Steven Spielberg's Turning Points In Jaws

Duh-nun-duh-nun. Duh-nun-duh-nun. The melody of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) is still playing in my head along with the vivid image of being attacked by a great white shark in open water. Jaws, the first of the Spielberg series, took place on the small island of Amity, New York where a great white shark appears and makes the beach its new feeding ground. This thriller was filled with a lot of action, drama, and adventure that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with anticipation and paranoia while watching the movie. Steven Spielberg directed this movie to its success with his direction of the movies’ set design and editing techniques but also his incorporation of these techniques is what really made Jaws into the box-office hit it became. In the opening scene

Steven Spielberg incorporated various turning points throughout the film adding more and more to the suspense and drama of the storyline. For example, when Brody (Roy Scheider), the head police chief, attempts to shut down the beach for safety reasons the mayor (Murray Hamilton) disagrees. Instead, Mayor Vaughn insists on keeping the beach open and ignoring the risks so that the town can bring in money from the tourists that arrive every Fourth of July. Later in the movie, Mayor Vaughn begins to realize his mistake after the shark makes a close encounter with the Chiefs’ son. This marks the second turning point in the movie where Chief Brody, after his sons’ hospitalization, tries to find the shark and kill it. His fear fuels the passion for killing the great white that almost attacked his son. Another turning point in the film took place in the ending scene, where the three men (Brody, Quint, and Hooper) lure the shark to their boat to kill it but during the struggle with the shark Quint (Robert Shaw) dies in the process. This affected me emotionally and brought a sense of fear for the two remaining lives, which are the exact reactions Spielberg was aiming for