In addition to being the first-ever summer blockbuster, that would’ve made Alfred Hitchcock proud.
The story of a 25-foot great white shark terrorizing a small island town is anchored by Martin Brody, the local police chief, played by Roy Scheider. Chief Brody is a quintessential protagonist, while the shark is as classic a movie monster as Godzilla or the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Brody: He’s An Everyman
As a family man who just wants to do his job without ruffling too many feathers, Martin Brody is a quintessential everyman. Any viewer can relate to him because he strives to do the right thing.
When Hooper and Quint start showing off their scars onboard the Indianapolis, Brody’s one little scar pales in comparison to his shipmates’ multitude of gruesome wounds.
The Shark: John Williams’ Theme Alone Conjures Up A Vivid Image
When Steven Spielberg first heard the director thought it was a joke because the composition was so simple.
But simplicity is the key to its success. The tense sounds of Williams’ theme alone conjure up a vivid image of an advancing bloodthirsty 25-foot great white in the audience’s head.
Brody: He’s Flawed
Although he’s a traditional hero in his desire to do the right thing and protect the people of Amity Island, Chief Brody also has plenty of flaws to make him compelling and human.
He smokes like a chimney; he’s struggling to fit into a small seaside town after years in the city; he’s got a phobia of water, owing to the fact that he nearly drowned as a child; he’s forced to confront his biggest fear when he’s faced with an adversary at sea.
The Shark: It’s A Familiar Terror
Great white sharks are already terrifying. They’re ruthless hunters with razor-sharp teeth whose eyes go fully black when they’re in killing mode. Spielberg dialed up the familiar terror of a great white shark by doubling its size and adding humans to its diet.
Unfortunately, the movie became such a cultural phenomenon that its vilification of sharks ended up tarnishing public perception of a generally majestic species.
Brody: He’s Brilliantly Contrasted With Hooper And Quint
While the premise of Jaws makes it seem like the movie is about a shark, it isn’t really about a shark. The shark is just there to get three very different characters on a boat together in the middle of the ocean.
The other of Jaws’ central trio, oceanographer Matt Hooper and gruff shark hunter Sam Quint, each offer a stark counterpoint to Brody, particularly the latter.
The Shark: It Doesn’t Upstage The Human Characters
The mark of a strong monster movie is human characters that the audience can actually care about. If it doesn’t have that, then its only appeal is a scary monster. The Host is an example of a monster movie that nailed this; Godzilla: King of the Monsters is an example of one that didn’t.
In Jaws, as captivating as the shark is, it doesn’t upstage the human characters. Brody’s interactions with Hooper, Quint, Ellen, and Mayor Vaughn are just as crucial and enthralling as his interactions with the shark.
Brody: Roy Scheider Was Perfectly Cast
Steven Spielberg didn’t want to cast any big stars in Jaws, because he felt that relative unknowns would make the reality of the story more immersive. Instead of casting an A-lister like Robert Redford or Charlton Heston to play the hero of Jaws, Spielberg chose Roy Scheider, who was then primarily known for playing second fiddle to stars like Donald Sutherland in Klute and Gene Hackman in The French Connection.
Scheider exudes the everyman quality that Brody needed and is more than likable enough for viewers to root for him all the way.
The Shark: It’s A Modern-Day Moby Dick
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is one of the greatest novels ever written. Readers can find any metaphor they want in Captain Ahab’s desperation to kill the white whale that’s been terrorizing him.
Peter Benchley’s Jaws, the book the movie was based on, recontextualized this story to follow a police chief’s quest to vanquish a great white from his seaside town.
Brody: The Shark Isn’t His Real Enemy
The shark isn’t Brody’s enemy; it’s a force of nature tearing through the residents of Amity Island. Mayor Vaughn is the one who puts those residents in danger by refusing to close the beach and encouraging people to go swimming. Brody’s real adversary is bureaucratic red tape.
When Alex Kintner is eaten by the shark and his grieving mother slaps Brody for letting it happen, he decides to go out into the ocean and get rid of the shark once and for all, standing defiantly in the face of heartless, ineffectual government.
The Shark: It’s Only On-Screen For Four Minutes
Throughout Jaws’ two-hour runtime, the shark only appears on-screen for a collective four minutes. It was supposed to show up a lot more, but behind-the-scenes problems with the mechanical shark forced Spielberg to get creative and use dislodged decking and harpooned flotation barrels as stand-ins for the shark, dragging them across the surface of the ocean.
The limited screen time of the shark contributed to the Hitchcockian tension of Spielberg’s filmmaking. In most scenes, the viewer has to picture the shark in their head, which is much scarier.
