Spielberg's Use Of Suspense In Jaws

Born on December 18, 1946, Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, studio executive, video game designer, and one of the founders of the DreamWorks movie studio. His first films were influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s mechanics of suspense, including the film that I will be analysing in this paper, Jaws (1975). Regarded by many to be one of the most monumental films in history, Jaws terrified viewers about the horrors lurking in the ocean, breaking all box office records and launching the age of the Hollywood blockbuster. Even though Spielberg proved that he wasn’t interested in becoming the next Hitchcock by going on to create great critically-acclaimed films that covered a spectrum of genres and themes,

I will argue that many of the qualities found in his subsequent films can still be linked back to elements of his signature filmmaking style found in Jaws. In this paper, I will examine how Jaws presents us with many elements of Spielberg’s signature cinematic style, such as the use of reaction shots to sell the situation to the audience, the striking way he uses music in the editing of his films, how it fits into his usual “action film” melodrama genre, the theme of innocence in great jeopardy, and also the idea of the “big-little” film.
To begin with, Spielberg is famous for using reaction shots to sell the situation of a monumental event happening in the film’s narrative and tell the audience how to feel.

In Jaws, Steven Spielberg uses reaction shots throughout the movie to raise the tension and emotional impact of the shark attacks, most notably during the beach scene early on in the film where there is a dolly zoom shot of Chief Martin Brody’s expression as he hears the alarming screams of children and quickly realises that there is a shark in the water. Spielberg uses this type of reaction shot in many of his other films, including in Jurassic Park (1993) when the shot focuses on the park rangers’ expressions as they react to seeing an escaped T-Rex, or in War of the Worlds (2005), when Ray freezes in horror as he is blinded by the light of a gigantic alien vehicle towering over him. This expressive use of close-ups of characters reacting to situations off-screen manipulates the audience into feeling the revelatory sensations experienced by the film’s characters, and provides a reflection of the characters’ emotions that cannot be simply explained in

dialogue.
Spielberg is also famous for his striking use of music in the editing of his films.

The most famous example of this would be in the multiple shark attack sequences in Jaws, where the main “shark theme”—now regarded as a classic piece of suspense music—is used to increase the rhythm and pacing of the scenes, dramatically increasing the tension until the shark finally attacks the victim. In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Spielberg uses similarly high-tempo music during the film’s opening sequence as Indiana Jones attempts to retrieve the golden idol without setting off any of the booby-traps in the ancient temple. In the scene, the music starts off slow but quickly intensifies as Indiana Jones gets closer and closer to getting his hands on the golden idol. Spielberg’s striking use of music in such scenes builds up suspense and expresses the increasing threat of the approaching

danger.
Perhaps the genre that most of Spielberg’s films are famous for is the “action film” melodrama. A recurring theme during these melodramas is the fight between good and evil, with the good always winning by the end. In his most famous action films, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park among others, the protagonists, who are the good guys, triumph over the terrifying villains. In Jaws, three men fight a great white shark and eventually defeat it by blowing it into pieces. In E.T. an alien from outer space, assisted by a brave boy, successful escapes from a variety of government agents preying on him. In Jurassic Park, the heroes manage to escape from the carnivorous dinosaurs on the island and fly back to mainland via helicopter. This theme is also present in a multitude of his other action films, including the Indiana Jones films and War of the Worlds.
A common recurring theme in Spielberg’s films is the idea of innocence in great jeopardy. In many of his films, children and their families represent this innocence. For example, in Jaws, Chief Bro dy’s son, Michael, freezes in terror and passes out from complete shock upon witnessing a shark attack right in front of him. His friends quickly pull his motionless body back to the beach, where his crying family and dozens of concerned beachgoers wait on him, concerned about his wellbeing. In E.T., an innocent boy meets an alien from outer space, quickly befriending and learning to understand it. War of the Worlds, Jurassic Park, and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) all feature innocent children that are placed in precarious situations as well. In War of the Worlds, an innocent girl, accompanied by her father and brother, attempts to escape from a global alien invasion. In Jurassic Park, two innocent children are almost eaten by a pair of velociraptors. In A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, an innocent robot boy goes on a perilous journey to transform himself into a real human boy. By placing young children in jeopardy, the idea of protecting innocence and the fear of losing innocence in the face of danger becomes a present theme in many of his films.
Spielberg is also famous for making what are considered “big-little” films. Filmmakers often refer to films that focus on emotional and social problems as “little films”. Such films usually have relatively low budgets and are focused more on the acting and writing and not on special effects. “Big films”, on the other hand, have high budgets and regularly contain special effects, monsters, and explosions. Spielberg has mastered the art of combining big films and little films together, creating big-budget thrillers that also contain realistic intimate relational conflict at their very core. In Jaws, Sheriff Brody takes it upon himself to be the protector of the small beach community of Amity Island, risking life and limb to hunt down a great white shark that has been terrorising the lives of his family and the close-knit community of islanders who look up to him. Similarly, E.T. was also considered a big-little film as it had a large budget with an alien and lots of special effects in it, yet had a story that focused on how a little boy developed a deep friendship with the alien. Minority Report (2002), had a 142 million dollar budget and a murder mystery plot, yet focused on a highly personal story about a broken family. War of the Worlds, which can be considered to be his “biggest-little” film of all time, had a 132 million dollar filming budget, was shot on 70 mm film, was full of special effects, explosions, and aliens, yet told an intimate and sensitive story about a father who was trying to protect his children. These big-little films demonstrate Spielberg’s habit of creating high budget fantastical movies that ultimately still focus on family conflict.
Although Spielberg’s filmmaking style has evolved over the years, it really hasn’t changed that much. Compared to Jaws, which he directed over 40 years ago, Spielberg may be making films with higher budgets, larger crews, more locations, longer shooting schedules, and better special effects now, but the signature style of his filmmaking can still be observed even in his latest films. The use of reaction shots to sell the situation to the audience is something that can still be found in all his newest films, along with his striking way of using music in the editing of his films to build up tension. He still makes action films that feature the theme of innocence in great jeopardy, as seen in War Horse (2010), a touching story about a young boy who joins the army and goes through a war before he finally gets reunited with his horse, which also fits into the category of the big-little film. Although Spielberg’s films may have covered a multitude of various themes and genres over the years, most of his films from the past and present are linked together by being high budget big-little films that contain elements of his signature style of filmmaking that have played a large role in shaping modern Hollywood cinema.