Jaws - Creating a legendary film Pt 3

Cinema resources of inspiration

Jaws is ….., a titanic struggle, like Melville or Hemingway

The Moby - Dick influence

There is a similarity between the character of professional shark hunter Quint with the main character of Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab who had devoted his life to  Pequed to find and kill the giant whale. There is a similar obsession of Quint against sharks which is revealed at the scene of monologue and the name of Quint boat is Orca, which is the only one natural enemy of sharks.

The underwater scenes of Jaws

The underwater scenes of Jaws film and especially the shark’s point of view scenes (shark POV) have been compared with classic horror films such as “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” (Jack Arnold, 1954), and the “Monster that challenged the World” (Arnold Laven, 1957). Also there is an obvious influence of two science fiction films in relation with time line of film when the shark reveals in front of the audience, such as “The thing from another world” (Christian Nyby, 1951) where the monster appears to the audience at the last real of the film. Also, in the film “It came from another world” (Jack Arnold, 1953), where the film director builds the suspense because the monster (creature, villain) is always off - the camera. Also. Alfred Hitchcock used this approach by not showing the villain to audience in the first scenes but only at the end of the film.

Such as result Steven Spielberg concentrate on showing the effects of the shark (wounds, corpses, fear to swimmers, fear of a possible economic disaster, wrecks and missing people) rather than the shark itself.

Henry Ibsen’s theatrical play “An Enemy of the people” - En Folkefiende

In Ibsen’s play a local doctor discovers that a seaside town with a developed medical hot springs tourism industry faces a great danger, because the springs are contaminated. The doctor tries to convince the Mayor of the town of the danger. The doctor faces an enormous resistance. The conflict is built step by step  and finally the doctor will loose his job.

In Jaws, the shark attack at the crowded beach in the daylight is pivotal scene to the film because the action begins - the shark hunt.     

Elias Stoikos

Relative Jaws articles

Relative articles

Resources