The Last Boy Scout

Matt Hooper is the last of the three protagonists to be introduced on screen and, although his first appearance is not as dramatic as Quint's or as enigmatic as Brody's, it establishes him as someone whose chipper exterior masks a hard-nosed expertise. As Brody and Hendricks intervene in one of the many disputes between the growing band of fishermen, there is a cut to Hooper climbing out of an outboard motorboat and onto the opposite side of the dock, where he is greeted by local fisherman Ben Gardner. It's an unobserved moment of irony that the first face he sees on arriving on the island is the one that will later stare sightlessly out at him from the shattered hull of a sunken boat.

In Benchley's novel Hooper's first appearance also takes place on the dock, but the description the author gives of the character ('young ... mid twenties ... handsome: tanned, hair bleached by the sun ... tall ...170 pounds') could not be further from the physical look Dreyfuss brings to the role. Unlike many short actors, he doesn't appear to have a complex about his height, and indeed his brief encounter with the towering bulk of Ben Gardner seems almost intended to draw attention to it. In a shot that seems to echo the one of Frank Silva that opened the scene, Hooper steps towards the camera and surveys the mayhem around him with a boyish grin as he removes his glasses and wipes away the spots of sea water. In an outtake of the same moment, the character can be seen wearing movie star type dark glasses, a choice that was perhaps originally that of Dreyfuss himself, who came to the location trailing something of the glory of film stardom behind him.

There is a cut to another angle that shows Brody unsuccessfully trying to direct some nautical traffic with Hooper looking on. It's not clear how this shot relates to the previous one in terms of the geography of the dock, but, like the sky that changes from grey to blue within the scene, it's not something you notice unless you're looking for it. Hooper steps in to intervene and establishes his own seafaring credentials with a couple of lines of dialogue that seem to contain a bit too much nautical ballast ('Don't raise sail, you're just going to luff with it. Do you have a paddle? So scull out of here.').

Hooper runs after Brody, calling deferentially for his attention, and is immediately seconded to help with the crowd control, which he willingly does in an eager boy scout manner. Unlike Quint, who speaks bluntly and uses terms of politeness only with a heavy sense of sarcasm, Hooper's language reflects an acknowledgement of social and civic order ('Gentlemen, the officer asked me to tell you that you're overloading that boat.'), and he takes disparagement with good humour.

Local Colour

The main purpose of the next scene (which takes place on Amity's dockside the day after the pier incident) is to introduce Matt Hooper, but it begins with the focus of attention on Frank Silva, the local harbormaster. A genial-looking elderly man, he emerges from his cabin (above which his name and station are written) and pauses front and centre of the screen to survey the mayhem around him. Wearing a black and white checked shirt over a striking red vest and sporting a nautical cap, he has about him the air of a cartoon character, a well-meaning Mr Magoo: he has what Nigel Andrews accurately describes as 'a serene, weather-ruddied, Toytown face'. The harbormaster looks about him with an air of benign amusement, puffing contentedly on his pipe while possibly totalling up all the mooring fees he's going to collect. He's holding what look like a couple of cereal boxes and a carton of milk to his chest.

The non-speaking part of Frank Silva was played by Menemsha lobsterman Donald Poole, a local character who so captivated Steven Spielberg with his fisherman's yarns that they lunched regularly together on set. Although he has no dialogue in the movie, Poole's brief appearance effectively establishes the primarily comic mode in which the following scene will be played. As he turns his back to the camera, Brody and Hendricks walk into shot, the deputy recounting the tail end of the previous night's failed attempt to catch the shark. It's indicative of the way a small community thrives on gossip that the story is already being passed around by word of mouth. Hendricks frames the incident as a humorous anecdote, which Brody rejects with a line ('That's not funny. That's not funny at all.') that echoes Mrs Taft's reaction to the cash or cheque gag in the town hall meeting.

Don't Look Back

There is a brief shot of the inner tube floating placidly on inky blue water before it twitches twice to show that the bait has been taken. There is a cut to a low angle shot of the two fishermen on the dock, the fatter one seated to the left of the frame on one of the jetty's pilings whilst the other stands on the right with his back to the camera. The two men are whistling Shall We Gather At the River? - a hymn often (though not exclusively) associated with funerals in the Westerns of John Ford, and most likely chosen as a tip of the hat to the great director. Spielberg would reference Ford's The Quiet Man in E.T. and has adopted his painterly use of sunsets in the Indiana Jones movies and, more recently, in War Horse. Spielberg also likes to tell the anecdote of how he took (or perhaps, tore) a page out of Ford's book when he dropped a big fight scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark to get back on shooting schedule.

Another shot of the inner tube being pulled through the water away from the screen by the unseen shark is accompanied by the throbbing cello music, and then there is a cut to the coiled chain on the jetty suddenly beginning to play out. A similar image of rapidly unravelling rope will be used on board the Orca when the shark is harpooned with both the second and third barrels. The camera whips up from a close-up of the unspooling chain to the reaction of the seated fisherman. There is a cut to a wider shot of the two men on the jetty. The one in the pork pie hat walks to the end of the pier and (rather like the bather who witnessed the attack on Alex Kintner) points out to the ocean. There is a cut to another shot of the inner tube being pulled through the water, but this time the movement is across the screen from left to right, matching the choreography of the men in the previous shot. Another cut shows the chain tightening around the piling and there are two different angled shots of the jetty being pulled apart under the strain.

