One Row Kneeling, One Row Standing

The next scene opens with a close up of a dead shark on the Amity dock. The camera tracks slowly back and a hook in the fish's snout lifts the jaws open to reveal a bloodied gullet. As it is hoisted into the air to the jeers of the crowd, we see that the animal - like a martyr - has arrows in its flank. It's unlikely, however, that any Christian symbolism was intended here, and if there is any reference it is that of the villagers persecuting the monster in an old Universal horror picture.

Fittingly for a moment of -albeit false - celebration, the colour palette is bright and vivid. Newspaper editor Harry Meadows, who is vainly trying to organise a group photograph, is wearing a rich burgundy jacket and deep red slacks. There's a man in an orange life jacket, a man in a pale green sweater and to the far right of the frame a woman in a neon pink jacket. As the camera pans with Meadows and his note-taking assistant (in a blue jacket and tartan trousers), a woman is seen at the edge of the crowd wearing a yellow sweater with matching blouse and hairband - a subliminal message that the danger has not yet passed. Towards the end of the scene when Mrs Kintner confronts Brody yellow becomes the dominant background colour.

Brody and Hooper walk into shot and the camera tilts upwards to catch the chief's smile of relief as he pauses to look at the dead fish. This is contrasted with a cut to Hooper, framed by the wrinkled carcass of the shark, frowning. As he turns away out of shot to the right his place is taken by a grinning Brody, who surveys the fish and asks, 'Ben Gardner get this?' This is, in fact, the first mention of the character's name and the audience has no way of connecting it to the bulky man in the camouflage jacket who led the posse of fisherman out on the hunt.

As Brody congratulates the men who caught the fish Hooper goes about checking the bite radius with a tape measure he has conveniently to hand. There is a cut to our first sighting of the Orca as it passes the dock with Quint alone at the wheel. A US yacht ensign flag flies from the stern of a berthed boat in the foreground, and in the background, on the other side of the channel, is a white lighthouse, like the one that will play an explosive part in the next Peter Benchley film adaptation. There is another cut to more shots of the crowd milling about and Harry Meadows, seen through a forest of fishing rods, finally begins to bring some order to the scene, telling the men in the first row to kneel down 'just like in high school.'. We then cut back to a closer shot of Quint sailing past. He touches the tip of his cap and gives a brief cackle of derision as he surveys the circus. Hooper is told to move out of the shot and the photograph - which will later appear blown up to the size of a billboard on the town beach front - is finally taken.

Probable Boating Accident

The next scene opens with a shot of the interior of the local morgue, or at least whatever passes for such a facility in Amity. Above a stainless steel surface is a shelf of artfully arranged bottles and to the right of the frame in a corner of the room is a cold storage unit. Apart from the bottles - some of which are of coloured glass, some of which contain liquids of blue or pale amber - the overall scheme is antiseptically white. On the far left of the frame, positioned on the edge of the work surface, is a plastic specimen bottle half full of a red liquid, which provides a visual echo of the crimson water in the previous scene.

Brody and Hooper are followed into the room by the medical examiner, who goes to the cold storage unit and retrieves a plastic bowl covered with a cloth. For some reason, despite the second attack on the boy and the story of the two fishermen's unsuccessful attempt to catch the shark, the authorities still seem to be sticking to their story of Chrissie Watkins being the victim of a boating accident. As Brody hands over the amended report he draws attention to the cause of death, which Hooper enunciates ('Probable boating accident') in a tone of disbelief. The chief averts his gaze and mutters a simple affirmative that essentially acknowledges his own culpability in the cover up. He moves to the window and tosses a wet oilskin jacket to the floor. It's an item of wardrobe that may have come from an earlier cut scene for its presence - like the towel the chief wears over his shoulder in two early scenes - is never explained. It does, however, provide a convenient visual metaphor that marks Brody's transition from a member of the group trying to cover up the threat to the one man who can make a difference. As he tosses the jacket onto the floor, he wipes his palms with a degree of distaste as if he is washing his hands of any previous involvement in the small town conspiracy.

 

Hooper draws back the cloth from the plastic bowl and gasps. He is wearing transparent surgical gloves and is kitted out with a microphone and a cassette player that allows him to record a commentary in typical autopsy-speak ('The right arm has been severed above the elbow with massive tissue loss in the upper musculature.'). Dreyfuss speaks the lines - which are interspersed with a polite request for and an acknowledgement of a drink of water - with an edgy rhythm, as if all the while he is fighting a gag reflex. He manages to reprimand both the medical examiner ('This was no boat accident.') and the chief ('Did you notify the coastguard about this?') with a superbly modulated delivery. The former phrase has passed into movie quote legend and was even referenced by Dreyfuss himself in Stakeout.

The framing of Brody against the window recalls the earlier images of the chief in the town hall meeting. As if it were not enough to have his professional integrity questioned, he is chastised when he attempts to light up a cigarette. Hooper moves around to the other side of the table on which the remains have been set and lifts the severed arm into view. This no doubt is the same limb that Brody found on the beach and it will later be echoed by the shot of the estuary victim's leg spiralling to the sea bed. As Hooper lifts up the marbled arm, he utters the phrase 'This is what happens', which - like the insert shot itself - remains something of a non-sequitur in the scene.

 

Hooper now segues from mortuary attendant-speak to shark expert-speak, announcing that the wounds indicate 'the non-frenzy feeding of a large squalus, possibly longimanus or isurus glaucus.' There is no mention at this stage of carcharodon carcharias, although Hooper will later use the Latin phrase when trying to convince Larry Vaughn of the threat to the community. As Hooper talks with an increasing sense of anger and even contempt, there is a shot of the medical examiner crossing his arms and lowering his gaze, in an echo of the defensive posture he adopted on the ferry. This is mirrored by a medium close up of Brody, whose gaze is directed to his right towards Hooper. When Hooper says the word 'propeller' Brody's eyes shift towards the examiner and his mouth turns up slightly on the left as a final acknowledgement that the truth has come out.

 

Hooper's litany of potential causes of the girl's death ('It wasn't any propeller. It wasn't a coral reef. And it wasn't Jack the Ripper.') move from the plausible to the unlikely to the absurd. There is a shot of his profile as he bends down to bathe his face and when he turns to the camera, his final line ('It was a shark.') provides an aural match cut to the next scene, just as the close up of his face provides a visual one.