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.