There is a shot of the fisherman being dragged out to sea on part of the collapsed pier, and then a cut to an ominous-looking section of the jetty wallowing in the ocean; with two pilings still intact, it has the appearance of a horned devil. The next partially submerged shot is of the fisherman panting as he swims back to the shore. The water seems to lap up against the camera lens although, in fact, the camera was protected inside a specially constructed glass-fronted box. There is a cut back to the 'horned' jetty as it turns slowly in the water accompanied by an almostly ghostly groan of creaking wood and an increased tempo in the music. The movement of the inanimate object together with the Pavlovian cello theme conspire to trick the audience into thinking that the shark has turned back to claim another victim. The other fisherman standing on the remains of the jetty is of the same opinion and he urges his friend on with the worst possible advice ('Charlie, take my word for it, don't look back.'). There's another shot of the 'horned' jetty moving towards the shore and gaining on the hapless swimmer, and then a series of close-ups of the man's struggling hands and feet as he desperately tries to scramble up the slippery boards of the broken pier. Just as he is hauled out of the water, there is a cut to the threatening jetty in the water and then a low angled shot as the wood bumps harmlessly up against the shore and the music concludes with a diminuendo.

In keeping with the improvisational nature of the script, it was not decided how the scene would eventually play out until it was shot; much in the same way that Ingrid Bergman didn't know if she was going to end up with Humphrey Bogart or Paul Henreid during the shooting of Casablanca. The 'will-he-or-won't-he-be-eaten' nature of the scene was repeated in the water-kite sequence in Jaws 2 although in that movie it was given a twist by taking place in bright sunshine.

It's Just Like Pictures In A Book, Danny

The next scene - a wordless 'montage' of scary photos of sharks and grisly pictures of their victims - takes just under forty seconds of screen time, and is made up of twenty different shots. The first image is of a shark with blood flowing from its jaws as it chews at a carcass.We immediately recognise it as a photograph from a book and so make the assumption that it is Brody who is looking at it. Indeed, in this scene the audience literally looks through the protagonist's eyes, seeing exactly what he sees. The page of the book turns to another image of a shark: an extreme close up of a torpedo-nosed fish with the black 'doll's eyes' that Quint will later describe. A number of pages flick before our eyes, too quickly for us to register anything but text and some line drawings before there is a close up of Brody's head, his eyes looking down on the pages that are reflected in his glasses. The blurred background behind him shows a view out of a window, which is suspiciously light compared to the previous jetty scene, and seems to be composed of green lawn and white picket fences.

The next picture is a black and white image of a skinny man kneeling over the corpse of a massive shark. The camera pans down to show a set of frighteningly sharp teeth in an upside down grin like that of the Cheshire cat. There is another shot of flicking pages and another close up of Brody's face showing a kind of horrified fascination. The next picture shows a female diver in a yellow wet suit with a mask and snorkel, swimming alongside a ferocious looking shark, one of her hands on its sand papery flank. The water is as black as ink. There is a turn of the page and another close up of a shark just below the surface of the water, seemingly in the act of lunging at the person who took the photograph. Another close up of the flicking pages reflected in Brody's glasses, and then - in a Chekov's Gun moment - comes a shot of a shark with an aqualung in its jaws. Was it this image that actually provided Spielberg with the inspiration for his explosive conclusion? Another turn of the page and the next picture shows a shark spotter on a high tower looking out over a populated beach, a position Brody will assume in the movie's sequel. The camera lingers on the image, panning up the telephone pole-like structure to show the lifeguard leaning nonchalantly at his post next to an old-fashioned bell for sounding the alarm.

The page turns again to show a shark attacking a carcass in a cloud of blood, not unlike the one that fills the screen at the end of the movie. Another close up of Brody and then a shot of pages of text being turned until he stops on a black and white photograph of six men posing inside a museum exhibit of a giant set of shark's jaws. More pages being turned before the sudden shock of a livid colour photo of a shark attack victim: on the left hand page is a picture of a bloody torso, which looks more like an uncooked holiday roast than a man; on the right there is a picture of what one assumes is the same victim after reconstructive surgery. Brody winces at the sight of the image and there is a cut to the right hand side as the camera pans down to show another disfigured torso. There is one more final shot of flicking pages and a close up of Brody's face before the final and most gruesome image is revealed: the raised leg of a man with a huge chunk of his thigh missing and his flesh hanging down in tatters.

The music (harp, piano and strings and a plaintive horn) that plays under the scene adds a spooky atmosphere.The scene itself is a standard horror movie trope where the hero does some research, often in a library conveniently stocked with books on the very subject he is interested in. A particularly ham-fisted example of this trope can be seen in Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2010). The pictures Brody looks at are all real and, although we get the impression that he is flicking through a single volume, the images were culled from various sources, including the National Geographic magazine, which is why it gets a name check in the end credits.

