Jaws Review Essay

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws focuses on Amity Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. Notable for its beaches, the island is a popular tourist spot that is preparing for its biggest holiday of the year, the Fourth of July. However, in the days leading up to this event, the small town becomes the victim of multiple shark attacks. In Jaws, the relationship between human beings and nature falls into a close examination. Throughout the film, people and nature react negatively to the actions of each other. Yet, despite the film’s specific example of the relationship between humans beings and nature, it prioritizes humans over nature and fails to raise awareness of nature’s vulnerability.

The beach and the ocean, which serves as the primary

settings of Jaws, have two functions within the film. In many works of literature and film, the setting operates as background or takes “an active role in the narrative” (Dobie 247). The setting of Jaws takes on both of these roles. When the setting is first introduced, it serves as the background of the scene. The movie begins with young adults having a bonfire on the beach located in Amity (Jaws). In this moment, the beach and the water are in the background, and two of the young adults, Chrissie and Cassidy, are the focal points. However, as these two venture to another part of the beach that is away from their peers, they bring the setting into an active role.
The setting of Jaws begins to play an active role in the film’s narrative when Chrissie enters the ocean. Swimming in the water at night, Chrissie cannot see what is occurring in the water around her. As a result, the shark attacks her when she is off guard and brings her below the water’s surface and to her death (Jaws). When this occurs, several forces of nature are working in order to drive the narrative of the film. As stated earlier, Chrissie does not see what else is in the water because of night’s darkness. Also, in addition to its physical attack on her body, by dragging her beneath the water’s surface, the shark utilizes the water as an accomplice in Chrissie’s death. Each different action of nature had a role in her death. Although not all of nature’s actions are intentional, they each work together to transform the setting from a mere background into a fearful and active being. However, functioning in this manner causes and adverse relationship between nature and human beings.
As a result of nature’s actions within the movie, the human beings are fearful of it. The people’s apprehension towards nature is best demonstrated during the Fourth of July holiday in Amity. At this point of the movie, two people have been killed by the shark that is living in the waters of Amity (Jaws). However, a few days prior to the holiday, several fishermen found and killed a shark that they believed was responsible for the deaths of Chrissie and Alex Kintner (Jaws) Yet, despite this announcement, people are still fearful of the water. Therefore, when people to venture to the beach on the Fourth of July, most people are hesitant to go into the water. They only go into the ocean when the mayor of Amity tells people “nobody’s going in! Please. Get in the water” (Jaws). Thus, the nature has a negative effect on the human beings of the film. As a result of what they have witnessed over the past few days, nature has disrupted everyday life for the human beings. Traditions, such as spending holidays at the beach, have now ceased because of the fear that nature has instilled into the people. This fear also affects the decisions that the people make. When Matt Hooper tells Chief Brody and Mayor Vaughn that the shark needs to be cut open to search for human remains, Mayor Vaughn states that he does not want to “see that little Kintner boy spill out over the dock” (Jaws). In “The Belly of the Best: The Uncanny Shark” Nichole Neff states that the fear that nature has instilled into people like the mayor have settled on uncertainty as opposed to “absolutely knowing the contents of the shark’s stomach” (57). Therefore, nature and its behavior towards humans have caused to humans to shy away from investigating it. They feel safer not knowing about nature and what it has or has not done than they do knowing exactly what has happened. Yet, humans have an effect on nature throughout the film as well.
Although the humans are afraid of nature, throughout Jaws nature is also agitated by the them. In response to the attack on her son, Mrs. Kintner offers an award of ten thousand dollars for anyone who can locate and kill the shark (Jaws). Through this offer, Mrs. Kintner is promoting an attack on nature by the people of Amity. For the violence and disruption that it has caused, she is advocating for people to go out into nature and do the same. In response to Mrs. Kintner’s offer, fishermen from Amity and other surrounding areas set out to find the shark. To attract it, they drop chum- ground bait dumped into the water by fishermen to draw sharks- into the ocean (“chum”). By chumming the shark, the fishermen were disrupting nature. They were intentionally adding an outside object to the water to invoke a response from the shark. The fisherman’s plan works, and they are able to capture a tiger shark that was in the water (Jaws). What this scene demonstrates is that much of what nature does is a response to human actions. The tiger shark did not come into the fisherman’s traps until they dropped the chum into the ocean. Moreover, the other attacks only occurred because the humans entered the water. Thus, humans prompt the ways in which nature acts towards them. However, despite showing this relationship between nature and human beings, Jaws does not give both equal attention.
Although nature is an integral part of the film, Jaws directs the audience’s interest to the lives of the humans.

The film centers on Chief Martin Brody’s quest to stop the shark that is killing people in Amity. Thus, more time is focused on the “emotional affect” the shark has on Chief Brody and his repressed fears causing him “morbid anxiety” (Neff 57). Moreover, the chief is directly affected by the shark when, on the Fourth of July, the shark nearly attacks and kills his son, causing his son to faint on the beach (Jaws). Through the trials that Chief Brody faces, he draws the most interest from the audience. Of all the characters within the film and the various forces of nature, the chief is the only character who's story is fully developed. Throughout the film, he goes from being a concerned and helpless sheriff to the savior of their town. He is positioned as the figure that is meant to be focused on throughout the film. As a result, Jaws does not do much to raise awareness about

nature.
Despite highlighting the relationships between the natural world and human world, it does not raise awareness to the vulnerability of nature to humans.

In Jaws nature is portrayed as an aggressor towards humans. However, nature is at the mercy of humans. When the tiger shark is captured, Hooper informs everyone that “the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim” (Jaws). In addition, when Hooper finally examines the shark, he finds that the shark only contains other fish and a license plate, and not a body (Jaws). Thus, the fishermen have caught the wrong shark and the one responsible for the attacks is still in the ocean. Through this “it becomes clear that the sharp is uncannily vulnerable” (Jeff 57). However, this is not what the humans recognize. Although they recognize that they have captured the wrong shark they do not perceive it as being innocent or vulnerable. Instead, the audience is drawn “further away from the true shark” (Jeff 57). Thus, Jaws does not raise its audience’s awareness about the adverse ways that human beings treat nature. In a moment where an emphasis could have been placed on how the human’s actions towards nature result in innocent creatures being hurt, it instead places a greater emphasis on the

humans.
Jaws takes a specific position on the relationship human beings have with nature. Nature serves the film in two ways, it is the background and positioned as a villain harming the lives of the humans. As a result of this duality, people have become fearful of nature and begin to prompt it in specific ways to draw a response from it. Despite the conflict being prompted by both humans and nature, the film specific focus is on the humans and how they are affected. As a result, awareness is not raised to the plight of nature.