Final Project Jaws (1975) Directed by Steven Spielberg ART220 Introduction to Film

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1 Plot/Genre This story is about a great white shark that threatens a small beach town resort, Amity Island, during the peak of tourist season in the summertime. The Chief of police, who is originally from New York, struggles to keep the town safe suggesting they close the beaches, but receives resistance from the Mayor who is most interested in receiving profit from tourists. After several shark attacks, the Chief reaches out to an Oceanographer, who specializes in sharks, for help and eventually convinces the Mayor to sign a contract hiring a professional shark killer. Main Characters: Martin Brody Amity Police Chief Matt Hooper Oceanographer Quint Shark Hunter Minor Characters: Larry Vaughn Mayor of Amity Island Ellen Brody Wife of Martin Brody Michael Brody Son of Martin, Ellen Brody The genre of this film could be classified as a Drama, Thriller or Horror: Drama All actors in this film delivered very dramatic performances, displaying various degrees of their characters emotions and how they interact with each other. An example of this would be watching the main protagonist of the film, Martin Brody. He was afraid of 1

2 water, but overcame his fear and ended up saving the day while being in water. You also see the struggle he had with navigating through the town s bureaucracy when he was trying to close down the beaches. Thriller This film was very suspenseful and did a good job keeping the audience on their feet. You didn t get a clear picture of what the creature looked like until an hour and twentyone minutes into the film. Horror This film had a horror element to it; the shark was a monster you couldn t easily see or kill. This movie wasn t very gory, but definitely left a psychological scare on the audience and will make people think twice the next time they go for a swim in the ocean. Technical Composition In terms of production design, the film does a majority of shooting on the beach and in open water. I noticed that there weren t a lot of physical props used in these shots; however, the suspense was mostly captured in the musical sound track. If the shot was on open water, you always knew when optimism or danger was nearby. An example of this is when Brody, Hooper and Quint are on the Orca hunting the great white. Quint shoots a spear with barrels into the shark s side as a way to track its movement. When they successfully hit their target and start following the shark, the music turns up beat and optimistic. When the music stops, you know that the tone of the scene is going to change. 2

3 As for editing and direction, the story was edited in a sequence that kept the audience engaged throughout the entire movie. Below is a breakdown of the dramatic structure of the film: Exposition The tone of the movie is set-up within the first 5 minutes of the movie. The movie begins at dusk with a group of young people hanging out at a bonfire on the beach, smoking, drinking beer and playing guitar. An intoxicated male and female leave the party and run toward the water for an evening dip in the ocean. The female reaches the water first and begins to swim while the male falls and passes out on the beach. While in the water, she is attacked by a great white shark and is seen being dragged around the water screaming until she s finally pulled under. Rising action Building up to the climax, Brody is aware of the recent shark attack and tries to close down the beach, but is vetoed by the Mayor. The scene cuts to the beach and a man is playing fetch with his black lab. In parallel, a little boy is asking his mother if he could go into the water on his raft. All of a sudden, the man playing fetch is calling out to his dog but can t seem to locate him. Then you hear screams and a gush of blood and a raft grumbling in the distance. As everyone clears the water in a panic, the little boy s mother frantically looks for her son until she sees his chewed up bloody raft wash up to shore. These events result in the Mayor putting a $3k bounty on the shark. 3

4 Climax A fisherman captures a shark and the Mayor deems the waters to now be safe. Hooper cuts open the shark and determines that this isn t the shark this shark is a tiger shark and the shark they re looking for has a much bigger bite. The Mayor ignores Hooper s findings and opens the beach for the 4 th of July. People at the beach are afraid to enter the water until the Mayor encourages people to start swimming in the water which people reluctantly do. Two little boys put on a fake shark fin and terrorize the people in the water, causing a false sense of panic. Once the waters are cleared, someone spots the actual shark circling the shallow area of the beach. Brody s son Michael is wading in that part of the beach. The great white appears and has his lunch with a man on a raft boat right in front of Michael. Michael goes into shock and is rushed to the hospital. At the hospital, Brody see s the Mayor and convinces him to sign a contract to hire Quint, the shark killer. Falling action Brody, Hooper and Quint board Quint s boat, the Orca, and head out to sea. During the next few scenes, you learn that Hooper and Quint don t really get along they have a blue collar/white collar butting of the heads. Quint is a very colorful, obnoxious character who is rough around the edges. Hooper comes from money and self-finances his gadgets for his shark studies. During their first night on the boat, they all get drunk and the tension between them seems to subside as they begin comparing scars and telling stories. Quint shares that he s a World War II veteran and was in a submarine that was torpedoed in shark waters. They all start to sing a rah-rah song, pounding their fists on 4

5 the table, which alerts the shark. The boat starts to get attacked, causing an engine failure and water to leak into the boat. Denouement The shark appears and the boat is severely damaged. Quint blows the engine trying to lure the shark to shallow waters. Hooper decides to use a poisonous dart and is lowered into the water in a special shark cage, but the shark is much too powerful and destroys the cage. Hooper manages to take cover hiding on the sea floor and the shark begins going after the boat. Sadly, Quint loses balance and get s eaten alive. Brody throws a highpressure oxygen tank into the shark s mouth and manages to climb to the top of the boat as it begins to sink. He grabs a rifle and shoots the oxygen tank inside of the shark s mouth, causing it to explode and ultimately kill the shark. Hooper resurfaces and he and Brody safely paddle back to shore. Role in History The story of Jaws is based off of a book written about real life shark attacks that occurred on Martha s Vineyard, the real location of Amity Island. The film itself is considered one of Hollywood s first blockbuster movies due to the amount of revenue generated during a time when film s usually tanked in Hollywood, i.e., summertime. Originally the shark, named Bruce, had a lot of mechanical malfunctions resulting in less on-screen time which almost resulted in Steven Spielberg quitting the picture. It ended up being a blessing in disguise as it allowed Spielberg to take more of an Alfred Hitchcock angle of the movie by waiting to show the shark at the end. 5

6 Release/Reception Universal Studios spent $1.8M promoting Jaws, which included TV advertisements and endorsements for the original book to gain audience interest. This film also generated the most amount of merchandise, i.e., T-shirts, toy sharks, games, etc., than any other movie at that time. On opening weekend, the studio recouped all production costs within the first two weeks and earned over $100M. It was the highest grossing film until Star Wars in Since Jaws was released, it has paved the way for other movies about sharks, including sequels 2 4, like Deep Blue Sea, the Shallows, Open Water, and Soul Surfer to name a few. Conclusion I chose Jaws to challenge myself on this assignment. A movie like the Godfather or the Graduate would have a lot of dimensions to write about, but Jaws seemed a little flat by comparison. I had seen the movie about 20 years ago and didn t remember anything super pivotal other than the suspense from the soundtrack. I was surprised how easy it was for me to follow the narrative formula of the movie as I was watching, looking out for queues building up to the climax, and paying attention to the use of sound and set design and how it plays into the narrative. I also never realized that the shark wasn t on screen until the end of the movie. I think by adding some anonymity to the villain is what made this film a success. 6

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