Camera shots and angles are also very good at building suspense in jaws. The very first shot in the film is a point of view shot, and such shots are crucial in the opening sequence. There’s the scene where everyone’s running out of the water Spielberg uses camera angles, which present a feeling of chaos with all the different angles, jump scenes are used here also, which shows the publics reaction which is one of horror and fear they think they might have been attacked by a 25 foot shark. The scene appears to quieten, but then the yellow lilo washes up on the beach, bloodstained in a high angle shot, which makes the lilo, look lifeless, The lilo is yellow which is generally a bright happy colour associated with summer and it is used to highlight clearly the blood from the attack.
One of the best shots for building suspense was the underwater high angle shot of each of the victims shown from beneath. The shark's eye view which gives the audience a sense of the danger and certainty of the attack, it was like we know what is going to happen before it actually happens. There are quite a lot of point of view shots, including that of the shark. Point of view shots give the audience the impression that we are in that subjects shoes and we see what they see. In other shots like high and low angle shots thing look either dominating and threatening from a low angle shot looking up or helpless and vulnerable, from a high angle looking down. Close ups are used to show a character’s facial expression, and a very successful close up is when Brody realises that an attack is taking place in the sea. It zooms then moves into a close-up. Long shots are used sometimes to show an attack from the beach it builds suspense as you’re not quite sure what is going on at sea
. The audience have sympathy for Brody, from the opening scene in which we see the police chief, as an outsider. Since he was not born on Amity, he will never truly belong, and any ideas he has will be suspect. The mayor who does everything he can, without caution, to keep the beaches open. The audience views Brody's wife and children in their home which makes the audience feel like they actually know the characters. Not only does he need to protect the citizens and visitors of Amity from the danger of the shark but he also wants to protect his wife and children.
Again the audience feel sympathy for him when he admits his fear of boats and the water. The audience also sympathizes with Brody because he fights against the money grabbing mayor. The money that summer visitors bring to the town are much more important to this man than the safety of these people.
A group of fishermen then capture a twelve foot tiger shark. The town of Amity feel a sense of relief as they believe the waters around Amity to be safe again and that this must be the shark carrying out the attacks. Brody and Hooper go to the dock to inspect the shark Hooper promptly announces that there is no way that this could be the shark that killed Chrissie Watkins and Alex Kintner. This makes the audience tense again as they realise the attacking shark is still out there somewhere. Later that night, Hooper is at Brody’s home for dinner. After a few glasses of wine, the two decide to perform an autopsy on the tiger shark to confirm whether or not it is the one they are after. They soon discover that the captured shark is not the one they are looking for just as Hooper predicted .
The two decide to take Hooper’s boat out to look for the shark
They come across the remains of a boat owned by fisherman Ben Gardner. Hooper scuba dives to look round the boat and finds Ben Gardner’s corpse suddenly the head of Ben Gardner falls out he had obviously been attacked. The audience were tense when the boat is taken out at night, is completely terrified then when they find this it really scares the audience. I think this is the scariest part of the film as you think the scariest part of that scene is over having found out he died by shark attack then his head drops out all of a sudden He also finds a tooth in the boat which tells him that the shark they are looking for is actually a great white, they both tell the mayor but he absolutely refuses to close the beach , the audience know the beach will be packed on the 4th of July which is American independence day and tension begins to rises
When the 4th of July arrives, Brody has coast guard boats patrolling the waters and men with guns and helicopters.This is quite tense as we know they are expecting something if they have taken this many precautions. At the start no one wants to go in the water, then the mayor encourages someone to go swimming and everyone follows. Everyone is petrified when a shark’s fin is sighted a few yards off the beach. The coast guards quickly get to the scene but it turns out to only be two boys swimming with a cardboard fin made to look like a shark. Just as everyone begins to relax, Brody is alerted by a girl shouting shark to nearby pond. A shark is sighted in the same area of pond water where Brody’s own son Michael is playing. Racing down there, he is too late to stop the great white from eating Michael’s sailing instructor. Staring directly into the animal’s eyes, Michael falls into a state of shock. The audience panic as they feel they know Michael and fear he is dead but its just the shock. This is also the first time the shark is actually seen although it is only a glimpse.
The last part of the film is quite dramatic and we know its building up to something. It is all shot at sea on a small isolated boat. Quint rips the radio out of, which is their only contact with land the audience are tense as a result of this. The director avoids showing the shark as it could be anywhere and that’s what he wants you to think, the audience believe that the shark could be directly below the boat which is quite frightening. Again yellow is used with the barrels, when the shark begins to attack the boat the audience think that’s the end of the film and that the three of them are going to die. This is especially tense after the brutal attack on Quint which really terrifies the audience. The barrels are attached to the harpoons which are shot at the shark, the barrels float and they can see where the shark is.
After being shot by a harpoon on many occasions and destroying the Orca the shark ends up with an oxygen tank in its mouth which Brody shoots. After a couple of missed shots and blows the shark to pieces. There has been a personal battle between Brody and the shark throughout the film, and Brody has finally won .We can now relax slightly although Brody still has to get back to land without a boat as the shark destroyed it. So the closing scene shows Hooper and Brody kicking their way back to shore in a tranquil ocean which I think represents the fact that all the chaos is over