Jaws Movie Analysis Essay Example

Brody, Hooper and Quint have taken it upon themselves to defeat the shark and are combining their skills to conquer the shark.Land is not shown throughout this sequence of the film to signal to the audience how isolated and far away Brody and his team are from Safety.  The camera shifts to a close up focusing on Brody throwing fish guts into the water, however he is shown to be distracted talking to hooper. No music is used here which assists in elevating the audiences fear and surprise when the shark unexpectedly appears. When Brody backs away uttering his infamous quote “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” the audience begin to panic as they can see that the team are clearly lacking in resources and confidence meaning there is very little hope for a victory . With the sharks power and unbelievable strength the team will have to think of a good plan quickly. A long shot is used to emphasise the size of the shark. Using this shot also compares the size of the shark and boat, therefore making the boat looks minuscule in comparison, implying it would be simple for the shark to take out the crew. Spielberg chooses not to include the theme tune here as the film is coming to an end and tension is at its climax. Leaving the audience in the dark as to when the shark is next going to surface and attack is an impressive and moreover forceful way to further increase the fear and suspense. 

Hooper makes the decision to lower the shark cage into the water with himself inside with the aim of poisoning the shark, although the plan goes haywire when the shark starts to attack the cage. When the cage is lifted from the water it is empty and wrecked, with no sign of hooper, quint and Brody are left to assume the worst that hooper is dead. With hooper presumed dead the audience are frightened as it seems as though all hope of a victory is lost since it is now merely quint and Brody up against a killer shark. The shark continues to strike the boat and with one powerful hit the boat tilts and begins to sink. Brody is left grasping to the boat reaching for quints hand since quint is slipping, despite Brody’s efforts quint slides straight into the sharks gaping mouth and the following scenes are incredibly gruesome for the audience. Close-ups and point of view shots show the shark biting into quint and the terror in quints eyes as he lets out agonising non-diagenetic screams and blood can be seen spilling everywhere. The shark submerges into the water once quints brutal prolonged death is finally over but not for long as he returns seconds later to attack Brody, fortunately Brody thinks fast and throws an air tank into the sharks mouth. He quickly grabs quints rifle and ascends the boats mast. Triumphant music plays in the background as he climbs and the audience can begin to relax as this indicates towards Brody’s victory. Brody fires several times at the shark and at long last successfully hits the gas can thus blowing up the shark. Brody cries out with delight and the audience can finally let out a sigh of relief and celebrate with him.

In my opinion the most shocking and gripping moment of the film is when the real attack occurs in the pond area of the beach on July fourth and the shark targets Brody’s child, as an attack is now much less anticipated following the false alarm it is quite a shock for the audience when the theme tune begins to play alerting us to the presence of the real shark. Spielberg uses a wide range of different cinematic techniques effectively, resulting in the desired effect of quickly built tension and leaving the audience in a whirlwind of emotions. Spielberg shows a great deal of talent within this film as a result he is one of the greatest and prominent directors of all time.