Jaws (1975) By Steven Spielberg Jaws is a 1975 American horror/ Thriller film by Steven Spielberg, based on a novel of the

same name by Peter Benchley. The film suffered a few problems during production going over budget and past schedule. The mechanical shark had a few malfunctions and Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animals presence. At the time of release Jaws became the highest grossing film. It won several awards for the soundtrack and editing and is sometimes mentioned as one of the greatest films of all time. Peter Bradshaw saying it was one of the classics "This is a suspense classic that leaves teeth-marks." (Bradshaw, 2012) Kicking off with a beach party in the evening that follows a young girl and guy who leave the party to go skinny dipping. The being so drunk passes out on the waters edge unnoticed by the girl whose already in the sea swimming. She's then seized by something below and dragged down. Her body is found and the Figure 1 Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg medical examiner informs Brody that she was killed by a shark. Brody plans to shut down the beach but he's overruled by the Mayor whose only concern is that summers truism, and the negative effect news of a shark attack could be. A young boy is then killed and his mother offers up a reward for anyone who brings back the dead shark. This reward attracts a number amateur shark hunters who manage to catch a tiger shark and the towns people believe their problems are solved. Not believing this Brody and Hooper go to investigate the waters after discovering that the sharks stomach content is only fish. They discover a wrecked ship with the fisherman's body inside, and a shark tooth embedded in the boat. The Mayor still refuses to close the beach, and a man is killed. The mayor finally concedes to hiring Quint a professional shark catcher. Brody, Quint and Hopper set out to find the shark and kill it. They suffer a few attacks from the shark as it tries to find it's way into the boat. The boat eventually becomes immobilised. Hopper in a desperate attempt to kill the shark climbs inside the shark cage with the intention of injecting it with Strychnine. The plan fails when the shark destroys the cage but Hooper manages to escape. The shark then turns its attention back tot the boat and kills Quint. Brody thinking he's the only one left alive shoots a pressurized air tank that he managed to shove into the sharks mouth. The bullet hits the tank and explodes killing the shark. Hoop swims to the surface and the two of them make their way to shore. The film received a number of raving reviews some just commenting on the excitement the film gave or the dread they felt when they first watched it. There were those that complemented Spielberg's rather creative filming and editing choices. "Spielberg works self-effacingly, with subtly correct camera placement and meticulous editing. He twists our guts with false alarms, giving us the real thing with heart-stopping suddenness." ( Time Magazine, 2008). Not everyone felt the same about the film though, Vincent Canby in particular felt that the film lacked certain

elements, and that the characters have very little depth to them. "If you are what you eat, then one of the sharks in "Jaws" is a beer can, half a mackerel and a Louisiana license plate. Another is a pretty young woman, a cylinder of oxygen, a small boy, a scout master and still more. The other characters in the film are nowhere nearly so fully packed." He did however also complement Spielbergs directing if in quite a backhanded manner. "It has been cleverly directed by Steven Spielberg ("Sugarland Express") for maximum Figure 2. Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg shock impact and short-term suspense, and the special effects are so good that even the mechanical sharks are as convincing as the people." (Canby, 1975) As well as those who looked at the film as a box office hit and the skills of Spielberg as a director there where some academics who took a very in depth look into the film and all the ideological meaning behind it. In the 1970's there was a political scandal known as "The Watergate scandal". The scandal occurred in the United States as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of it's involvement. Jaws is a film that has received a lot of attention from academic critics one of them being Stephen Heath who related Jaws idealic meanings to the Watergate scandal. He made the connection through the way in which way the town's mayor tries to hush up a politically harmful revelation, the shark attacks, that may jeopardise tourism. "Jaws is a Watergate film: Mayor Larry Vaughan of Amity, Long Island, serves his electors by hushing up a shark attack; the white male middle-class - not a single black and very quickly, not a single woman in the film (Heath, Stephen 1976). This is a very in depth look on the film and it dives into the more complex issues that can be found in the ideology of the film. There were others who also connected the film to the Watergate scandal such as Andrew Britton and Peter Biskind.

List of Illustrations Figure 1. Jaws (1975) [Poster] At: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3902647296/tt0073195 Figure 2. Jaws (1975) From: Jaws Directed by: Steven Spielberg [Film Still] At: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/14/jaws-review Bibliography Bradshaw, Peter (2012) Jaws In: The Guardian [Online] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/14/jaws-review Time Magazine (2008) Summer of the Shark In; Rottentomatoes.com [Online] At: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jaws/comments/?reviewid=1762972 Canby, Vincent (1975) Entrapped by "Jaws" of Fear In: Nytimes.com [Online] At: http://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/21/movies/moviesspecial/21JAWS.html?_r=0 Heath, Stephen (1976) Jaws, Ideology, and Film Theory Pg. 510 In: Nichols, Bill Movies and Methods: An Anthology, volume //. (1985) [Online] At: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=22ab7E9K1TYC&pg=PA509&lpg=PA509&dq= jaws+ideology+and+film+theory&source=bl&ots=ag4f1ZZ1sY&sig=ML1nisCSqwr TC9FA5i7iKxi43_0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HX0aUe6zBsrV0QW8i4HoCw&ved=0CDQ Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false