Putting your male protagonist in glasses is one way of signalling that he's unlikely material as a hero, and perhaps the most knowing use of this trope is the thick-framed pair of spectacles worn as a disguise by Clark Kent. Glasses may also be used to suggest that the character is an intellectual or a scientist. Roy Scheider told Nigel Andrews he was initially unhappy with some of the decisions that were being made about his character. 'When the campaign to soften my part began, when they started to encourage me to make changes - wearing glasses, bumping into things and falling down - I was worried. [...] I resisted Steven at first because I felt he was pulling Brody back into wimpdom - which he was doing. He didn't want to give the audience one damn clue that it was remotely possible for me to kill the shark.'
Brody finally loses his glasses when a barrel strikes him on the shoulder as the shark threatens to pull out the Orca's stern cleats, and he has to face the monster - literally eyeball to eyeball - without them. There are, of course, practical reasons for getting rid of Brody's eyewear before the final confrontation - having to wipe his lenses before firing off a shot would have diminished the heroic nature of his final stand - but symbolically the moment is there to mark the character's transformation from observer to man of action. Interestingly, Hooper never loses his glasses, and, in fact, has to be reminded to remove them before he descends in the shark cage - for him they are a badge of his scientific discipline.
