It's difficult to say whether the uncomfortable expressions on the faces of some of the extras is a result of being in front of the camera or an indication of untapped acting talent, but they play well with the overall tone of the scene, which is informed by a communal sense of embarrassment and indecision. There are subtleties in Scheider's performance that also reflect this mood. When he enters the room, he looks about uncertainly, unsure where to place himself, and ends up neither sitting nor standing, but leaning on the wooden desk, and has to be called to the front by the mayor. When he speaks he stumbles on his words and is interrupted by Meadows before he can finish his first sentence. The newspaper editor's question ('What about the beaches, chief?') is subtly layered in a lower register to contrast with the tone of nervous proclamation that Brody adopts, a simple technique that Spielberg would employ in a similar way for the air traffic control scene in Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Scheider's reading of his next line ('We are going to put on the summer - the extra summer deputies as soon as possible') is a perfect encapsulation of his character's compromised position. It's almost as if Brody has been coached on what to say but has fluffed it on delivery. Unlike Larry Vaughn, the chief does not have the politican's skill of dissembling and when he's asked a direct question by Mrs Taft, he replies with a simple and slightly regretful affirmative. Spielberg isolates him against the expanse of window frame and there's perhaps no other moment in the entire movie when he looks quite so forlorn. Interestingly, he adopts the third person pronoun up until the moment he learns of the twenty four hour moratorium, but his principled outburst ('I didn't agree to that') is drowned out by the rising murmur of the group.
