close he is to his next meal. Although Spielberg intended to showcase more scenes with the shark itself, the final product allows us to see things from the shark’s point of view. (I wonder why they didn’t use a FISH-EYE lens for those scenes?)

There are a lot of really great moments spliced throughout the course of this movie. Spielberg immediately reels us in with the opening prologue, which sets the stage for the rest of the film. Drunken girl goes swimming and becomes a sea biscuit. From there everything else gradually falls into place. Brody is immediately primed up as a likeable character as he is set at odds with the overly opportunistic Mayor who is actually more of a shark than the one swimming in the ocean. The bulk of the film is from Brody’s perspective and we get to see him practically drowning in the claustrophobic sea of paranoia that seems to wash over the entire island. (Okay, have I inserted an ample amount of aqua-puns in here yet?) One of my favorite scenes takes place in the second half of the movie. The boyos take a break from shark hunting and go down into the Orca’s cabin to get shit-faced. Some male bonding takes place and there’s a lot of testosterone and male posturing levied back and forth. Quint begins to tell the story of the USS Indianapolis and the audience becomes completely riveted to the screen. Through a haze of drunken mannerisms, Quint tells a tale that winds up being more captivating than the main plot of the picture. The group falls in to singing old sailing songs until the shark (tired of being upstaged) begins tearing at the sides of the boat, reminding everyone who the REAL star of this movie is.

Jaws features what is probably the single most recognizable film score in movie history. Before moving on to do his equally legendary work in Star Wars, composer John Williams tacked out the repeating staccato keystrokes that we have all come to know as the Jaws theme. Although the music lacks any sort of complexity, it succeeds in invoking a feeling of suspense and an overwhelming sense of dread. The characters seem to react to the music and as such, the music reacts to the characters as well. Williams’ score is paced at just the right tempo and as we see the anxiety settling in over Chief Brody’s face we hear the pace of the music speeding up to match him.

More than anything else, Jaws must be recognized as a trendsetter. It established the concept of the summer blockbuster and it created a distinctly new sub-genre to Horror/Drama cinema. Twenty-five years later and we are still seeing films about predatory animals attacking hapless victims from the wild. What sets Jaws apart from most other horror films however is that it takes place almost entirely in the daylight. All of the scenes are bright and sunny with white light reflecting off crisp blue water. Hell, I have to wear my sunglasses just to talk about it. It’s easy to get pulled into the undertow of a movie like this. Growing up in a beach community, I can easily relate to the environment. As you watch it, you can practically smell the salt air coming off the ocean.

Although the movie was made over twenty-seven years ago, Jaws remains a true timeless classic and is just as captivating today as it was in 1975.

The Bad: If there is one downside to this film, it would have to be the mis-casting. And what I mean by that is, they should have cast shittier actors. As we become enraptured by the performances of the three males leads, we tend to forget that the star of the film is actually 3,000 pounds worth of head-chomping frenzy. The shark itself almost becomes a supporting cast member and it’s easy to forget that he’s even around as we are lulled in to Quint’s drunken revival tale of life on the USS Indianapolis.

The character of Quint can be a bit difficult to understand at times as well. Through most of the flick, Shaw has him barking about in a sharp Scottish brogue intermingled with slurred vocabulary, regionalized colloquialisms, and dangling participles. At times you really have to perk your ears up to catch everything that he is saying and even then most of it comes off as being incomprehensible.

Oh yeah, and who in the name of Jabber Jaws goes clothes shopping for Mayor Vaughn? This clown preens about wearing pinstriped purple and pink leisure suits! The ultimate fashion victim, we now know what Captain Kangaroo would be like after shooting up three grams worth of grade A heroin.

Great Lines:

“Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu you ladies of Spain. For we received orders for to sail back to Boston. And soon never more will we see you again.” --Quint singing.

“You're gonna need a bigger boat.” --Brody after seeing the size of the shark.

“The thing about a shark, it's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When it comes at you it doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites you, and those black eyes roll over white.” --Quint describing the shark.

“Martin, it's all psychological. You yell `barracuda!', everybody says `huh, what?'. You yell `shark!' and we've got a panic on our hands on the fourth of July.” --Mayor Vaughn talking to Brody.

“It's only an island if you look at it from the water.” --Brody answering Hooper’s query as to why a man who hates water lives on an island.

“Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinny and Delailie, we'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the squares in the old calendars like the Battle o' Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosun's mate. I thought he was asleep, Reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. Three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the twenty-ninth, nineteen-forty five. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.” --Quint describing his time aboard the USS Indianapolis.

Overall Rating: 10 out of 10 severed heads.

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