|
Excerpt From:
"Struggling Against the Tide: Narrative Structure and the Human Connection in Jaws"
Hooper and Quint, the two halves of Brody’s whole, are opposites of each other in all regards with one exception—their personal relationship to sharks. Both Brody and Quint have self-defining shark narratives. Hooper’s shark story is revealed at the Brody’s dinner table when Ellen, Brody’s wife, awkwardly says to the just arrived Hooper she’s been told he’s “in sharks.” He confirms that he loves sharks then relates a childhood experience in which a baby thresher shark wrecked the boat he’d been in. He swam to shore and watched the fish finish destroying his boat (0.41.43–0.42.26). This story explains his very personal and emotional connection to sharks. Quint’s story comes later, at night, while the three of them are aboard the Orca, preparing to face the shark. The captain tells of his time aboard the USS Indianapolis and how, after their ship was hit by a Japanese sub, sharks devoured many of his shipmates (1.29.28–1.33.15). This famous monologue, another product of the script collaboration as the scene was initially created by Sackler, then expanded by John Milius, only to be later condensed by Quint actor Robert Shaw, explains Quint’s relationship to sharks. As the two men bond over their harrowing experiences, Brody stays physically away from them, showing that he doesn’t share the experience or have a personal defining story to offer. Brody is pushed out of their converging narrative. In this way, Brody’s internal conflict is externalized. The union of Quint and Hooper adds tension as it highlights Brody’s aloneness. This isolation is emphasized through character wardrobe. On the day when they battle the shark, Quint and Brody both wear light shirts. Brody wears black. He is a man alone, on a personal journey, and not yet whole.
~~~~
An individual narrative is self-defining and reflective. It comes from within. A self-centered, self-created narrative can be powerful. An introspective, self-defining, self-centered narrative juxtaposed against a master narrative that seeks to control and silence is formidable. Formidable enough to be the big story Spielberg sought to create. Jaws is the story of a man battling the collective status-quo, expressed through the master narrative, resolving his own inner conflicts, action vs. intellect and past vs. future, and gaining his new identity, his own reflective self-defining narrative. At the start of the screenplay, Brody is new to the island of Amity and has no experience with sharks. To make his situation worse, due to a near-drowning experience, he is terrified of the water. This childhood trauma holds him tightly in the past; he is anxious to build his future. He strives to make a difference in his new town and knows it is his responsibility to protect the people of his community, yet he also wants to be accepted by the locals. He’s an insecure outsider, unsure of how he fits into the tight knit, traditional, tourist town, a town that embodies mainstream American culture and all its desired trappings. Going against the leaders could mean losing everything—including those all-America ideals. After his own son suffers the consequences of his inaction, he is propelled into his future. The final scene of the film shows someone very different from the one who struggles to answer the right phone in his own home. It shows a man who has faced death from a shark and survived, a confident man who has just delivered safety to the community that opposed him. Jaws is the story of a man gaining his story.
|
