How successful is Spielberg in creating tension and suspense in the film Jaws

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How successful is Spielberg in creating tension and suspense in the film Jaws

Jaws is a film about a Great white shark that is terrorising and eating people and also animals from a little island called Amity off the east coast of America. It is set in the 1970’s and is on the 4th of July which is American Independence Day. It is set on the 4th of July because this is a national holiday, when there will be lots of people travelling to the island for a holiday. It is very ironic the film being set on this holiday because you would expect it to be a happy time when everyone is nice and cheery but then it turns into sadness because there are people being horrifically eaten by sharks. I think that Spielberg is very successful in creating suspense and tension in Jaws because of the very good use of camera techniques and music that he uses, and also the fact that you never see the shark so it all seems mysterious.

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The music in Jaws is extremely good at building tension during the course of the film. In the title sequence the shark is connected to the music because it is a point of view shot of the shark swimming through the reef. The low deep noise of the music makes it very mysterious and quite spooky. You can feel that you are looking through the eyes of something evil. In the opening scene when they are on the beach with the radio playing they all seem so innocent and the music playing is very calming so you have no idea ...

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