Knocked out again how good the script is - superbly directed, acted, etc... but feel script is also magnificent and never gets its due (aside from “Indianapolis” monologue which everyone bangs on about). Why is it so good?
- basic structure very strong: first shark attack (kills girl), cop not dumb and tries to shut down beach but can’t bc of business, second shark attack (kills kid), everyone panics, mum of kid offers huge award which sends out vigilante, someone kills a shark but (twist) it’s the wrong shark, third shark attack (kills guy who tries to help cop’s son), go out on expedition
- Solid conflict all through: shark versus human, but also mayor versus cop and scientist (and the mayor is well motivated i.e. he’s doing it for business), macho fisherman vs scientist, macho fisherman vs cop
- Basic engineering plotting but very well done: we know cop will face off against shark, so we have him (a) afraid of water (b) be the least knowledgeable person about sharks on the boat compared to scientist and the macho fisherman (c) leave him abandoned by the other two at the end via killing fisherman and knocking out scientist (d) remove the boat - this is breathtakingly good and amazingly has not been copied enough (I think because stars want to play superheroes)... but you have our lead, have him go on a shark hunting expedition but we think he’s safe because he’s on a boat and we have the world’s toughest shark fisherman and the world’s smartest shark scientist... BUT THEN... they destroy the boat, kill the fisherman, take out the scientist... why is this not ripped off more?
- Things that might have been a little contrived (eg going shark hunting on a boat that is falling apart, not radio-ing for help) makes complete and utter sense if motivated by character: Quint the fisherman is full of swagger and machismo, thinks he’s the toughest guy on the block, tougher than any shark so of course he’d go off shark hunting on a crappy boat (it wouldn’t make character sense if he went off on a good boat) and wouldn’t call for help (of course he wouldn’t call for help) - it is about character
- Also, watch building of status of shark through Quint’s attitude: ‘I’ll catch him easy’, on trip, ‘no worries’, then over trip ‘hang on this shark is really skilled’ then ‘you know what lets try to drown him in the shallows’ then... shark eats Quint!
- Incredible sense of verisimilitude - everything feels real around the edges, mainly the day to day life in the town for the cop: he’s always got people whinging about karate students karate chopping people’s fences, and sitting in front of him at the beach whingeing about people parking in front of their shop, people make jokes at the town meeting about the reward being cash or cheque - it’s all grounded in reality which sells the outlandish story
- key change from the novel... where there’s a big subplot about the scientist having an affair with cop’s wife... now in terms of conflict this is good... you can see the scenes and the dramatic tension... but someone somewhere along the line went “let’s not do that because it overloads the script” and instead he gives the cop and wife a loving marriage (“want to fool around?”)... also it makes the cop and the scientist friends, and thus focuses the conflict between fisherman and scientist - I don’t think keeping the adultery subplot would have been fatal to the film but it would have robbed “Jaws” of much of its warmth... and I think would have been less popular (speculative theory: what is the difference between Spielberg and Scorsese? Scorsese would have kept the adultery subplot if he’d done Jaws).
Anyway thanks to Peter Benchley, Carl Gottleib, Howard Sackler and John Milius
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