Jaws: Smiling for the Camera

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2020)

Being scary often means going outside the bounds of concrete reality. It means making something mysterious or otherworldly to attack the irrational corners of the audience's primitive instincts. Michael Meyers, Leatherface, and Pyramid Head are all excellent examples of humans or humanoid creatures that frighten us with their ambiguity. However, there is one movie that manages to truly communicate horror of the unknown in a way unlike any other. That movie is Jaws.
Jaws is often considered the first modern summer blockbuster and the first mainstream shark movie. Due to that awful legacy, it's easy to forget what an impressive movie Jaws really is. There's a lot to go over, so here's the basics.
The story centers around a New England summer resort town that suffers several vicious shark attacks within days of each other. And during tourist season, no less! After a community panic, an oceanographer, a blue-collar seafarer, and a yuppie police chief all board a small boat to hunt and kill the great white shark terrorising their town. Also, for simplicity's sake, I'll mostly be calling the shark "Bruce" from now on.
One thing you'll need to know for viewing is that this movie is a slow burn. Most of it is the conflict between Police Chief Brody trying to shut the beach down and the mayor and his committee members trying their best to keep the beaches open for their revenue. But when the action does kick in, it doesn't disappoint. In small bursts during the first half and for most of the second, Bruce becomes the star of the show. So much so that the music and camera work starts to act as an extension of him.
The iconic soundtrack by John Williams is an unforgettable part of the experience. When the shark comes around, the soundtrack comes alive as if it were its own character. Whether it be suspenseful, fearful, or even whimsical, the soundtrack is very expressive. The cinematography is the same. Aside from the iconic shots from Bruce's point of view underwater, the camerawork comes alive when he's about to strike.
I think you're starting to sense a pattern. The action only really cranks up when Bruce is on the prowl. That's true, but that doesn't mean the quieter parts of the movie don't work just as well. The main trio of characters are Brody, Ichthyologist (essentially a shark-ologist) Matt Hooper, and fisherman Quint. They're a joy to watch, both as a group and on their own merits. Brody is your everyman. He's the blandest at the start, but makes up for it by going through the most change. I'll get to that later, but just know I like him. Hooper is an interesting character. His archetype is the college-educated white kid that's a bit childish despite his intelligence. He often shows an almost child-like happiness in sharing his knowledge on sharks and makes passive-aggressive remarks or funny faces at people after arguing with them. He constantly butts heads with Quint, our final part of the trio. He's a working-class fisherman with a huge sense of pride. He often makes fun of Hooper for his educated approach to things as well as his apparent softness from a cushy life "counting money." His pride also extends to the shark itself. After realizing Bruce is far too big and dangerous for the three of them, Brody attempts to contact their police force by radio. Not wanting to share his glory with anyone else, Quint destroys the radio transmitter, effectively stranding them out at sea with Bruce.
Between the killings and the chaotic trio, there's a lot of tense moments in this film. I'll get to that stuff, but the sweeter moments are just as important. Early on, Brody is waiting for Hooper to come over for dinner. He's stressed with his head in his hands. He notices his son copying him, and Brody keeps shifting his hands and watching his son copy his movements. After that, he leans in and asks his son for a kiss on the cheek. When his son asks why, Brody simply says, "Because I need it." His son obliges, and Brody sends him off to bed as Hooper arrives. Ellen, Brody's wife, watches all of this with a surprised look on her face. Almost as if she's surprised that someone made Brody feel a little better. Moments like these always involve Brody. Whether it be with his family or his two crewmates, moments like this are sprinkled throughout the movie. I may just be a sucker, but giving Brody such tender moments with those around him feels very important to his character. Giving a character moments to reflect gives them room to further their arc. Valleys are just as important as peaks in storytelling.
