Jaws Analysis

I have chosen to critique the 1975 film Jaws, which is based off of Peter Benchley 's bestselling novel, also named Jaws. Jaws, the film, was written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottleib and directed by Steven Spielberg. I chose to critique how the music and editing, together, heightened the thrill and suspense of the movie and ultimately created an award winning masterpiece. When Steven Spielberg read Benchley 's novel, he immediately wanted to turn it into a movie; purely for entertainment, I assume. This movie was the kick-start to a great career for him. Jaws is a classic tale of man versus beast. Amity Island, the fictional summer resort town in New England, has been terrorized by a huge man-eating great white shark. The chief of

The film is full of editing by Verna Fields to intensify the emotional response of the audience. She uses continuity editing in the scene where Brody, Hooper, and Quint have to assemble the shark cage, so you get the idea without having to go into full detail. When Hooper is in the cage, actual shark footage taken by Ron and Valerie Taylor in South Australia is edited in. There are a lot of jump cuts that have been used to evoke the feelings of panic and fear in the viewer. For example, in the opening scene with Chrissie, you see the camera angle underwater looking up at Chrissie swimming with the glow of the moon above her. The film then cuts to eye level with Chrissie as she is being attacked by the great white, dragging her back and forth as she screams for help. Then it cuts to Tom, who is oblivious to what 's going on. He is peacefully lying on the beach, almost passed out drunk. The calmness of Tom gives us contrast to the brutal attack on Chrissie, which intensifies the shark attack when the camera cuts back to Chrissie. The music also plays a key role in this scene. The intensity of the music is cut to silence when the camera jumps from Chrissie to Tom, magnifying the effects of the music. There are several scenes where the shark is felt but not seen. Spielberg used other means to compensate for the shark 's absence. For example, he uses the shark 's point of view accompanied by the film 's score to create the illusion of the shark 's presence. In other scenes he employs simple tactics like showing only the shark 's fins, or the disappearance of the dog right before the attack of Alex Kitner. The scene with the fishermen on the dock is another example, when the shark rips the dock apart you are still able to see where the shark is because of the attached dock. Parallel editing is used in this scene to show what both fishermen are doing at the same time. You can visualize when the shark sees the fisherman in the water because you can see the dock turn