Jaws: Hungry For Blood

 

Jaws (1975)

Believe it or not, the first time I ever watched Jaws was last week, in my film class. 

I know, I know, I'm really late. But at least I have a one up on people when it comes to Hitchcock's Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window. 

That being said, I'll admit, I think the film really lives up to its fame. It was a lot more suspenseful and scary than I thought it'd be. Although I wasn't sure what I was expecting, it definitely was not graphic, bloody kills, a child victim, and an actual realistic looking shark. For 1975, Bruce (The Shark) looked pretty legit and I'll admit made me scream a few times.

After watching and analyzing aspects of the film, something that stuck out to both me and my professor was how menacing and sharp Quint's eyes were during his Indianapolis speech. After looking into it a bit more, I made a connection between him and the shark that I thought worked in the storytelling and revealed deeper meaning behind Quint's character and one of the possible themes of the film. So, let's take a dive into this blog post. Shall we?

Synopsis

In the New England town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody watches over the safety of the guests and residents who go to the popular beaches of the town. When a young local girl dies from a shark attack, Brody attempts to take extreme safety precautions to avoid anymore victims. But with Fourth of July weekend coming up, all the town officials are ignoring any and all concern in exchange for the revenue that comes from the tourists that visit and swim at the beach. The town continues with their festivities, welcoming everyone to the waters. 

Unfortunately, the same shark who killed the young girl earlier in the film comes back during the Fourth of July and kills a little boy. After this attack, the town seeks to catch the shark that has been terrorizing it, no matter the cost. The townspeople begin to get ahead of themselves, trying to catch any shark they find, in hopes that they catch the shark. But they get hasty when the first shark they caught didn't even turn out to be the one who killed the past two victims. 

When it is revealed that the shark has still yet to be captured, Brody takes it upon himself as police chief to catch it himself, with the help of Quint, the experienced veteran of both the sea and World War II, and Matt Hooper, the oceanographer with a keen interest for sharks. The three men venture out into the ocean on Quint's boat, "The Orca," to capture the Great White.

On the first day of the hunt, the men are patiently waiting to draw out the shark, in hopes of shooting it with a harpoon to attach barrels that will eventually keep the shark from going deep underwater and make it easier to notice when it gets closer. When the shark unexpectedly appears, Quint is able to shoot one barrel into it, but the shark is able to disappear in the sea. 

Later that night, the men get drunk and talk about their body scars. After a mark on Quint's body is pointed out, he proceeds to tell the story that began his vendetta around sharks. When he was serving in World War II dropping off bomb components, his ship sank and many of his crew mates got eaten by sharks while waiting to be rescued. 

The next morning, the men are running out of time and ideas on how to catch the shark. Resorting to their final options, Hooper volunteers to go underwater in a cage he brought to spear the shark with poison. When he goes down though, the shark sneaks up from behind and swims into the cage, disfiguring it and making Hooper drop the spear. 

Moments later, the shark swims up to the Orca where Quint and Brody are left stranded by themselves. The shark swims out of the water and onto the boat, tipping the bow into the ocean. The two men on the boat struggle to avoid falling into the shark's mouth as the boat is uneven. Quint is unable to hold on to anything and ends up sliding into the shark's mouth, ultimately killing him. 

When Brody realizes it's all up to him for his survival, he quickly grabs an air tank and shoves it into the shark's mouth. The shark goes back underwater and quietly circles around the boat. Brody keeps watch of where the shark is, being ready to shoot the air canister with Quint's rifle. Just before the shark is inches away from attacking him, Brody gets the perfect shot into the air canister, blowing both the can and the shark to pieces. Brody and Hooper, who went and hid beneath some underwater rocks while Brody was fighting the shark all on his own, are able to paddle back to shore on a piece of the boat.

Parallels Between Quint and the Shark

The comparison that this blog post is centered upon honestly might be a reach. But after watching the film and finding possible connections, I figured I might as well relay my findings for the sake of giving both Quint and Shark some sympathy. 

Characteristics

In terms of their relationship to the town, both Quint and the shark are definitely outsiders or the ones that stick out in the island. Although there are many fishers on the beach, Quint seems to be a very independent fisherman. A lot of the other fisherman are always talking with each other, celebrating their catches, and overall seem to be a very cooperating bunch. But ever since the beginning of the film, Quint on the surface is very intimidating with his bright, bulbous eyes, his keen experience with catching sharks, and also his laid back confidence to catching the killer shark. Later on when he starts to get involved with the shark hunt, we see that Quint is completely driven by his ambition and hunger to not just the catch itself, but the power and greed as well.

Similarly, I see these characteristics in the shark itself too. Obviously, the shark would be intimidating and considered an outsider, especially if it's eating the town residents. The shark is also driven by its hunger and satiates it by eating its victims. Comparing the shark and Quint together, I would say that both characters' intimidation and scare factor is only on the surface. In the film, the shark's intimidation and scare factor comes from the sight of its fin. Quint's confidence and experience perceives a calm character, but shatters when he's under the rush of catching the killer shark. 

The main characteristic I wanted to point out was the bright and bulbous eyes. During the scene where Hooper, Quint and Brody are drinking together on the hunt, Quint has an unfortunate story about his first encounter with killer sharks. While delivering a bomb in World War II, his ship sunk and many of his crew mates went overboard, getting eaten by sharks.

After watching the film in class, my professor pointed out during this scene that Richard Shaw's eyes do not blink once. I thought this was interesting, partly because Shaw's ability to keep his eyes open for a long time is very impressive, but also because his eyes in this scene parallels what he's describing with the eyes of sharks. Quint describes shark's eyes to be "lifeless," "dark" eyes that roll over white when they've bitten something. Watching this scene again after our class' initial screening, I feel as though Quint's eyes are similar to what he describes as shark eyes. Maybe not dark, but I would say they're lifeless and are always looking intently at their prey. 

Quint and the Shark's Happily Ever After (not really)

Now I know that this hypothesis is kind of a stretch, but bare with me, because it's going even farther. As I said in the synopsis, both Quint and the shark died. Although the way they died are definitely not comparable, I think they both died in similar contexts. 

As I mentioned earlier, both characters drive on hunger and ambition. They both confidently go for what they want at whatever cost. Unfortunately, that drive made both of them hasty and lead to their demise. For the shark, its predatory nature (at least in this film) was focused on the three men trying to catch it, and indeed he got one of them. But it also got him killed as he was outsmarted by Brody and ended up getting blown up. For Quint, he has been showing off this entire movie, acting as the lead expert for this catch. But this guy had so much pride that he sabotaged the other guys. First, it was shattering the phone that Brody was using to call the Coast Guard, and then it was blowing the engine when trying to catch the shark. 

The ironic thing is that in his World War II story that he told, Quint mentioned that he was one of the only guys that made it out of the shipwreck and didn't get eaten by a shark. Now this time, he's the one guy who got eaten, while his underdog crew mates made it out. 

Conclusion

Released in the summer of 1975, Jaws broke box office records, making over $7 million in box revenue during its opening weekend. I'll admit, it deserves all of its fame and lives up to its big summer blockbuster claim. I personally loved it and am really impressed at one of Spielberg's earliest creations. Man really packed a bite.