Speaking of peaks, the tension I mentioned earlier. There's a lot of it, obviously. A lot of people might like to think of Jaws as a horror movie since it's the first shark movie and those are usually straight-up horror movies. However, Jaws doesn't fit cleanly into a single category. The sheer horror of Bruce tearing apart people is a big part, yes. But I'd argue that the suspense of what he'll do is more important than the actual blood and gore itself. Seeing the viewpoint of Bruce as he closes in on a target is genuinely upsetting. Seeing him toy with Brody and the boys out at sea is exciting and scary. But tension doesn't just begin and end with the monster. There's a lot of drama in the town when Brody wants the beach closed but the mayor and various locals fight him at every turn. Even when out at sea, there's usually no harmony; With a few exceptions, the trio are constantly butting heads when Bruce isn't around to unite them behind a cause. Hell, sometimes the shark isn't enough to keep them from arguing.
To be fair, Bruce seems to be an otherworldly horror, so I doubt most people wouldn't panic. But that's something interesting about Bruce. It doesn't act anything like a real shark would. It has an insatiable lust for human blood when sharks don't think humans taste that good; it is intelligent enough to lead the crew out to sea and go under the boat to evade danger; it's strong enough to drag the entire boat at an incredible speed. A lot of people see this film as the origin of our fear of sharks, but that's really only half true. While the movie most likely did popularize the idea that sharks are dangerous killing machines, our brains are why we're so susceptible to believing that when that isn't true. There's nothing cute or appealing about sharks to humans. They're giant, dead-eyed, toothy creatures. So, the caveman side of our mind immediately goes, "Oh, that's a scary thing. Scary things are dangerous to Grug. It must be a violent monster." I think the filmmakers understood the uniquely terrifying look of sharks. However, I don't think they believed that sharks really acted like the one in the movie.
I think Bruce is supposed to be a demon in the form of the shark. It even makes a demonic sound after it's head is blown off and begins sinking to the ocean floor. It's meant to symbolize what Chief Brody fears most throughout the movie: the sea and it's untamed danger.
The only potential technical flaw in the movie is that the shark isn't anatomically accurate. There's a part late in the movie when Hooper goes into an underwater cage to lure in and drug the shark. When he sees it in the distance, there's pre recorded footage of an actual shark that looks nothing like the animatronic. The animatoric is wider, less graceful, and much squarer. I decided to mention it here because I feel it works for the film. It's almost as if a supernatural force was toying with Hooper. Making him think he was looking at a regular shark only to terrorize him with it's true form. And the differences aren't only visual. It doesn't even eat or attack like a shark would. It acts more like a T-800 unit from The Terminator, bluntly attacking anything that remotely pisses it off but with a disturbing amount of intelligence. The shark isn't an animal. It is the incarnate of the chaotic violence of the sea personified into an intelligent being. A shark just happens to be a fittingly scary animal to take the vague form of.
Only when Brody gets over his fear and outsmarts the creature can he and Hooper return home (yeah, Quint is eaten by the shark and it's genuinely upsetting to watch). The whole movie is a metaphor for Brody conquering his fear of the sea by killing one of its most horrifying inhabitants. Personally, I identify with that journey a lot. I hate the ocean for the same reason Brody does. It's big, mysterious, violent, and unpredictable. All you need to do is shrink it down, give it dead eyes and a load or jagged teeth and you have Bruce.
Conclusion
Jaws is one of the most uniquely marvelous movies I've ever seen. Not a single cast member feels out of place, the presentation is beautiful, and the tension is well-managed. People criticize Bruce for being unrealistic. But I don't think the point of Bruce was for it to be like a real shark. Even if that was the intention, the idea that Bruce is a kind of evil spirit taking on a shark's form is much more satisfying. The strange feeling of watching a shark act so human-like and malicious add to the movie's unique strengths. People may be desensitized by the many violent and terrifying horror movies to come out since, but I think most people will still find intrigue in Bruce's unsettling behavior.
Aside from that, I appreciate the softer moments between Brody and the other characters. Overall, I think this movie is great at being emotionally powerful in both a sentimental and frightening way. That's all thanks to the atmosphere the crew helped craft. This is an easy recommendation to anyone, diehard film buff or no.