I've Got Plenty Of Jackets

Brody looks over his shoulder at the bank of flickering TV monitors and, perhaps wishing he were back in the safety of his den, asks if they can pick up the late show - a joke that cues up Hooper's description of the equipment ('It's a closed circuit TV system. I have underwater cameras fore and aft.'). It also provides an unstated reason for why they have come out after dark into the stretch where the shark has been feeding: perhaps it's to capture photographic evidence to show to the mayor. However, as the movie's sequel will show, even that would probably not be enough for a man in denial like Larry Vaughn.

Brody clambers up onto the bridge to join Hooper and engage in some light-hearted banter during which we learn that the latter comes from good stock. Unlike the version of Hooper in the novel, Dreyfuss shows the character wearing his wealth and privilege as lightly as his blue collar denim jacket. Indeed, Hooper's wardrobe throughout the movie (docker's woolcap, the aforementioned denim, his off-the-peg jacket and woollen tie, his grey sweatshirt) seems determinedly downmarket. His only concession to the Seventies penchant for pastel is his pale pink undershirt seen on board the Orca.

Most of the wardrobe attention in Jaws is directed at Larry Vaughn's outrageous jackets and the more sober sartorial choices of the three main characters tend to go unnoticed. There's no doubt some intended colour coding at work: Brody in his sandy-coloured uniform (subliminally linking him to the land), both Hooper and Quint mostly in blue (associating them with the water). It's unlikely, however, that Brody's choice of black for the shark hunt is a signifier of death, or a deliberate yin to the Great White's yang, but it is effective in setting him apart from the two other more experienced sailors.