Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Ridley Scott's Gladiator Essay

Jaws is a suspenseful film directed by Steven Spielberg, a well known film auteur. Within this film the director and his colleagues collaborate to introduce a variety of cinematography techniques that help portray thrill and excitement. With a combination of successful and clever editing, lighting, sound, camera positioning, and dialogue, the scenes are transformed to be very realistic and influence the viewer’s perspective as if they are there. In order to properly analyze this film, an evaluation of the narrative structure, time, space, and sound must be done. Each of these areas assist to reveal the underlying meaning to the cinematography techniques used throughout the film.

Numerous movies, such as, “300”, draw inspiration from the ancient myths of Greek mythology. The movie 300 was based on the battle of Thermopylae, which was based on a real event in Greek mythology. The movie depicted Leonidas as a fearless character and for this he is still remembered and is highly valued till this day. Violence was a key aspect in myth because back in ancient times, the only way to grab the audience's attention was to tell a story that was exciting. Stories about heroic adventures or memorable deaths of powerful gods snatches the audience and sometimes inspires them to do good deeds. Even today, modern people still seek those characteristics, such as, when going out and watching a movie. Today’s films still contain violence because violence in life is unusual, however, watching something violent on a screen is somewhat pleasurable, and

How does the director try to build suspense and scare the audience in the film Jaws?

Director, screenwriter, and producer, Stephen Spielberg, has been often described by critics as being one of the trailblazers who paved the way for the new Hollywood era. In fact, one of Spielberg’s earliest films, JAWS, captured the audience’s attentions so vividly that the movie remains to be a cult classic even decades later. The audience sunk its teeth deep into the enticing combination of drama, thrill, science-fiction, and adventure the film obtained. At face value, JAWS appears to be focused on a giant monstrous fish, but with further analyzation of the plot structure, narration, and original music demonstrates the brilliance and complexity of why JAWS is a well deserving Oscar-winning movie.

As I have already mentioned Jaws is an important movie because it was the first real blockbuster, grossing $450 million. A common discussion is whether Jaws is a horror or thriller, I am going to analyse the two scenes to help us decide. The film starts under water with a shark’s point of view of the ocean. Only the audience don’t know it’s a shark, the music is un nerving underneath the water of the unknown. Then we switch to a calm atmosphere on the beach with students gathered round the fire drinking, smoking and having laughs, this is to show it is warm, safe and chilled out. We then reach the edge of the fireside warm, and then introduced to the victims, the teenagers; this is a modern convention as they are humans not monsters. There is element on the beach to show the beach is safe and protected. Spielberg, the director introduces the first two characters, Tom Cassidy and Chrissie Watkins. The director uses a close up of them looking at eachother, tom is facing the opposite side to the fire and Chrissie is sat in the distance from the rest of the group on the outsider of the fire, there is also a fence on the outside to show that past there isn’t safe.

Almost every Hollywood movie follows a set tradition. The Hollywood movies have recurring elements in almost everyone. Each Hollywood movie has the same format and setup, but this does not make it a classical movie like the Wizard of Oz. It is no walk in the park creating a Classical movie. Jaws is the quintessence of Classical Hollywood Cinema. It is a great suspenseful classical movie that will beat out the test of time. Two main element in narrative Hollywood cinema are focusing on main character, and that main character solving a goal. The movie, Jaws, revolves around Sherriff Brody, and his struggle to protect the beaches from a shark. Once there is a goal defined, there is opposition. The opposition keeps the protagonist from meeting

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and his other film Jurassic Park (1993) both contain a major theme of what makes a successful hero in society. In Jaws, police chief Martin Brody must successfully eliminate the threat of a Great White Shark from attacking Amity Island. In Jurassic Park, billionaire John Hammond creates a theme park where cloned dinosaurs come alive, hoping that his ideal resort becomes a major success. Through the use of film style elements, such as editing and mise-en scene, Spielberg develops Brody’s character as a person who must learn from his past mistakes in order to become a successful hero while Spielberg creates Hammond’s character as a man who only sees himself as a hero of science and technology without realizing

