Jaws Essay
Jaws is a thriller movie. The definition of a thriller movie is 'A film created with the purpose of creating tension and shocking the viewer.' Steven Speilberg made Jaws so that it would exactly meet these criteria.
'Jaws' effectively builds up suspense and shocks the audience in many ways. Also 'Jaws' has an underlying feeling of isolation and paranoia. In the following essay I will explain how Steven Speilberg achieves this aim.
The first scene starts the film and greatly uses the feeling of isolation to its advantage. The purpose of the first scene is to show Chrissy's isolation from the rest of Amity. It also indicates the ferocity of the Shark attacks and how quickly they can start.
The scene starts off with a 'pan shot' of the whole of the group on the beach. This shot is good as it also shows the group's isolation. After the long pan shot the scene does a 'straight cut' to Chrissy on her own. This also enforces how she is isolated from the group. After this it cuts to a long pan shot of Chrissy and this boy chasing her along the sea front. This also helps to show the isolation in this film. The shot then cuts to Chrissy swimming in the water. The sun starts to rise and we see the first presence of yellow in the film.
Yellow is important as in nature yellow is very hazardous, and any animal displaying yellow is often seen as dangerous. This is extremely important in the film because we learn that as the film goes on an increasing presence of yellow indicates that there is likely to be a shark attack.
As the scene continues we start to see a camera moving through the water, which is meant to be a first person perspective view of the Shark. We then hear the infamous Jaws them tune. This sound is non- digetic, as it is not involved with the movement of people in the scene. It is hear that we realise that the shark is attacking.
Then there is a straight cut back to the boy who is now lying on the beach, in a drunken mess. It is important that this shot is shown as it helps to enforce the fact that Chrissy is isolated.
We then have a straight shot of Chrissy in the water and the Jaws theme tune starts to play again. Then quickly the shot changes back to the shark view. It is important that the shot changes more rapidly because it helps to build up tension and pace in the scene. This can also be noticed ...
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Then there is a straight cut back to the boy who is now lying on the beach, in a drunken mess. It is important that this shot is shown as it helps to enforce the fact that Chrissy is isolated.
We then have a straight shot of Chrissy in the water and the Jaws theme tune starts to play again. Then quickly the shot changes back to the shark view. It is important that the shot changes more rapidly because it helps to build up tension and pace in the scene. This can also be noticed later on in the movie.
The shot then straight cuts back to the shot of Chrissy. The fact that you cannot see any land behind her helps to show how she is isolated. The without warning you see Chrissy get pulled under water by the shark. She gets pulled around and dragged about by the shark. The music in this shot is very high paced.
The scene the turns back to the boyfriend who can not hear her screams, because he has passed out. This also shows how isolated Chrissy is.
The scene then finishes with Chrissy being pulled under the water, leaving a mess behind.
This scene plays heavily on the fact that Chrissy is isolated from the rest of her group and so can't be helped when she is being attacked by the shark. This is important, as it is present all the way through the film.
The feeling of isolation is present in the second scene, but it is more aimed towards developing Broady's paranoia. In this scene the Kintner boy becomes shark food.
Through out this shot there are lots of ways in which the editing and camera shots are used to emphasise the fact that Chief Broady is paranoid about the shark attacking. For example there is lots of point of view shots of Broady looking out to see, even when he is being talked to by other people. This shows that he is not interested in the conversation, but is only interested in the sea, which shows how significant his paranoia is. It also shows that he is paranoid of things happening as people splashing in the water worry him.
There is a clever use of wipe shots in this scene. As the scene goes on people walk in front of Broady and each time it zooms closer to him, then it cuts to looking out to sea (point of view shot). This shows how he is focused on the sea, which is important is it reiterates how paranoid he is about the shark attacking.
There is a lot of use of yellow in this scene. Lots of people are wearing yellow and the people who walk by on the wipe shots are wearing increasingly more yellow clothes. This helps to show that there is a shark attack immanent. Also the Kintner boys lilo is yellow.
There is a big emphasis on the isolation of the Kintner boy in this scene. Whenever you see him in the water he is away from the other children. This is shown when you see a point of view shot from the shark in the water. This is important because through out the film the person/ people who are killed are always on there own, and so are isolated from the other people.
The camera shots are used well in this scene. During the shark attack the camera is at water level. This is a very clever use of camera shot as it makes you feel like you are in the water with the people. This makes you more scared of what is actually happening.
The pace of the editing speeds up through out this scene, as the shark becomes closer to attacking. This happens first when the children enter water. There is lots of splashing and sound which helps to increase the pace of the film. The increase of pace in the scenes is present through out the whole film and often shows that the shark is going to attack.
The pace of editing also speeds up in the third scene. The scene starts with it being very slow paced action with Quint talking about the Indianapolis sinking. The editing is very slow here and only cuts to show Broady away from Quint and Hooper. This demonstrates that he is isolated from the other two, which is important because we know that the shark only attacks people who are isolated.
Isolation is shown through out the whole scene. Whenever you see a shot from within the boat, you can not see land, which shows how they have no chance of getting back to land, when the shark attacks. This is also shown in the opening shot of this scene, where it is a back lighting of Broady, so that is shows his silhouette. You can see no land behind him.
As the shark attack becomes more immanent, the pace of the scene speeds in many ways. The most noticeable of these is the pace of the editing. As the scene carries on there is a lot quicker transitions between shots. This builds up pace and suspense in the film. The boat also starts to rock more and the lights start to swing, which speeds up the pace of the film, adding to the suspense. Also as Broady joins Quint and Hooper at the table they start to sing. As this song continues it gets faster and helps to increase the pace.
The scene then cuts to water level shot of the barrel moving towards the boat. You can still here them singing so that you know that it is their boat that the shark is heading towards. (The barrels were attached to the shark earlier on in the scene in an attempt to bring him to the surface.)
Although it is not greatly present in this scene, yellow is still used as a warning sign of the attack. The barrels that are attached to shark are yellow and you can see the yellow cabin lights. (The shot of the boat shows no land around them, again emphasising that they are isolated.)
You can also tell that the shark is near when you hear the whale dying. Quint starts to sing his song, which he only sings when something is dying (shown earlier on in the film.) It is here that you know that the shark will attack.
The pattern of death in this scene is the same to the other scenes, which is that the shark only attacks the isolated.
All three of the scenes are similar.
Yellow is used in all scenes, but is strongest in the first 2 scenes. This is probably because in the first two scenes people die, whereas in the third scene they do not. But yellow is still a big factor and is used when a shark attack is going to happen. This is used most in the second scene because there is more danger in it, as there are a lot more people in the water that might get eaten.
Isolation is also another main factor in all three scenes. This is used because it shows that people are in danger when they are by themselves. This is very important because it shows how helpless people are when they are by themselves, and how no- one can help them.
The last really noticeable factor is that pace of the scene as a shark attack is more immanent. This is achieved using sound, and quick camera changes to speed up the action.
Jaws is a thriller movie. A definition of a thriller movie is 'A film created with the purpose of creating tension and shocking the viewer.' All the points that I have discussed above achieve this.