Brody’s first
reaction to the woman’s warning cries (‘The shark. It’s going into the pond.
Shark. In the estuary.’) is a resigned ‘Now what?’ until his wife reminds him about
Michael. The camera follows Brody as he moves through the crowd, keeping him in
focus as the heads of those he passes remain just a blur. The technique of
filming a moving object through a series of static ones – also used in the pursuit
along the beach in the movie’s opening scene – here creates a dynamic effect,
whilst at the same time suggesting the determination of the character. Brody
has no awareness of those around him and his only thought is to save his son –
everything else is, literally and figuratively, a blur. The layered sound mix
of the woman’s cries, the PA system, the murmur of the crowd and a few accelerating
bars of music build to a crescendo on the next cut, which shows little Sean
playing on the edge of the pond as the shark’s fin glides silently past.
The next shot shows
Sean and his two buddies bickering on the Sailfish as one of them struggles with
a knot. The blocking of the coming attack is established in the composition of
the next shot. In the foreground are the three boys on the boat, its stern
low in the water. A few yards behind them is a man in a red rowboat.
He shouts some advice on basic seamanship to the three inexperienced youngsters,
unaware that behind him in the middle distance is a black fin scything its way
through the water. On the bridge are a number of static figures who have
stopped to watch the drama play out. We then cut back to a shot of the stone
causeway that runs along the side of the pond. It’s positioned with Kubrickian
precision right in the centre of the frame.
The figure of Chief Brody runs along it in the direction of the bridge, followed on the beach side by barefoot members of the crowd. Over this scene there plays a savagely propulsive reading of the shark motif. The music for this scene was not selected for the original soundtrack album, but does appear under the title ‘Into the Estuary’ on the Varese Sarabande recording, albeit in a significantly muted interpretation by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Interestingly, up to this point – almost half way through the film – there has only been about thirteen minutes of score. It is in the second hour, once the Orca has put to sea, that John Williams’s contribution really comes to the fore.
The figure of Chief Brody runs along it in the direction of the bridge, followed on the beach side by barefoot members of the crowd. Over this scene there plays a savagely propulsive reading of the shark motif. The music for this scene was not selected for the original soundtrack album, but does appear under the title ‘Into the Estuary’ on the Varese Sarabande recording, albeit in a significantly muted interpretation by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Interestingly, up to this point – almost half way through the film – there has only been about thirteen minutes of score. It is in the second hour, once the Orca has put to sea, that John Williams’s contribution really comes to the fore.