Hook

The next scene of the two locals trying to catch the shark with a hook and chain under cover of darkness is split into two sections: their brief preparations as they set their bait, and what happens when they catch the shark. The first section begins with an establishing shot of a rowing boat moving through the water towards a pier. It's natural to assume that this is the same wooden jetty Michael Brody's boat was tied up to in the previous scene, but a brief exchange of dialogue between the two men in the boat informs us that 'the chief lives on the other side of the island.' One of the men seems concerned about the legality of their actions ('Let's stop before someone reports us'), but, unless they're trespassing (which is hard to do on an ocean) then it's difficult to see how they are breaking the law. As they draw closer to the jetty there is a fade (not a cut) to a closer shot of the boat (which resembles the one Ellen saw in the book illustration) and we see them through one of the fisherman's nets that have been hung out on the shore to dry. It's a visual shorthand for telling us that these two bumbling bounty hunters are going to get caught in their own trap.

There is a cut to the boards of the jetty as a length of coiled chain lands on it and a hand reaches out to attach one end to a large butcher's hook. Another cut shows a marbled hunk of raw meat, which one of the men obligingly identifies as his wife's holiday roast as he pierces it with the hook. Another cut shows him wrapping the chain around one of the jetty's upright posts, and then there is a cut to a low angle shot from the sea, showing both men on the jetty, faintly illuminated by a bare light bulb, with a grey sky above them, and in the background along the shore some ocean front properties, their windows all dark. The man in the checked shirt and pork pie hat stands at the end of the jetty and throws the bait, which is attached to an inflated inner tube tyre, into the sea. As he works, he whistles tunelessly to himself. The man in the baseball cap takes a step nearer the edge, and the two men watch as the tide takes the bait out, a fact that one of them comments on more for the benefit of the audience that his companion.

The task of rowing to the jetty and setting the bait would in reality take maybe half an hour. By giving the audience just a few snippets of visual information (the boat on the water, the jetty, the chain, the hook, and the meat) Spielberg tells us everything we need to know in only fifty seconds of screen time. The same montage  technique is used when the shark cage is assembled on the Orca although then music is used to underscore the heroic nature of Hooper's decision to get into the water.

Get Out Of The Boat

Having had one shark book taken out his hands by his wife, Brody can't help reaching surreptitiously for another from the pile on the desk. His mind is still on the shark whilst Ellen, gazing smilingly off screen, is thinking of her son. In terms of the characters' divided attention, this is a repetition of the dynamic of the earlier scene in the kitchen when Brody is on the phone in the foreground whilst his wife tends to their child in the background. When Brody realises that his son Michael is sitting in his new boat (a present for his upcoming birthday), he immediately reacts as he did when Alex Kintner was attacked, rising from a seated position and moving towards the water with a command ('Out of the boat') that echoes his desperate shouts to the bathers ('Get everybody out! Get out of the water!'). He strides out of the room (through another of the film's many open doorways) and from a position of safety on the back porch calls down to his son, who is in the boat tied up to the jetty.

The expanse of water behind him is softened by the glow of the setting sun, and it looks as inviting as it most probably did to Chrissie when she went for her midnight swim. The cutaway shot of the two Brody boys (Michael in his boat, Sean on the jetty) seems to isolate them in a chillier environment, with no evidence of the honeyed sunlight on the cold grey water. Ellen, still holding the shark book in her hand, joins her husband on the porch, and immediately takes the son's side against the father's authority. Just as in the earlier kitchen scene, when Ellen's casual remark whilst cleaning Michael's cut hand ('I think you're going to live') prefigures her son's close encounter with the shark, so too her comment here ('I don't think he'll ever go in the water again after what happened yesterday') points unwittingly towards the attack in the estuary.

Brody tries the erase the image his wife has conjured up ('Alright, now don't say that.'). Clearly, what's he's referring to here ('I don't want that to happen, you know that.') is the attack he witnessed on Alex Kintner, a boy about the same age as his elder son - a surrogate child for whose death he feels responsible. This sense of responsibility is linked to what he sees as his failure to ensure public safety, and is made explicit here by his reference to the fact that he wants Michael 'to read the boating regulations- the rules.' He believes that rules -like fences - are there to help keep order.

 

Ellen glances down at the open book in her hands and there is a cut to an illustration of a shark attacking two fishermen in a rowing boat. The camera focuses first on the shark's jaws chewing a hole in the wooden hull and then pans upwards to show the reaction of the fishermen. It's this image that makes Ellen realise how real and indeed how close the threat is, and results in her sudden volte-face, yelling at her child to listen to his father. The image also has visual echoes later in the film: the two men on the dock who try to catch the shark with the bait of a holiday roast, the hole in Ben Gardner's boat, the estuary victim's rowing boat, and the shark's final assault on the Orca are all in some sense visually prefigured in the book illustration. It also, unintentionally, anticipates the main narrative of Jaws 2, in which a number of boats are holed by a Great White.

The picture itself looks like a magazine illustration, and it's closer to comic book art than high art. There is, in fact, a rather similar painting by eighteenth century American artist John Singleton Copley called Watson and the Shark, which was based on the first fully documented account of a shark attack on a swimmer.