Jaws_Essay

Analyse the ways that the director builds suspense and scares the audience In the film ‘Jaws’ ‘Jaws’ was directed by Steven Spielberg and is based on a best selling novel by Peter Benchley. It’s about a man eating, great white shark who finds itself off the coast of a popular beach in Amity Island. Residents of the Island are being attacked by the lethal shark. It takes a police chief, a marine biologist and a shark hunter to kill it. ‘Jaws’ is set on the 4th of July because it’s a national holiday for all Americans as it’s the day USA was declared independent the UK. Plus the weather is guaranteed to be hot and more people will be on the beach, but more crucially in the water. On the 1st of July 1976 ‘jaws’ was released in the UK where it broke all box office records and showed in over 465 cinemas. ‘Jaws’ won 3 Oscars and another nine wins and 13 nominations including best film music by John Williams. Spielberg said “it was worth every last penny of the seven million to make.” ‘Jaws’ was followed by 3 sequels ‘Jaws’ 2, 3 and 4. In the title sequence the audience hear the classic piece of suspense music which is used throughout the film to signal the shark’s arrival. Composed by John Williams Spielberg was said to have ‘laughed’ when he first heard the theme, but later described it as being ‘perfect’. Williams wanted the music to sound ‘threatening and used the low pitch to represent the depth of the sea. The tempo of the tune starts ‘adagio’ and fairly ‘piano’ (quiet), hinting to the audience that the shark is about to make an attack, gradually the music builds up to being ‘forte’ and ‘allegro’, creating the tension. Eventually, the theme becomes discordant which signals that the shark is coming closer to an unsuspecting victim until it stops at sudden silence. At this point, the audience are aware that the attack is over and the victim is dead. In ‘Jaws’ effective camera shots are used to build up tension, if used correctly they can play a big in scaring the audience. When chief Brody watches over the sea, the angle used is very long shot. This is so the audience can see the whole surroundings, and they can also see what’s going on. Often the camera shots can trick the audience. For example, when the old man swims we see the top of his black swimming hat and assume that it’s only an elderly man. This is all filmed in long shot-shot so we cannot see clearly what’s in the sea, whereas if it had been filmed in close-up the audience would be able to tell the hat wasn’t a shark straight away. Another false alarm is used when a sunburnt man talks to Brody, blocking his view of the sea and replacing it with a big close-up of the man’s face and back. However, Brody doesn’t take in a word as he has to rely on his hearing for any problems. The camera angle is close-up on Brody’s face. This is used to show the audience his facial reaction which is anxious. Suddenly Brody hears screaming, the audience and himself think “shark” though when he jumps up, he finds the racket is coming from a couple of teenagers playing in the water. The director does this so Brody is shown to be the only person actually aware that there is a shark in the sea. The people on the beach see screaming as a normal activity in the water, where as Brody doesn’t because he knows a violent creature lurks in the ocean. The most memorable angle shots are those from the second attack where the young boy Alex is the victim. Using long-shot we see him enter the sea on his yellow Lilo and red shorts which are contrasting colours. The director chooses these colours so we can focus on and remember the boy who is attacked later. When Alex is comfortably swimming on his lilo he is alone. Again we are constantly reminded to focus on him, and the dog playing fetch with is owner. Gradually more and more children enter the sea to play. The audience lose sight of Alex. Instead they observe the sea in long-shot filled with young children enjoying them self’s. When the dog doesn’t react to its owner like he did earlier the audience sense that something is about to occur. All the camera shots used have a big impact on the audience and build up the tension before the attack. Abruptly, the audience get a complete change of atmosphere; in low angle shot they see the shark’s point of view and hear menacing music at the same time. The audience witness the camera shot of the shark getting closer and closer to Alex’s legs and the music stops, replaced with screaming of the children in the water. The individuals on the beach don’t notice until in (long-shot) they see the young boy fighting to stay up in the water and the blood surrounding him. As soon as chief Brody has realised what’s happening, the camera zooms straight in to a close-up of his face, it’s a very unforgettable powerful shot. The audience