Jaws - review.

Camera Techniques

The second attack, which featured the boy on the yellow lilo, was swimming in the sea with no knowledge of the shark. A couple of minutes after he gets in the water the shark attack the boy leaving nothing behind except for blood and a shredded yellow lilo. Brody was sitting on the beach next to his wife looking at the sea with the knowledge that he is putting people's lives in danger. The camera concentrated on Brody's nervous face by using close-up shot's of his face as well as using mid angle shot to show how his arms are moving from fear. Through out the scene, people came up to him talking about their problems, but Brody was clearly ignoring them and concentrating on the sea, establishing shots where used to show what Brody was looking at and long shots to show what he is specifically looking at.

The shark

The director builds up fear of the shark through out the film by showing the audience how much damage it can do or through characters reaction.

The first thing that reveals how much damage the shark can do is when the shark rips the jetty to pieces as if it was Lego.Brody told the public to try and catch the shark for a reward, Two men decided to go down at night to the jetty and catch the shark using a tyre, metal chain and a chunk of meat. The shark ate the pate and pulled the chain that was attached to the jetty. The true power of the shark is revealed as it pulled the whole jetty out and demolished it and nearly killed one of the men.

The second example that was used to build up fear and show how much damage was caused by the shark is the first victim autopsy that showed what damage it can do to humans. He also revealed the size of the shark through its bite mark. The shark book that Brody read revealed different images of the damage sharks can do to boats and humans. Catching the wrong shark and finding the fisherman's head also added tension and fear from the shark.

Fear of the shark was build through the character's individual reaction by showing their fear. For example the man who did the autopsy was scared and sweating as a result of what he discovered. Brody was scared while he sat on the beach waiting for the shark to attack. The mayor is also in shock after the fourth attack because his family was there and in danger.

Tension in the plot and the ending

The first attacks had very little personal involvement with the main characters, they were used to scare the audience and build up tension. The first attack was against a teenager girl who was on the beach having a party and decided to go in for a swim, she was then attacked by the shark and her body was found washed out on the beach where she was found and her body torn to pieces. The second attack was on the boy Alex who went out of the water and asked his mum to go back in, so he went out on his yellow lilo and only a few minutes later the shark ate him and every bawdy saw the blood. That attack was made to make the audience scared because the shark will attack when ever it wants and in public, these two attacks were made to make the audience even more scared of the shark.

The third attack was on the forth of July which involved Brody's son. That day Brody, the police and the life guard where all on full alert to watch out for the shark. Brody's son got a new boat for his birthday and he wanted to try it out, Brody told him to go to the pond where it would be safe. First there was a fake attack to add fear and hummer elements. Then a woman shouts there is a shark in the pond, so Brody runs to the pond and finds the shark attacking a man next his son and its going towards him. The shark misses him and goes back out to sea; the purpose of the attack was to make the attack more personal and closer to the main character and for the audience to feel sad for Brody. He also increases the important of catching the shark.

The last section of the film was out at sea on the small boat. The fear and tension was firstly built up by the paroles and how Quaint kept saying the biggest shark he caught took two paroles to kill, but this shark took a lot of paroles and that didn't kill. Secondly seeing the shark's mouth when Brody was dropping the fish in the water as well as watching the shark swimming past the boat and Brody shouting to Quaint "We need a bigger boat." All these factors build up the fear and tension until the shark get killed.

My view

The scariest moment in the film is the last section where Quaint and Robert where sharing stories while Brody was listening. In this section the tension and fear is dropped and cheerful music was used to calm the audience down a little. Suddenly the shark attacks the boat and makes a whole where water starts coming in, however none of the men heard the attack and kept on singing. It was scary because the tension is lowered and then suddenly the shark attacks unsuspected, but on this occasion it didn't. That scene was scary and surprising and made audience to jump out of their seat.