Something to Chew On: Symbolisms I Noticed in JAWS

This is a quick blog that I threw together one day with these thoughts fresh in my mind. It is the first of what may be several suppositions about comparisons, symbolism, and contrasts between different scenes, characters, or elements in films, whether intentional by the filmmakers or coincidental.


Let me begin by explaining where and how my thought process began regarding this topic. One day at work I was at my desk eating a muffin, and I was taking small bites so as not to stuff my mouth and be stuck with a mouth full of food when a call came in. This reminded of the hit man Jules in Pulp Fiction, who at the end of the film (which actually took place at the beginning of the story) was eating a muffin in the diner. He took small, careful bites, and chewed slowly, calmly. I just found it interesting to see a killer who lived a life of extreme measures such as stepping into danger, murdering people, and being involved in gunfights, to practice such calm and measured eating habits in his small, slow bites and chews.

 

This reminded me of Quint in the 1975 classic movie Jaws, when he was aboard his boat the Orca waiting for the shark to arrive. He was sitting in his fishing chair with the fishing pole in front of him, slowly, calmly taking tiny nibbles of a cracker, and chewing very slowly. He appeared very calm, patient, and peaceful. Obviously he had done that before and was well seasoned and experienced.


Later in the film at the Quint’s battle against the shark came to an end, we saw the shark swinging its head back and forth and chomping wildly with huge bites, while Quint struggled to avoid sliding down the deck into its mouth. When he ultimately did, the bite that the shark took resulted in an agonizing death and a bloody end for the vengeful shark hunter.

 

Now, what I made notice of may be silly, but the comparison between Quint’s small, slow, methodical bites, and the shark’s huge, fast, wild bites was a blaring contrast to me. I realize of course that the cracker scene was meant to display Quint’s experience and calm patience, while doing something he excelled at, though I can’t help but think that it was filmed and included for the visual contrast; as well as the irony of the shark hunter who so calmly and slowly ate the cracker while hunting the shark, then being eaten so quickly and violently by the same shark.

 


What do you think?
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I shall end this blog with a few interesting bits of Jaws trivia for you to take a bite out of:

1-The producers of the film have admitted that had they read the novel that the film is based on, had they read it more than once, they would not have made the film knowing how difficult the filming would be.

2-Along the same lines, author Peter Benchley went on to say that if he had known about the actual behavior of sharks, he would have never written the novel.

3-Robert Shaw had a bad drinking problem that translated over to problems on the set, and through numerous failed takes he kept messing up the USS Indianapolis scene because, you guessed it, he was drunk (ironically in a sequence where they were supposed to be drunk). They wasted an entire day and still didn't get the scene done, and everyone was upset and Spielberg was upset with Shaw. Later that night, after they had gone home, Shaw called up the director and said he felt lousy and asked for another chance to film the scene. They returned to the set and Shaw, by that time sober, nailed the entire scene in just one take, as well as somewhat ad-libbing which added to the story's effect.

-Quint's descent into obsessive madness, if it could be called that, was very reminiscent of Captain Ahab's obsession to kill the whale in Moby Dick. In fact, Spielberg had wanted to include a pre-hunt scene of Quint watching the film of Moby Dick to further the comparison between the two, but he wasn't able to obtain the rights to use the film. Robert Shaw's dialogue, ironically, was to include him commenting on how fake the whale prop looked in the film.

 

Further trivia: My first viewing of Jaws, when I was six years old, frightened me so badly that I developed a phobia of dark waters and vulnerability from below, an ever present fear that remains with me still. Talk about a movie taking a significant place in one's heart, huh?