Assess The Significance Of Suspense In The Film Jaws

Shark attacks still happen to this day. There’s nothing more terrifying than hearing a story in the news of a mighty, great white shark killing an innocent person. He mentions the backlash of Hollywood blockbusters such as “Jaws” and “Sharknado 3” that intensifies one’s fear. Sharks have evolved in our

However, I did prefer the book’s portrayal of the Fishes, in general good people (aside from Rolf) who had reasonably simple demands and weren’t all that violent. The film however perceived them as a large revolutionary rebel terrorist group who didn’t really care too much who got hurt in the way of their ‘uprising’,

Do you wanna know what the chances are for you dying from a shark attack? One in 913,200,766! When 43,000 are injured by their toilet! And sharks don’t even like the taste if human flesh (M. R., Ph. (2015, February 08). The Most Misunderstood Shark Fact Of All Time. From http://www.sharksider.com/misunderstood-shark-fact-time/) With the odds being so slim, we got to love these animals a little bit. I mean it’s the animal you were taught to fear your whole life, when it really doesn’t want to hurt you. But even

Well, at the end of the day people can think what they want but if you ever see a shark you will see that they are not trying to hurt anybody they are just trying to be their true selves. This is why we should protect sharks, because most are harmless, not dangerous, and most of them are already dying because people are killing them, this is why we should protect the sharks no matter what. So whatever you do to the sharks just know that the sharks are not trying to hurt anybody you are just

John Williams excellently used his talent to create a score that captured the mood to be conveyed in each scene. This was very important to the movie due to the fact that the mechanical sharks to be used in the films often did not work. Moreover, Spielberg had to come up with many ways to convey the shark’s presence without actually showing the shark. One of the results of this dilemma was the perfect film score. The main theme is so memorable, that even today when people hear it, they automatically associate it with a shark.

Googe 1 Avery Googe ENC 1101 Professor Alling April 19, 2015 Jaws When most of the world hears the iconic song from the movie Jaws, their mind automatically shifts to images of giant sharks and severed limbs. Thanks to the film, many people boycotted beaches and mothers strictly kept their children away from open waters; triggering a massive cloud of fear and ignorance that would consume most, if not all, of the world. Jaws coated the general public's perception of sharks with a curtain of blood and fear, vilifying them for decades to come. With the films debut in 1975, it kick-started a tidal wave of mass hysteria and paranoia, and as a result the public's attitudes on sharks plummeted as fast and as deep as the titanic.

The director builds up fear for the shark by making the music seem sly and dangerous. The director also makes the music seem like the kind of music you would expect from a murder film. He also builds tension by showing all the attacks in detail and comes quite at a distance so you can see just what actually happens to the victims as if you were watching from the beach. However during the film the shark is described as 25 feet long and weighing 3 tons, several time, this is in a way of giving the audience clues and it even creates a picture in the audiences heads of what its finally going to look like. In the film other sharks are also mentioned as well as the great White Shark, although they both almost paint the same image in the audience’s head as they both show you different ways physical and emotional damages that the shark can cause. The ‘Physical’ techniques used are usually to scare the audience in a sodden movement. And the ‘Emotional’ technique is used to scare the audience very slowly by getting the message across

“Jaws invented that form of pleasurable entertainment exactly 40 years ago this week, opening on June 20, 1975. It also launched the career of Steven Spielberg and turned sharks, in the popular imagination, from fish into monsters” (Marche). It is truly amazing how Spielberg was able to accomplish such a task in being able to change billions of peoples’ view on one aspect. One film created how a shark can be viewed as a surviving animal living in the ocean on one day and a vicious, man-eating killer the next. The suspense that is used throughout the film had an impact on many movies today; directors today use the cuts and ideas that resemble attacks under water or scenes out in the ocean. The huge explosions and surprising shark attacks have given directors a new view on filming and cinematography. The effect this film had not only influenced the audience but also Spielberg and various

Shark Tale is an animated film about a fish, Oscar, who claimed he had killed the son of a gangster shark, when in reality, was only at the right place at the right time. In an effort to seek revenge and to determine if he could become a trusted member of his father’s business, the father shark sent his youngest shark son, Lenny, to eat Oscar (Shark Tale). What Lenny’s father didn’t know was that his son was a vegetarian and nonviolent, and therefore refused to eat Oscar. When his father realized his last son was not what he wanted to be associated with, Lenny was left feeling ashamed, disowned by his family, and ultimately ran away with Oscar to make a new life for himself. Robert Agnew’s General Strain theory accurately explains Lenny’s potential

