Jaws
Jaws, you seriously have to go to the dentist
Movies, like words, have power. Some
may scoff at the idea that watching a movie or even reading a book
could affect one person, let alone large groups of people, but it's
true. The novel Coma, a
story about hospitals selling organs was later adapted into a film
and caused organ donations to drop 60%. Even the original broadcast
of War Of The Worlds caused massive panic. Even though these are just
forms of entertainment, they still to this day manage to cause fear
and hysteria. While that says a lot about the gullibility and
paranoia of humans, it also says a lot of the movies and books
themselves. No horror movie still has quite the affect on people like
Jaws.
Jaws
is a 1975 horror thriller, based off the novel by Peter Benchley,
directed by Stephen Spielberg (E.T., Saving Private Ryan). The movie
stars Roy Schneider (The French Connection, 2010) as Chief Martin
Brody and Richard Dreyfuss (Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Mr.
Holland's Opus) as Matt Hooper. Days before the Fourth of July
weekend begins on Amity Island, a young woman named Chrissie is
mauled by a shark. Chief Brody wants to shut down the entire beach to
ensure that no one else is attacked, but Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray
Hamilton, The Graduate, The Hustler) pressures Brody to reconsider.
He claims that the entire town will suffer if the beaches are closed,
taking away precious tourist dollars. Vaughn tries to pass off
Chrissie's death as possibly a boating accident. When a young boy is
killed by the shark, a bounty is placed, sparking a small frenzy by
amateur fishermen. Quint (Robert Shaw, The Sting, From Russia With
Love), a salty veteran fisherman, offers to capture the shark for
$10,000, but no one takes him up on it. Marine biologist Matt Hooper
comes to Amity and inspects Chrissie's body, declaring it most
definitely the work of a shark. The amateur fishermen capture a large
tiger shark relieving the town, but not Hooper. That night, Hooper
and Brody cut open the shark and find no human remains inside. After
inspecting a boat that had been attacked, Hooper discovers a tooth
belonging to a great white shark. On the Fourth Of July, the shark
attacks again, killing a man and sparking a panic. Brody convinces
Vaughn to hire Quint as both he and Hooper join him on the mission.
While Brody throws chum out into the ocean, the beast surfaces,
showing just how large it truly is. Quint estimates it at twenty-five
feet in length and over 6,000. How will these three men defeat this
behemoth killing machine?
A pack of smokes a day might work
It's
not often that a movie, especially a horror movie, has cultural and
environmental repercussions, but when it does, you know you've made
something larger than anyone could have predicted. Real life
attendance at beaches were down following the movie's release and the
number of sharks killed reached the thousands. Shark attacks do occur
in real life, but not to the degree they do in Jaws. Peter Benchley
actually regretted writing his novel because of all the deaths. That
doesn't stop people from fearing that a shark will get them every
time they go into the ocean. Heck, as a little kid, I was afraid
there were sharks in a pool. A pool! How does this happen? It happens
because the movie is so incredibly convincing. The movie's tension
and suspense are what make the fear so believable. The attacks happen
in broad daylight and are undiscerning. Men, women, and children are
all victims and to make things worse, they are all completely
helpless. The shark stays hidden for most of the film, allowing the
audience to cast their own fears upon this deep-sea killer. While
this was partially due to malfunctions with the mechanical shark, it
worked to the movie's favor. When we finally see the shark, it is
more terrifying than the audience could possibly imagine. It is
incredibly large and impossibly vicious. Coupled with the movie's
large amount of violence and massive amounts of blood, the shark is
the epitome of horror.
The
story of Jaws was inspired by actual shark attacks in New Jersey in
1916. They weren't exactly at the level of the attacks in Jaws, but
it did spark the same amount of frenzy. All of this does raise the
question, “Is any of this possible?” Well, I am no shark expert,
but lucky for us, I happen to know one. Chuck Bangley is a PhD
student specializing in sharks and marine biology and was kind enough
to give lend his expertise to 365 Days Of Horror: “White sharks are
physically capable of most of Jaws' feats of strength, at least in
the first movie. Any given Shark Week special will show that great
whites are capable of leaping out of the water, and they are capable
of ramming through a shark cage (though they'd likely hurt themselves
in the process). Real great whites are not nearly as motivated to
destroy boats and eat humans as the shark in Jaws, though there are
documented cases of sharks accidentally landing on boats and doing
some damage. White sharks do occur in the New England waters where
Jaws takes place, and the population has been steadily increasing as
seal numbers increase on Cape Cod. Large predatory sharks are usually
highly migratory, so it's unlikely that Brodie, Quint, and Hooper
would succeed in hunting down the right one. Modern satellite tagging
has proven that large, potentially dangerous sharks like great whites
and tiger sharks cover huge ranges, and any shark responsible for an
attack on a human would likely be miles away before any response
could happen. This is why shark culls following attacks aren't
effective.” Thanks, Chuck! Be sure to follow Chuck on Twitter at @SpinyDag and read his shark-related adventures at http://yalikedags.southernfriedscience.com/
FurryCon 2012
Jaws
was the original summer blockbuster with it's combination of action,
thrills, and suspense. Spielberg uses his careful eye to capture all
the actual while spending enough time to build up atmosphere and
tension. The movie's iconic music is simple, yet powerful. To this
day, the “Dunnn dun. Dunnn dun.” theme only means that something
big and bad is coming. Both Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss play
their roles very well, each bringing something different to their
roles, creating unique, but relatable characters. Robert Shaw is
great as the old-timer Quint, giving the movie a harsher, realistic
edge. While some may say that the movie fits into the action genre,
it is most certainly horror. There are real scares and plenty of
atmosphere. Jaws is a classic for a reason as it is good from top to
bottom. It's well-known and well-loved and deserves all the accolades
it gets.
10/10
