There are pauses in the attack in which the camera goes to a wide screen shot of the drunken boy lying on the beach with absolute silence. This is how we know that no one can hear the girl. The camera then jumps back to the screaming girl who is finally pulled underneath the water and all that is left is complete silence. This is a typical device used in horror, it allows the audience to reflect on what has happened, it makes us ask the question, ‘When will this threat reappear?’ There is then a wide screen shot of the sea and there is a traditional transition too the next scene, where it changes from night to day using the same landscape.
The second attack uses camera techniques to build up tension and to scare the audience. On the day of the second attack the weather is very hot. Many people are on the beach, smiling and having fun. Steven Spielberg does this to try and lead us into a false sense of security, because it makes think that on such a happy day of the year, how can something so terrible happen. These people have no idea of the dreadful incident that happened to the young girl a few nights ago. The mayor is the main person trying to cover the attack up. He is a selfish, arrogant character who only cares about getting more people to come to the Island of Amity. He refuses to see the danger that is jaws, and does want to close the beaches just because of this one attack. Brody the chief of police, has been trying to warn him ever since the attack happened but he has taken no notice.
As the scene goes on there is a sense of irony, as the audience becomes more aware of the dangers lurking out in the waters, almost as much as Brody is, so we both are extremely attentive and focus all our attention on the waters, knowing that something terrible is going to happen.
So the scene starts with a tracking shot of a young boy as he walks up to his mother. This gives us the feeling that this boy will somehow be a major part of this scene because, why would the camera focus on him so much, unless it was to mislead us. The boy asks his mother if he can stay in the water for 10 minutes longer. Later on we realise the irony that if he had never gone back in the water he would have been safe. Again like the first attack this scene looks so innocent. This is to try and fool our minds to thinking this place is safe. We then see Brody watching the water. This is a point of view shot and this shows us exactly what area of the beach Brody can see. We then see a man throwing a stick to a dog. Again we see that the man or the dog could be attacked because other wise why would the camera focus on them so much. The dog is then shown in a long shot as it swims around with a stick in its jaws; this could signify the attack on the dog.
The camera now focuses back on the boy with a close up of him swimming on a yellow Lilo. The yellow colour of the Lilo symbolises warning or danger and subconsciously supports our suspicions that this young boy is in trouble.
The camera then shows Brody, closely watching the water. This creates tension with the audience because Brody is on edge so we think someone is going to be attacked.
Then there is the first false alarm. We see a black coloured object swimming under the water with a black shape floating on top. Brody immediately jumps out of his seat but it turns out to a man wearing a black swimsuit. This creates suspense because we are waiting for the real attack and again leads us into a false sense of security. After Brody sees that this is a false alarm a sun burnt man comes to talk to Brody. He talks for about a minute but Brody pays no attention to him. He continues to watch the water even more closely than before. Now there is a second false alarm. A woman, who is playing in the water screams. This again makes Brody jump out of his seat and see what is going on. It turns out that she screamed because someone came up from underneath. A second false alarm has been used so that when the attack does eventually come we will perceive as a cry for wolf and think of it as a third false alarm. The camera then shows a small boy singing the muffin man to himself all alone on the beach. This, like the last scene it shows the innocence of the scene. This boy is actually Brody’s son and this creates a possible victim in the minds of the audience. The camera then goes over to a mid shot of the man who was playing with his dog earlier on in the scene, but this time he does not know where his dog is so he is calling for it, unaware of what has happened. This tells us that something is very wrong and creates even more suspense with the audience. We immediately assume that it has been attacked by the shark. We then know something is going to happen when we see a point of view shot of something underneath the water looking up at a pair of legs. We then hear the ‘Jaws’ theme getting faster as the point of view shot moves closer and closer to the pair of legs. This dramatic effect makes the audience aware that the shark is near and creates tension. We then see a point of view shot of Brody, who sees the attack in the distance. Again we do not see the see the shark, but at this point in the film we are sure that it is a shark that is attacking these people. Brody realises what is happening and a push pull shot (Created when a camera moves away from the actor but zooms in at the same time) focuses on his reaction to what is happening. This camera effect visually displays the confusion and panic that is going on in Brody’s head. Brody runs to the water as fast as he can to try and evacuate the people in it. There is a general panic with parents rushing into the water to carry there children away.
After the panic has calmed and everyone is stood in shock a single mother rushes to the front of the crowd looking for her son, but he is no where to be seen. At this point there is absolute silence as the yellow Lilo, the boy was playing on, is washed up on the shore and the woman is stood there in absolute shock.
Although we did not consciously perceive these things, we saw red and white tents in the background as red is a sign of death, the victims mother was wearing black obviously symbolising death and the young boy was riding a yellow Lilo meaning caution. This made us focus even more on that young boy although we did not know why.
The sharks main personality trait in the film is its intelligence. When we think of a shark we think of a giant fish that can cause tremendous damaged to all life. We see sharks of having no intelligence, for example in cartoons the shark is usually portrayed as a thick bully, but in this film it is very different. The shark shows its stealth-ness as it goes through the water. So far in both attacks, the shark has managed to attack before starting any panic. It also showed intelligence when everyone went out to hunt the Great White Shark. But it stayed away from the bait given, almost as if it knew it was a trap. The creates a lot of fear and suspense within the audience because we have no idea what this creature is capable of and although how terrifying it may be we still want to know.