After the movie was released, the public was terrified and since little was known about sharks, the media and public accepted the image provided from Jaws. The image of sharks as rogue man-eaters made fishermen rush to the shore to go shark hunting. Sharks were used as game in competitions, prizes for fishermen trying to protect the shores, and their fins were cut off for shark fin soup, common in Asia for traditional events (Francis). The fear of sharks was heavily influenced by the press who, to sell more copies, used over dramatic stories and abstract wording to scare people. As best said by The Sydney Morning Herald “fear sells.” Major newspapers that were traditionally conservative like the New York Times and the New York Herald, started to publish stories about “man-eating beasts” and “bloodthirsty monsters,” (Francis). As a precautionary action, beaches set up

June 20th 1975, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg released Jaws to the public. This deep sea thriller was based off the novel of the same name written by Peter Benchley in 1974 with a budget of only seven-million USD and was incredibly successful, grossing around 470.7 million USD. The movie takes place in the fictional town of Amity. Everything is going well that is until a there is a mysterious chain of disappearances, People are either found horribly mutilated or not found at all. Sheriff Martin Brody is called on the scene and it’s concluded that a man eating great white has been stalking Amity’s waters, eating anybody who crosses its path and it’s now up to Brody and young oceanographer Matt Hooper to deal with the shark.

Brody later discovers this is not the case, and that this shark was killed for nothing. This comes across as a metaphor for the My Lai massacre, where hundreds of civilians were killed by US troops who somehow thought it would help the cause of the war, when in reality all it did was raise the opposition who saw the atrocity for what it was. Interestingly enough, following the release of the film, public fear of sharks led to unnecessary killing of the animals and significantly set back attempts at conservation with these animals. The My Lai idea also comes up with the two boys floating the fake shark fin. These boys almost get shot for the misidentification that is the fake shark, which bears similarity to the misidentification that led to many atrocities in the Vietnam war, including My Lai. However, Torry suggests that these actions are “motivated by a justifiable desire to locate and eliminate an evasive enemy and suggest that ‘innocence’ is most often hazardously difficult to discern in the context of continual and elusive threat.” In keeping with the idea of the shark being the Vietcong, this film could be interpreted as an attempt to justify questionable actions in the war by the fact that they couldn’t find the enemy, and thus some leeway is given in the search for the

Steven Spielberg’s film “JAWS” (1975), (Spielberg/Universal), uses the motif of an essentially unseen shark, ominously present through unpredictable displays of terrifying violence, to sculpt a message about good, evil, power, arrogance, and vanity within the hegemony of small-town middle class America. Spielberg markets this “High Concept” (Cook 40), film and its nationalist ideals on a story that is principally based on one image, the shark, and the fallibility of the human decision making process. In a relatively short scene that lasts no longer than a minute and a half, eleven or so minutes into the film, the viewer is presented with the hierarchy of the town’s political decision making process, its hubris and the lack of concern for the physical safety of the common citizenry over which they govern. The scene takes place on a small ferry boat in the town’s harbor. The previous evening there was an unwitnessed shark attack in the harbor water which killed a young woman. The discussion on the ferry, held by the town’s mayor, selectmen, medical examiner, and police chief, is primarily between police chief Brody and Mayor Vaughn. Brody tells Vaughn that he is going to shut the beach down, no swimming will be allowed because it is unsafe. The mayor tell him that he, the police chief, does not have the authority to do so and that only he, the mayor, does and he has no intention to give him authority to do do. “Amity is a summer town and we need summer dollars. If people can’t

Not only do people have reason to be scared of sharks because of basic human nature, but the numbers do not work in sharks’ favor. Due to an increase in the number of people swimming in the ocean and using the coast for recreation, shark attacks have steadily increased across the globe. According to one study of Australian coasts, shark attacks have risen “from an average of 6.5 incidents per year in 1995-2000, to 15 incidents per year over the past decade” (West). The fact that there are more attacks per year means that there’s more media coverage of those attacks, which means that the concept of sharks as villains is reaching more people, which means that sharks are getting an even worse reputation than they were before.

The film and entertainment industry are often reflective of how society feels towards something or it may influence how society will feel. For example in the past with the Film Franchise of Jaws people began spreading myths of sharks as man-eaters. The film industry in this scenario held huge sway over public opinion and even caused the shark population on the northwestern seaboard. According to Research Biologist Dr. Julia Baum, form the year of 1986 to 2000 there was an 89% drop in total shark population on the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean (BBC article). The film industry holds an especially impactful hold over people’s public opinion in America. With one film the way people spent their time thinking at the beach was forever changed. Now imagine