How Jaws left its bite marks on the film industry Did you ever have that one horror movie that scared the daylights out of you as a kid? Depending on your age, it could be the classic slasher film like Nightmare on Elm Street or it could be something more modern like Saw. They seemed so scary to the point where even the poster would drive you away. As years pass and you mature, the fear in you subsides as it all can just be chalked up to the imagination-land called Hollywood. But there's one film that still seems to hold that power in the audience. One New York island town becoming the hunting grounds for a 25 foot maneater. Jaws was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 1975. It was the very first major motion picture to be filmed on the open ocean. …show more content…
The overarching themes of the “Monster Movie” doesn't let the film shy away from making it exciting and dramatic, with even a few comedic elements. Jaws does not hold itself within the confines of a single genre, but takes aspects from horror, mystery, and adventure. By going against the grain of sticking to only one type of story, it made the film enjoyable to a larger audience and birthed the “Summer Blockbuster” model in Hollywood. Spielberg's perfected 3 act structure, subversions of genre, unique stylistic choices, and elite marketing are all to thank for the film industry changing forever. Genres are categorized by many different components, whether it's certain settings, stylistic choices, or story structures. Jaws is primarily labeled as a “Thriller” by critics and audiences alike. The objective of a thriller film is to excite the audience with horror and adventure at the same time. Suspense is built up over time throughout the film and is paid off in the climax. Suspense is also used in smaller instances, keeping the audience petrified, awaiting a terrifying
Jaws is a 1975 thriller that was directed by Steven Spielberg and is also based on a 1974 nook with the same name. The film is about a great white shark attacking Amity Island which is obviously not real but a fictional resort.
‘Jaws’ a thriller based on the novel by Peter Benchley, the film was directed by Steven Spielberg. In a beach resort of Amity Island, a young girl named Chrissie is the first victim of the shark’s vicious attack, when it strikes for the second time, the police refuse to put out warning about the shark. It then returns and kills again, the mayor orders the local fishermen to catch the great white shark before it kills even more victims. The fishermen are satisfied when they catch a Tiger shark the mayor reopens the beaches despite the warning from the ichthyologist when he suspects it was from a formidable great white shark. Brody and Hooper and the only fisherman willing to join them to catch the great white set out in the fisherman’s boat only coming face to teeth with the enemy. This film is rated as a 15, and has a running-time of 124 minutes. It was made in the USA, the soundtrack to ‘Jaws’ was a famous two-note piece composed by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.
Jaws is a well equipped film of mise-en-scene, sound, editing, and cinematographic techniques. Without all of these elements, Jaws would not have as respected of a reputation that it does. The film would lack suspense and would not be able to involve the audience as efficiently. It puts fear and anticipation to the viewer in various aspects. The two and a half minutes of the Kintner boy scene in which I did a breakdown for, was, alone, packed with all of these incredible characteristics tied together quite perfectly.
The tension is constant, there are thrills, there are terrifying scenes, there is humour, there's even a cover-up. There are few horror films in which you'll so identify with potential victims. Jaws had all the conventions, the killer, the hero and the death sequences, the only convention it lacked was blood and gore, certainly when compared to modern day horrors. If you compare Saw (2004) to Jaws, Saw uses a multitude of special effects not available to Spielberg. As a result I think Saw is more intense and scary. I find Saw horrific and appauling, whereas I found Jaws tense and gory and still classed as horror genre.
The horror genre of film captives the frightfulness of individual fear, horror is the only genre that is meant captive the terror of the audience. The horror- the genre has been around well over one hundred- years there has been an extension of different types of horror and how the audience perceives horror. Many would even argue that horror films often reflect the fear of society in that certain time period. The evolution of horror reflects the evolution of society’s fear.
The classic 1975 film, Jaws, takes place in a coastal New England tourist town. After a young woman is killed by a shark the police chief and the mayor have differing opinion on what to do about the shark. The police chief, Martin Brody, wants to close the beaches while the mayor, Larry Vaughn, does not want to lose any tourist revenue and overrules him. After another shark attack a bounty is put out for the shark. While a shark is caught it is not the one who has been terrorizing the community. However, the beaches open once again and there is another attack. Brody, along with oceanographer Matt Hooper and local fisherman Quint set out to find the shark.
Subjective sounds are sounds that do not originate from the environment but can work well to strengthen pacing, story or mood. They can be sounds that the character cannot hear or interact with but instead affect the viewer. Subjective music could be used as a way to create contrast, for example, with typically happy music set against a sad scene.
It is hard to imagine a person who has not heard of Steven Spielberg. He is one of the most renown, if not the most renown, American filmmakers of the century. His films have captivated and helped develop imaginations of contemporary society and remain among the most successful films ever made.
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.
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
A Film Review on Jaws [IMAGE]"Jaws (Style A)" Movie PosterBased on the novel by Peter Benchley, the film sees New York cop, Martin Brody (played by Schneider is investigating a series of deaths that bear all the blame. evidence of a shark attack. This was originally rated as a PG but when? re-released in a 12. A great opening scene showing Chrissy ‘the stereotypical blonde’. being devoured by the unknown killer, puzzles most reviewers in the question.
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.
Steven Spielberg is arguably the best director of all time! His unique movies have made him very successful in the list of all time directors. His expressive imagination makes him so unique from other directors. Blockbusters such as Jurassic Park or Saving Private Ryan helped him rise to the top.
Would you rather be horrified beyond repair or thrilled to the point of no return? In horror, the main purpose is to invoke fear and dread into the audience in the most unrealistic way. Horror movies involve supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires, teleportation, and being completely immortal. As thriller films are grounded in realism and involve more suspense, mystery, and a sense of panic. Though both genres will frighten the audience, it will happen in two different ways. Whether the horror thrills or the thriller horrifies, a scare is always incorporated.
Almost everyone has a favorite genre of film, but how everyone defines their favorite genre can differ greatly. Horror is one of the genres where its definition can be perceived differently by many people. Like all other genres, horror does have rules and traditions that must be included in order for a film to be considered a horror film. These rules and traditions include a protagonist, an antagonist, an escape or escape attempt of some sort, and very influential audio and visual effects.