Three men in a boat

 

So I re-watched “Jaws”. I never grokked this production the first couple of times I saw it. It hardly scared me and I found it boring! Today, I rather consider it very, very strange. Indeed, it comes across as two entirely different films. The first half is a rather (stereo)typical horror flick with all the usual ingredients. The monster attacks a wholesome all-American resort, munching on stoned hippies, children and stupid hillbillies. There is an idiot mayor, a scientific genius and a stable police officer just trying to do his job. OK, maybe it´s a *bit* original. Like the tiger shark who turns out to be a rare guest from Louisiana!

The second half is the real “Jaws”. The three main characters Brody, Hooper and Quint confront the super-sized shark in a boat that´s obviously too small and fragile (rather than calling the coast guard or navy). Quint turns out to be half-mad and personally obsessed with killing great white sharks. He is the “Captain Ahab” of the story. The whole thing makes zero sense, except as a bizarre male rite of passage. The shark is too large and too intelligent to be a normal animal. Indeed, it seems to be intrinsically *evil*.

Speculations about allegorical meaning are difficult to fend off. The three men on the worthless barge represent different kinds of Americans, perhaps different generations: the old and crazy war veteran Quint (who is presumably working class), the middle-aged and middle-class police officer, and the young well-educated scientist (implied to be upper class). Is this a vision of an America united against its external enemies? (“Jaws” was released in 1975.) Or is the shark a symbol of Nature showing its fangs? 

It´s intriguing to note that the irrational sailor Quint and the “rational” scientist Hooper turn out to be equally crazy (at least after a fashion). It´s also interesting that the person who eventually kills the shark is Brody, the stable White middle-class guy with an official police badge. He does so in the old fashioned way – with a rifle and some explosives – while Quint and Hooper tried various alternative techniques which completely failed. Order has been restored on Amity Island (note the 4^th July parade – Amity is of course a symbol for America and its proverbial way of life). At least it´s been temporarily restored until the sequels, but Steven Spielberg had nothing to do with those.

So I suppose “Jaws” is at least somewhat interesting…