can see the fear in his eyes, they get the feeling that his chest is tightening. The people on the beach start acting franticly rushing towards the sea not knowing what to do. The contrast between the two shots is significant and leads to chief Brody directing them what to do. As Alex’s mother warily begins to call for him his yellow lilo all blood-spattered and torn drifts to shore hinting that Alex is dead. The director uses various ways to build up fear of the shark. Its musical theme is one way of scaring the audience. Whenever the shark is due to attack, the famous two-beat melody begins, using Ostinato to represent ‘Jaws’ heartbeat. This makes the audience fearful of the shark as they can tell he is getting more and more eager to satisfy his basic animal instinct for food, and if he doesn’t he will most definitely become frenzied. The director also creates anxiety by not showing the shark itself, only the harm it’s able to cause until the third attack where we see a glimpse of ‘Jaws’ an hour in to the film. Another way of making the audience terrified of the shark is through the damage it can cause. For example, during the second attack Alex’s blood and bits of his flesh are squirted in all directions. This builds up fear of the shark as it makes the audience feel nauseous. Also on the third attack, a bloody leg of the victim is left to sink to the bottom of the sea. As it’s gruesome, the audience become more and more frightened of the shark and what it’s capable of. In the final scene, Quint is eaten by the shark. Many viewers would find this part extremely horrifying and challenging to look at as it’s the first attack they have witnessed in detail. The director uses the characters’ reactions as another way to increase the fear of the shark to the audience. The scene when Brody is watching over the sea for anything suspicious, and then notices there is an attack taking place is a good scene to recall. Brody’s facial reaction for this shows exactly how he is feeling which seems to be horrified. The audience would too feel this way since Brody is watching over the sea and an attack still manages to take place. Another scene to remember is when the young man shouts for his dog Pipit, Pipit doesn’t respond and so the young man becomes concerned. His facial reaction is worried; we can tell that something is wrong just by looking and listening to him. The plot and ending of the film ‘Jaws’ is used to create fear and tension. Through out the film, Spielberg uses a variety of ways to build up the suspense, so that the audience is always left to fret about what is likely to happen next. One way the director increases apprehension is by making the first two attacks close together, so the audience know the shark is planning on staying in the Sea of Amity Island for all his meals. Another way is making ‘Jaws’ attack people rapidly one after another as if to say it is a deadly animal and will go out of it’s way to feed on humans. Another way the tension is built up is, on the third attack, 4th July. It’s a very significant attack because Brody’s elder son is involved; as he plays with a group of his friends on a boat he notices a shark headed his way. This creates tension as the audience are desperate to know if the shark is going to attack him. Since it’s Brody who is trying the most to capture the shark, using his own son to be the victim is very distressing. When the audience find out he luckily does not get attacked they relax. A further way suspense is used is in the final scene when Brody is clinging on to the top of the boat as its sinking trying to blow up the shark. This part of the film creates tension as Brody keeps missing the shark as he shoots at it and there is not much left of the boat floating before it sinks. The audience begin to think that Brody will drown and ‘Jaws’ has won (however, Brody defeats the shark and manages to blow it up). An added technique used to create tension could be when Hooper is lowered down in the cage to attempt to drug the shark. As the shark rams in to the cage breaking it, Hooper drops the injection, this creates tension because we think that Hooper is going to be eaten. However he isn’t (he appears again in the ending of the film). Also the shark used for that scene is a real shark and the person in the cage is genuine, this creates even more tension as the shark reacts violently, it could even put the audience of swimming in the sea for life. In my opinion the scariest moment of ‘Jaws’ is when, Chief Brody throws out pieces of fish in to the sea and the shark is lead up to the boat. The reason this is a scary part is because it’s the first time we witness the shark in detail and when we do, it suddenly jumps out on Brody, with no warning of the music that we are used to hearing when the shark is going to appear.