When we look at the characters reaction to the shark, as they see it, we know it is very powerful. When Hooper performs the autopsy on the girl who was killed in the first attack, he himself was revolted at the small amount of limbs that were left, he hyperventilates and sweats in great amounts as he realises that this is no normal shark. The reason we see so little is to try and make the audience wonder how much damage this shark can do to someone although Hooper does lift up a severed arm which gives us a slight clue.
The first two attacks are close together. This is because the repetitiveness of them gives them more impact, because the director wanted to keep the audience on the edge of there seats and interested in the film all the way through.
The third and final attack takes place on the 4th of July. This day is the American Independence Day. The mayor is again arrogant and selfish. He decides that the beaches would not be closed on the biggest holiday of the year. He is adamant that the beaches are safe, the conflict between Brody and the mayor creates tension, but to alleviate the publics fears he decides to get help to protect the beach in case of another incident. He has helicopters with gun men inside patrolling the coastline looking for any sign of sharks. As you can imagine the public themselves would be very tense at this point because of the amount of protection needed for a so called ‘safe beach’.
Steven Spielberg liked creating false alarms. He had two in the last attack and this one is no different. Two young children decide to play a practical joke and fake a shark attack by using a cardboard fin and a snorkel. The helicopters hone in on this and discover the two children. This increases the suspense and therefore the tension increases even more because we want to know where the shark has been while the helicopters have been distracted by this false alarm. Brody, to be on the safe side, then asks his two sons to go and play in the nearby lake instead of in the ocean. But we soon realise that the seemingly safe lake is not safe at all. The shark has somehow managed to find its way into the lake and comes after Brody’s two sons. This is the first time Brody’s family has been directly involved in a shark attack. It is almost as if the shark has some kind of personal grudge against Brody. As soon as the boys see the shark they scream ‘Shark’ as loud as they can but the public just think this is a ‘cry for wolf’. But Brody hears his sons screams and runs too the rescue and manages to save his son. But everyone thinks it is too late because as he brings him to the shore he just lies there unconscious . Fortunately he is only in shock but his mother believes it to be much worse. Brody then looks into the distance, to see the sharks dorsal fin disappearing below the water.
In the final scene of the film we see Hooper, Quint and Brody, set sail to go out and finish off the shark once and for all. As they set sail we see a long camera shot of the ship through some sharks jaws that were hanging in Quints window. This foreshadows the events to come. This dramatic effect makes the audience realise that the ship will encounter the shark Jaws and also, because the jaws are hanging in Quints window this tells us that Quint may not come back alive.
As the group get further away from the shore, they release slurry (fish, blood and guts) into the water to try and lure the shark towards them after a long wait they finally get a glimpse of the sharks dorsal fin moving towards the boat. They decide to attach a sort of buoy onto the shark they use the yellow barrels (Again the yellow colour is being used to signify caution) and attach it to a harpoon. They then shot the shark. The shark probably only felt a scratch but at least they now knew whenever the barrel was around the shark was near. They also wanted to try and keep the shark above the water, but the shark was to strong and was able to submerge. Hooper then decides to go down in his Shark cage and diving gear to try and shoot the shark in its mouth. As the cage is lowered we begin to hear the two semitones they get faster and faster until we actually see the full size shape and colour of the shark, before now we only saw a fine or a few teeth but not the whole shark all at once. The shark starts to barge itself against the cage. These cages are supposedly shark proof. But as Quint and Brody try and pull the cage to the surface the pulley falters and the cage is dropped down to the seabed. After they mange to fix the pulley they raise the cage to the surface only to find it empty and the bars bent. Suspense is created because we are unsure of what has happened to Hooper as we did not see a body but we assume he is dead. After this Brodys and Quints attempts to kill the shark go downhill. The shark bumps against the rear of the boat breaking the back and allowing it to flood. The boat begins to tip on end and the shark is at the bottom. Unfortunately Quint trips and ends up with in the Jaws of Jaws. Brody is below deck frantically trying to find away to kill the shark as it fills with water. The shark dramatically manages to make its way through the bottom of the boat and almost puts Brody out of his misery but it is as if the shark is teasing Brody, trying to play with his food as it were. When the shark came by again Brody managed to force a gas canister into its mouth. We learnt earlier on from Hooper that if they ever got pierced they would give a large explosion. Brody finds a gun and makes his way to the mast of the ship trying to stay above water. After several shots at the sharks mouth he manages to hit the gas canister, (But not before saying ‘die you son of a…). This created a massive explosion in which the sharks skin and guts were thrown everywhere and the rest of the shark gradually sinks to the bottom but as this happens we see bubbles rising to the surface. It puts the audience in suspense thinking that the shark is back, and that it really is invincible, but to everyone’s surprise Hooper comes afloat and we all realise that he did indeed survive the attack. He managed to escape the cage and make his way to the sea bed with out the shark knowing. Our fears, suspensions and tensions fade away as we all know that it is now over.
The final scene is of Hooper and Brody sailing off into the distance using one of the barrels afloat after the shipwreck.
I think that the scariest scene in the film is the first attack. We have no idea what is out there, it is on a night and we are not prepared for what is going to happen. It emphasises the fact the in reality no one is safe. A cheerful young bunch of teenagers enjoying themselves and it turns out that within all of the safety surrounding them there will always be some kind of danger no matter how hard you try and protect yourself. This was also similar in the other two attacks. I think this is the meaning of the film and that everyone can learn a lesson from it.