The image of Brody waiting nervously by the dock - a man incapable of taking action - has a visual echo in the town hall scene when the motel ownner bluntly asks him 'Are you going to close the beaches?' The reaction shot of Brody as he answers the question in a tone of lame apology places him alone in the frame in front of a large window that looks out onto another grey utilitarian building. Nigel Andrews in his analysis of this scene in his pocket movie guide draws an interesting comparison with a similar shot of James Stewart sitting silently before a corner's [sic] court in Vertigo. In that movie Stewart played a man whose fears forced him to be an observer of rather than a participant in the narrative and prevented him from acting when most needed. The link between the two characters of Martin Brody and Scottie Ferguson is, of course, visually implied by the celebrated track in/zoom out shots that signal the realization of their worst nightmares - for Brody witnessing the second shark attack from the beach, and for Scottie climbing the bell tower.
