Jaws and Jurassic Park Films

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Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and his other film Jurassic Park (1993) both contain a major theme of what makes a successful hero in society. In Jaws, police chief Martin Brody must successfully eliminate the threat of a Great White Shark from attacking Amity Island. In Jurassic Park, billionaire John Hammond creates a theme park where cloned dinosaurs come alive, hoping that his ideal resort becomes a major success. Through the use of film style elements, such as editing and mise-en scene, Spielberg develops Brody’s character as a person who must learn from his past mistakes in order to become a successful hero while Spielberg creates Hammond’s character as a man who only sees himself as a hero of science and technology without realizing his attempted control over nature is what leads him to his ultimate failure.

In a crucial scene in Jaws, chief Martin Brody must use his mistake as guide for to him complete his goal of saving the town from the antagonistic shark. After catching a tiger shark, the local town fishermen all celebrate their victory together with Brody and the mayor believing they have solved Amity Island’s problem. Soon the mother of the deceased child who was killed by the great shark appears on the boardwalk. Her costume, a solid black dress appropriate for a funeral, contrasts with the bright sunny day on the beach that is represented with high-key lighting. The dress also symbolizes the mother’s multiple feelings of mourning for her child and her anger towards Brody, which again juxtaposes the feelings of success among Brody and the fishermen. Her conversation with the police chief is executed through a shot-reverse shot sequence but she catches Brody’s attention with a smack to his face. She goes on how Brod...

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..., is able to become a strong leader by the end of the film while Jurassic Park’s John Hammond is a failure of a hero who only believes that he is a hero when in fact his attempt to use nature for entertainment causes his demise. Sequences in both films, such as the meeting between the grief-stricken mother and Brody and Hammond sitting down with Ellie Sattler, use elements of film-style such as shot-reverse shot editing to signify the apparent mistakes both characters have made. What made Brody into a successful heroic character and Hammond into a character who failed to be a hero was Brody’s ability to understand what he had done wrong and to learn from those mistakes to develop into a champion against the shark whereas Hammond did not even question what he had created and finally realized his mistake only when his control over the cloned dinosaurs had failed him.

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