Еssay on Jaws the Movie

Jaws is a masterful movie which has already become legendary screened by Steven Spielberg in 1975. This talented director has a special manner of attracting viewers’ attention with catching episodes and intriguing way of filming.

Jaws is not only a horror film portraying monstrous sea creatures devouring innocent men who came to the Coast of Amity Island. This island administration even never had signs: “Beach Closed”, it attracted thousands of tourists and according to Martin Brody there were no murder cases at all within the last twenty-five years. But this tranquility was horribly disturbed with Great White Sharks.

From the very beginning a viewer starts to observe Martin Brody’s life, his habits and attitude to life and profession.

Brody together with his wife Ellen and children moves to the island resort and it is obviously difficult for him to get used to its peculiarities at once, life seems so quiet there that the whole family has to change their lifestyle. From this very moment the viewers will trace the changes which occur in Martin Brody. In the morning he is called to the beach as the first shark victim’s mangled body has been found washed up to the shore of the ocean. As Brody returns to his office he writes in report that the possible death of Chrissie Watkins is shark attack, soon after the talk with the city Mayor Vaughn who is economically bound and does not agree to lose money in the Summer Season as it is necessary for the benefit of the whole town. Before Martin Brody managed to order to place warning signs along the beaches, mayor prevented him from that and disallowed him to close down them: “I’m only trying to say that Amity is a summer town. We need summer dollars. If people can’t swim here, they’ll be glad to swim in the beaches of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Long Island” (Vaughn).

In this case Martin Brody is unable to withstand the reasons the mayor gives him and unwillingly but still goes along with it. Here he starts acting the wrong way, though it seems that he tries to take action, to do something, but what he does leads to no good. Of course, the authorities do not need disorder and anxiety of the tourists, but the price for their temporary ignorance is too high, it turns out to cost human lives. As it is a start of the peak summer season, a dishonest mayor prefers to cover up the danger and Brody has nothing to do with it. The only thing he is capable of doing is to close them for twenty-four hours only and all those present at the meeting express their indignation.

Brody is helpless, defenseless against a crowd of concerned citizens. Feeling the danger, Brody is speechless and tries to find the way out, he is not supported in his suspicions, and can do nothing with the “contest” that the authorities announced.  They advertised that the one who kills the shark will receive three thousand dollars and this will one more time make common people risk their lives instead of keeping aside. Such marathons with danger will lead to no good, this is later proved by the accident which happens to Quint. He is a person who offers to find a shark and kill it for ten thousand dollars, but authorities consider this price to be unreasonable and do not agree saying they will think it over.

Beaches are not closed down and it results in one more victim, a young boy Alex Kintner, who is permitted to swim only for ten minutes which turn to be fatal for him. Chief Brody seems to foresee the tragedy, he suspiciously sits on the beach watching carefree people splashing in the water. Before the accident Brody cannot relax and when Harry comments on the weather and says to Brody: “We know all about you, Chief. You don’t go in the water at all, do you?” This bothers Brody who is deep in his thoughts and, what is more, someone points at his fears. At last a perplexed chief who is, according to his own words, responsible for safety at the beaches decides to invite a marine biologist Matt Hooper who conducts autopsy of the first victim and gets to know for sure, she was killed by a shark.

He even supposes that it is a tiger shark. And when some fishermen kill a shark in the neighborhood and everybody, including Martin Brody, considers the problem solved, Hooper states that the shark caught is not the one who killed the boy and the woman. It turns out that Brody willingly believes what he wants to believe, he even has photos taken with that shark for some newspapers. Then he is convinced, Hooper is right, still he is not active, he studies information about sharks, their behavior, etc. Vaughn again refuses to close the beaches as he is not ready to lose money which Independence Day celebration will most likely bring to the city. But soon another man is killed; moreover, it nearly snatches one of Brody’s sons. Michael is taken to hospital as he has a shock, having been a witness of the horrible scene. Brody again asks Vaughn to hire the shark hunter Quint, and at last he agrees as his children were also on the beach and could have suffered.

Brody feels the burden of what has happened, especially after an incident, when Alex’s mother comes up to him and blames him for not having done anything though he knew of the danger. He admits his fatal error and, if one is to judge, his inertia. Quint, Brody and Hooper are sent to sea in Quint’s boat the Orca and, having undergone various difficulties and dangers which were waiting for them at every step, they manage to attack the shark. When they go to the open sea Martin throws out dead fish and says a well-known phrase: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”, he still fears. He has not overcome his fear of water yet. But he displays courage when working in a team, they all depend on each other and there is no place for cowardice in these circumstances, it is not permissible. After a long “mêlée” with a fierce animal they managed to kill it. Though desperate Quint perished, Hooper and Brody remained alive and constructed a raft to paddle back to the Amity Island, as their boat was destroyed and sunk by the shark. We see how Martin Brody is evolving during the whole movie, he is no more helpless and forgets his fears, he turns from an irresolute man into a brave person who can be justly called a hero, who withstood all the difficulties and saved the people’s lives. Though their actions were at times not well thought over and not well-organized, they were a success and managed to avoid further victims. At the end of the movie, Brody symbolically confesses to Hooper that he has hated water, and only now he understands why.



Leave a Reply