Corridors Of Power

A close up of the upper portion of the reward sign is obscured by figures passing in front of it (in the same way that Brody's view of the ocean in the previous scene was partially obscured) before a cut displays the complete text with the profile of two Amity residents (one male and one female) on either side of the frame. The female resident is Mrs Taft, wearing a yellow polo neck sweater under a beige jacket with typically wide Seventies lapels and sporting a rather unflattering pair of George Burns style glasses. She dismisses the comments of the other resident - an oily-skinned slightly overweight man, who will later be seated at the head table in the council chambers - with a head-in-the-sand remark: 'Look, I can't argue with you. I can't talk to you.' As she appeals to the mayor ('Larry, do something here.') the camera pulls back to reveal the crowd of people squeezed into the corridor. In the foreground is Brody on the right of the screen, who is in conversation with Meadows. Behind them on the left is Vaughn, vainly trying to pacify the increasingly restless natives.

Like the crowd scenes on the dock - both before and after the killing of the tiger shark - there is a sense of disorder. In those later scenes, this is conveyed by both the editing and the movement of people within the scene. Here, however, the shot is a simple Kubrickian reverse track along a corridor and so it is through the Hawkesian overlapping of dialogue that we get a sense of both urgency and barely controlled hysteria. The isolated lines of dialogue that are given to Vaughn, Meadows and Brody focus on the element of containment. Brody fears - rightly, as it turns out - that the whole thing is 'going to turn into a contest' and Meadows, though willing to bury the story in the local media ('The ad is going to run in the back along with the grocery ads.'), is powerless to prevent wider coverage ('Now people all over New England are going to know about it.'). Brody, too, is aware, of his duty to the immediate community ('I'm responsible for public safety around here.') but he is curtly rebuffed by a clearly pissed-off mayor, who tells him to 'go out there tomorrow and see that no one gets hurt.' Vaughn's comment is given added emphasis by Mrs Taft, who - imitating her husband's familiarity with the chief - cries out, 'Marty, do something here!'

As Brody walks down the corridor - unable to resist the pressure of the crowd behind him just as he has been powerless to resist the pressure of the mayor - he bumps his head against a sign hanging above a door, and it's surely no coincidence that it indicates the office of the Town Accountant.