Jaws Newspaper Essay Coursework

Has ‘Jaws’ Lost It’s Bite?

35 years since its first release into the cinemas and ‘Jaws’ is still scaring modern audiences. Spielberg has gripped the 21st century with his gruesome and timeless thriller.

‘Jaws’ was originally a novel written by Peter Benchley in 1974. Steven Spielberg directed the film on a $7 million (£4.6 million) budget and it grossed over $470 million (£313 million) worldwide.
Set in the idyllic summer resort of Amity, the plot revolves around a killer shark that is terrorising its residents. The town leaders hire a shark expert and shark killer to deal with the menace. Director Steven Spielberg, builds tension continuously through the film, through the gristle and gore of the average horror flick, extremely intelligent manipulation of the audience, and of course, the use of the world famous, or should I say infamous ‘Jaws’ theme.

‘Jaws’ opens with an extreme long panoramic shot of the clear night sky, tricking the audience into a false sense of calm. We can see a woman swimming, and the quiet of the ocean is almost eerie, leaving the audience anticipating; playing off their imagination. As the ‘Jaws’ music comes in, we get a low angled shot from the shark’s perspective, the tension mounts. As the music enters a crescendo and starts to speed up, we see ‘Jaws’ closing in on the unsuspecting victim as tension reaches a critical stage. The woman is brutally killed and the audience is shown a panoramic shot of the sea, with only silence ringing out.
This detached scene works well to Spielberg’s advantage as it creates suspense early on in the film and has the audience on the edge of their seats from the very start. It sets the film up nicely and shows the audience that anything could happen at any given time.

Sharks. We all know that they are man eating, blood loving killers. In the film Spielberg purposefully conceals the actual shark from the audiences with the intention of manipulating them. The fear of the unknown makes the...