The Breakfast Club, Jaws, Star Wars. Major films that have reached the utmost level of recognition. They have become iconic in the film industry, and culturally consecrated by society. The films society deems worthy of such a recognition have shifted over the years, due to how society has shifted. Due to their popularity, it raises the question if movies which involve superheros could ever rise to such a title. If they can, which ones would be able to hold this honor? All of them? Only a select few that hold a strong following? Wonder Woman, one of the newest superhero films from Warner Brothers and DC comics has not only the ability to rise to this level, but also to stake its claim in the film industry to be used as inspiration later on

The Ways that the Director Builds Suspense and Scares the Audience in the Film JAWS

The movie Gladiator is represented accurately, yet scholars overlook significant details. According to Allen Ward, creative minds that shape popular views of the past have little regard for the level of accuracy that preoccupies professional practitioners of Clio’s craft. Movie writers base their information off of the main facts to manipulate their own story line. Acknowledging not everything in a movie is factual, a movies imagery and audio absorbs students in ways lectures and textbooks cannot. For example, Allen Ward appoints the movie Gladiator just from the opening scene. Although there was no last battle with the Germanic tribes on the eve of Marcus Aurelius death, the movie Gladiator, captivates viewers and meets those enthralling

What is bold is the way the ruthlessness is portrayed, the moral message of the film maker and the moral response roused from the gathering of spectators. The question is not whether a film exhibits violence, yet rather whether it does in that capacity just to titillate or interest. A film which glories in violence is a kind of sensual stimulation, and the voyeuristic enthusiasm with viciousness can be comparably as stunning and defiling as overview sexual profanity.

The first fascinating difference between this work and the majority of other war photography presents itself in a fairly obvious manner. The soldiers’ faces in “Into the Jaws of Death” are turned away from the photo so as to make them invisible to the audience. Instead, we see only the supplies on their backs and the camouflage on their uniforms. The effect of this lack of eye contact is that the audience cannot connect with the people in the photograph. The majority of other wartime photographs used iconic images of courageous and vibrant soldiers rushing fearlessly into the glory of battle or contained motivational quotes requesting support for the troops. “Into the Jaws Of Death” does neither of these, entirely on purpose. Because we as the audience do not have eye contact

The frame cuts to a cold and dark battlefield in which the director has used a close up of Maximus’s face in order to reveal the emotions of a tired soldier,however, Maximus catches a glimpse of a Red Robin which often symbolises the return of warmth after a long cold haul and the red breast signifies the forthcoming of bloodshed. As Maximus moves towards his army there is a long shot which displays him walking alone thus introducing the theme of isolation. Moreover, this frame allows the audience to discover that Maximus is a man of importance through the use of his costume, Maximus’s armour is far bigger than the other characters as well as has different insignias weaved into it. As the battle draws near, a high angle long shot is used to display the mighty Roman army, wearing blood red capes to further emphasise the forthcoming of bloodshed. Furthermore, the opposing army’s armour is rather contrasting to that of the Roman Empire as they are dressed in rugged cloth which suggests that they are not nearly as superior as the Romans who wear a steel

“Kill him, flog him, burn him alive,” rip-roaring and cheering so loud that I could not hear myself. Being a fan of Rome and having the chance to attend one of the world’s greatest gladiator fights was a dream come true after trying so hard to get into the Roman Coliseum for years. Watching from the best seat in the Coliseum viewing the gladiators that are the center of attention fighting against enemies. Wow, from out of nowhere a savage tiger springs onto the arena floor whipping his paw out to grab and kill a gladiator. Hearing the sounds of the mighty swords clashing off together, in every direction Romans jumping out their seats till one is dead and the other who survive the brutal battle for his life is left standing.

A thunderous boom of cheering erupts as a warrior steps in a stadium of thousands. The opponent is across the field and would give goliah a run for his money. Nobody can foresee who will come out the conqueror, which is the reason thousands came to watch the spectacle. It is a battle of strength, endurance, and wit. Armour of old enclose their bodies, gray steel helmets cover their faces, hiding their emotions. The opponent closes the gap between them, swords gleaming in the blinding heat. As the weapons grace each other with their presence the crowd explodes into yet another fury of cheers. A gladiator match was one of the many events Romans would come in hordes to watch. Out of all the Roman inventions the Gladiator match is what most