Jaws Film Scene Analysis

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jaws (Spielberg, 1975) figures into one of the most iconic films in the history of Hollywood filmmaking most notably for the visual experience that is created with the creative use of various tools of filmmaking that allow its impact to be felt even now. The classic Amity Island beach scene shown in the clip artfully uses editing techniques like long takes, wipes, split diopter, point of view shots, the zolly, and background score to intensify the suspense ridden impending shark attack without actually showing the shark. The scene utilizes long takes, point of view shots, split diopter, and the iconic Hitchcockian zolly shot to dramatize the events leading up to and subsequently, the shark attack itself. The establishing shot of the Amity Beach scene is

The scene cuts to an Extreme Long Shot where the boy is seen struggling as the shark is pulling him down and blood starts filling that part of the ocean. This shot then cuts to a point of view shot of the shark where the boy is visibly being pulled down and blood starts spilling. The continuity error here is that in the shot before this, the blood has already spilled as is visible from afar but the subjective POV shot shows clear water and then the eventual upward spilling of blood. The shot then cuts to one of the iconic Hitchcockian inspired zolly, which was employed in the films Vertigo and Psycho, to represent the dawn of realization on Brody in an unnerving and unsettling way. The use of this technique in this shot reveals very intricately, the conflicted feelings of Chief Brody on letting the beach stay open even after he had reservations and an uneasy feeling about another impending shark attack. The dramatization of his feelings with the use of a zolly is unexpected and makes the viewer feel uneasy as well. Since the audience is privy to both what is going on in the ocean and how Brody has felt about it in