The predicted attack began; the shark came and ate the dog first. The owner was confused because a second ago he had the dog in front of his eyes. He called the dog’s name few times but the dog did not come. The audience knows that the shark has eaten this dog because before showing the man, the camera shown a close up of the stick that the dog was playing with.
The camera was getting closer and closer to Alex on the yellow lilo. The camera angle was high but suddenly it shown Alex from below. This was effective because the camera was steadily closing up on Alex, building tension quite fast but the immediate change of angle from above water to under water gave a feeling that the shark is just about to grab Alex; it built tension quickly. Under the water, the camera displayed everything from the shark’s point of view. As the shark was getting closer to the body, the tune was getting louder and faster. This helped a lot in the tension building process because from the opening sequence the audience knew that when the theme tune starts playing, it means that the shark is present and that it is going to attack.
As predicted, the attack happened. The camera was at a high angle, long shot of blood splashing in a distance when the shark attacked Alex. The boys were running out of water, panicking. Mothers and fathers were quickly getting their sons and daughters out of the water. The camera turned on Brody and zoomed to an extreme close-up on his face. This was used to show Brody’s reaction to the happening situation and to highlight that Brody’s worries had come true. He paused for a hundredth of a second but then stood up and got everybody out of the water. A number of jump cuts have been used in this scene to confuse the audience. The short length of the shots and the large amount of different shots meant that the scene is being played at a higher speed, the pace was increased. The camera finally changed back to straight shot and tracking, it shown the mother looking at the yellow lilo washing up on the sea shore. Once again the audience was on the same level with the mother; they felt empathy towards her.
Before the attack happened it could be predicted that both the boy Alex and the black dog could be the victims. The audience can see the parallelism between these two characters and the way they are presented. The same camera angles were used on Alex and the dog; when the angle used on Alex changed, the second camera, the one on the dog also moved up to suit the shots. The fact that the dog was black told the audience a lot as well. It is known that black represents extreme danger and death. The audience linked these two facts and realized that the dog will die as well.
Spielberg has also used a specific color, which appeared everywhere to stimulate the suspence sense of the audience before anything happened. The director linked all the characters that ‘lose something’ by making them wear yellow. Alex’s mother was wearing a yellow boater, the owner of the dog has a yellow t-shirt, Alex swam on a yellow lilo. Even on the beach yellow could be seen in many places. Spielberg has done this to help the audience predict which people will die in the future attacks. In fact he could have done this to make next attacks more effective. It is possible that the next victims will not wear yellow. This is common in Spielberg’s films – the audience is made predict something, but the prediction does not meet the facts. This rises the audience up, and drops them down – makes the audience feel that they know, and disappoints them.
The director has used juxtaposition in this scene to confuse the audience. The audience observes a normal and calm atmosphere and then is driven in seconds to chaos and panic. It was a nice day. Everybody enjoyed their holidays on the beach. Then in less than a minute the attack happened and the atmosphere changed 180 degrees. This contrast is really effective (because it makes an impression on the audience and lets the film be classified as “a good thriller.”)
Steven Spielberg made the shark a scary beast. Through the music, the characters’ reaction to the shark and by showing the damage the creature can do the director built up the fear of the shark.
Every time an attack is about to begin the non-diagetic music starts playing in the background. The soundtrack becomes louder and louder, intense and jumpy. Squeakier, high pitched instruments are used. It all builds tension and scares the audience. It gives the audience a feeling that the shark must be a colossal, an awful and a heartless creature which eats people alive. We cannot say that this is wrong because it’s the effect that the director has been trying hard to create.
One of the examples that show how dangerous the shark is would be the third attack, in which a man plays the role of the lunch. During this attack the camera is at a high angle showing what is happening to that man but when the attack is finished it shows the man’s leg sinking to the ocean floor. At this point the audience’s sense of danger is stimulated a lot and they get to know what the shark is capable of.
The shark is not welcome around people so whenever it is seen, people start panicking. They know what can happen to them if they don’t run and leave the water quick enough so they start to scream and yell. Mothers risk their own lives to get their children out and make sure they are safe. By this we know that the shark should be feared of because if its presence causes so much trouble then it does not mean that meeting it is a pleasant experience.
Tension is being built all the way during the film, even the storyline, the plot and the ending play an important role in the tension building. The writer made sure that his novel, which was transferred to screens after, kept the audience interested for the whole plot. He set the first two attacks close together, which gave an impression that the shark is a continuous danger – it attacked one person and on the next day it came back to take another person with him. It is like the shark wants people to be feared of him. It does horrible things – it eats people alive; the audience can see what is left every time the shark attacks – it is blood and often one or more body parts, flesh, but the audience did not actually see the shark. It uses the audience’s sense of fear and imagination to build tension and make sure the audience continues to watch carefully to see the shark at the end, or whenever a chance of seeing him comes.
The shark has exceeded every possible limit of insolence by getting near chief Brody’s son. On the 4th of July, on the Independence Day the shark attacked another person; the man disappearing in the shark’s jaw, surrounded by blood has been seen by Michael, the main character’s son. Michael was in a deep shock after what happened in front of his eyes. This whole situation makes the audience feel that the shark is rude and unpredictable, and gives them a sense that the shark must be a beast that they have never seen before; the audience asks the question “Then what kind of one (shark) is he?!” To find out, they keep on watching and let the director build tension until they see what kind of monster it was that killed these people in such a horrible way.
Tension is also built, much faster than before, when the movie starts to reach the end. There were three men on a very small boat, about just bigger than the beast, trying to kill a huge predator. The audience could assume that the film is beginning to end because the shark was getting nearer the hunters and the final scene was coming on. It was doubted which side will win the ‘battle on the sea’ because one time the shark bumped into the boat, nearly making the men drown and the second time he got three harpoons under his skin. The men were starting to lose – their boat was not of use any more, they had not much equipment left but the shark was still determined to play with them, have his revenge and dinner. It was like the shark had some kind of intelligence because it couldn’t use just the animal instincts to memorise which boat is dangerous and which people need to be worked over and killed. Keeping the audience waiting, especially for something that is just about to conclude, builds a lot of tension and excites them, putting up a bridge for the director to show the beast – making it easier for Spielberg to make the audience say “Wow” when they get o see the monster they have waited for ages to see.
I think that the scariest moment in the film is the first attack. It happened when Christy and her new friend went to the water to swim a bit. The man was drunk; he collapsed on the beach and fell asleep. A long shot of Christy swimming has been used. Suddenly the music started playing and the camera angle changed from high to low; it was tracking the girl. Christy stopped swimming for a minute, called the man by saying “Get in the water;” Suddenly the camera cuts to a shot of her legs from the shark’s point of view. Here, the tension started to build quickly. The shark was getting closer, the tune was playing louder. More instruments joined the already chaotic music. The tune became extremely loud and camera angle changed again, showing Christy from a high angle. It was very scary when she felt that something was pulling her under the water because she had no return and no opportunity to swim away from whatever was trying to kill her. She was terrified. She started screaming and shaking her hands and trying to use force to get out of the shark’s jaw.
The scariest section of this scene was after the attack. The shark was gone and the non-diagetic music stopped playing. Dead silence came and all that could be heard were the sea waves. This was to show that nothing was left. It highlighted the fact that nobody came to help her even if anybody wanted to. She had no chance of surviving. The audience has been forced to acknowledge the horrible truth. I felt so sad after this…
