JAWS BREAKDOWN: Steven Spielberg Details You Missed! | Deep Dive

Jaws is one of Steven Spielberg's all-time best films, his first true blockbuster and a horror film that lives on in all of our collective memories. Erik Voss returns to this classic with an analysis of Spielberg's director style, cinematic details, and other things you might have overlooked!

Welcome to The Deep Dive, a new channel in the New Rockstars Digital Network. Hosted by Erik Voss, The Deep Dive is the destination for more pointed media investigations. From full seasons of Marvel streaming shows to cult classic films, Erik will dig to the roots of the hidden agendas beneath every title.

VIDEO CREDITS:

Written and Produced by Erik Voss
Lead Editor: Devin Cleary
Edited by Devin Cleary and Aaron Carrion
Assistant Edited by Tanner DiGirolamo and Alex Watson
Executive Producer: Erik Voss

[plissken]

The one thing I recently noticed for the first time in this movie is that as the closing credits roll, and the camera maintains that wide shot of the beach, you can see Brody and Hooper off in the distance making it safely to shore on their makeshift life-raft.

[MrZoolook]

An interesting tid-bit about Lee Fierro, who played Mrs Kintner. Long after the filming of Jaws, she was in a restaurant and noticed the menu advertised an item called the Alex Kintner Sandwich. She delighted in telling the server that she played Alex's mother in this film. A short while later, the owner came out to talk to her. He was none other than Jeffery Vorhees, who played Alex.

[seaney_x]

My Dad once broke the record of his hometown by watching this movie 56 times in one summer, all at the movie theaters. Needless to say he LOVES this movie and considers it his favorite and best movie of all time. We always watched it together in the summer. Perfect summertime movie!

[alexwlf]

The perfect match, someone on the internet that does PERFECT and amazing analysis for a PERFECT and amazing movie!! Keep it up!

[timsmith]

For me, the scariest scene is when the two old men go fishing for the shark, the pier gets ripped apart, and one of them falls in the water. I've seen the movie many, many times, and I know how it's going to work out, but my heart still pounds in my chest when I watch this scene. AND—the shark is not seen—not even the fin. I also don't get why people say it looks fake. I think it looks good the few times it's seen.

[chase]

Erik, i love how you add a personal touch to this channel specifically. I can tell that each movie you break down is special, to us as complete nerds yes; but also, to your background as a nerd, to what makes you tick. Thanks man, you rock.

[kingofthelurkers]

26 years old and directing jaws is crazy….

[markchalled]

Quint's monologue is by far the best scene in the movie. Hooper immediately knows what he's talking about but Brodie has to be told.

[trevorhensley]

Jaws is a perfect example of what I learned from Tremors as well: do what you can with what you got.

[paristhalheimer]

One of my all time favorite films. For me, this film represents the 70s. I was born in '71. The look and atmosphere feels like it was placed in a time capsule.

[cleverusername]

I've always loved Dreyfuss's expression while listening to Shaw deliver the Indy monolouge. You can tell he's aware that he's witnessing greatness

[wadewilson]

JAWS is one of the few (as Quentin Tarantino said), "Perfect Movies" ever made. You can rewatch it from beginning to end over and over and still have an enjoyable experience. It's even better when you watch it as a movie veteran with someone who's never seen it before.
It's like seeing it for the first time all over again.
Don't knock it, try it.

[katelynrushe]

Incredible observations for an incredible film! I also noticed on my most recent viewing that the “wanted” poster for the shark mentions Alex Kintner died on Sunday, June 29 (presumably in 1975, since that was the film’s release year and 6/29/75 was a Sunday), and Quint says that the Indianapolis sank on June 29, 1945 — meaning that the incident that got Quint involved in the shark hunt happened on the 30th anniversary of the incident that made him hate sharks in the first place.

[heyrob-net]

Do you youngins know that 1970's beer cans, like Quint's Narragansett, were made of thick tin and not thin aluminum? They were tough to crush and even tougher to crush slowly. Hooper's dramatic crushing of that paper cup was iconic.

(Erik, this was your best video ever. Amazing.)

[edwardfleming]

The shark exposes the deepest fear within each of the three characters. Brodie's fear is failure to make a difference. He came from New York where he couldn't make a difference because the crime rate was so huge but in Amity one person can make a difference. Hooper is a scholar and his fear is the unknown. Well, when the shark takes three barrels down, and Brody asks if he's ever seen one do this before, Hooper shows fear for the very first time in the movie and says no. And quints fear is vulnerability. He was vulnerable with a life preserver on waiting to be picked up and rescued and he's never gonna do that again because it was the most scared he had ever been. He'd rather die than wait for his turn again.

[EScoglio]

Quint's treatment of Hooper and Brody is always so interesting to watch. You get the sense that he does respect Brody, i.e. he always refers to Brody as "Chief" so he clearly respects the man's title even when they're out on the water where Quint is clearly the higher authority. And when Brody accidentally sends the scuba tanks flying, Quint loudly mocks Hooper's choice of equipment and how it's more likely the shark will eat it, then he quietly reprimands Brody to ask which line to pull next time. He won't make a big show of dressing down Brody in front of Hooper. He teaches him how to tie a knot and directs the Indianapolis story to Brody. Yes he'll tease him here and there, but ultimately, he respect Brody.

Quint treating Hooper like a snobby rich kid and an uptight scientist is very interesting too. He acts like Hooper isn't man enough, but right from the jump, we see Hooper throwing himself right into intense situations. First thing he does in Amity is examen Chrissy's remains. Then he inspects the tiger shark AND cuts open its stomach to dig through it. Then after that, he willingly dives into the open ocean at night knowing there's a shark out in the water. So Hooper never shys away from intense situations and isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty like Quint implies.

[martinboyle]

Jaws remains one of my favorite movies. I rewatched it over the July 4th holiday weekend this year.

I truly loved the beginning of the novel where it suggested that perhaps an earthquake forced the shark from the deep waters to a new, human-populated feeding ground and also how during the initial human kill, the woman went into shock when she realized her leg was gone.

That was when I learned about how people go into shock and when I saw her rapid breathing in the movie, I understood what was really going on.

I remember asking my mother way back when why some 80 pages in the beginning of the book only talked about all the businesses that closed because of hurricanes or storms.

It was boring text, but I plowed through it because my octogenarian librarian Sister Anita told me a cardinal rule of reading as if it were somehow written in the margins of the gospels, "Good readers don't read ahead."

My mother pointed out that all that dry exposition explained the motivation for the townsfolk and the mayor to keep the beaches open, despite the shark attacks.

It really didn't matter if it was a shark, an algae bloom or sunspots -- regardless of the threat to tourists, those beaches were gonna stay open, hell or high water.

That's when I began to realize that to the government, hospitals and to corporate America, we aren't really people, we are but votes, tax revenue and consumer dollars, nothing more.

One fan theory that I've heard that I totally agree with is that Martin Brody is a functioning alcoholic, who made a drunken error as a city cop, perhaps resulting in injury or loss of life.

It explains his immediate dismissal of showing off his scar, why he initially allows the mayor to dominate him and smoothly shows how his interractions with drink throughout the film subtly note he is quite a veteran drinker.

Even his wife is fully aware of his love for the sauce. "Want to get drunk and fool around?"

"You should let that breathe..."

Truly, I enjoyed this video and all of your observations, and it only supports my feeling that Jaws is an incredible movie and a literary work that was never equalled or fully appreciated.

I think all knock-off movies and bland action-oriented sequels pale in comparison to this work of cinema art.

It remains one of my favorite movies, and to this day, most people don't really understand me when I say, "The book and the movie is not really about the shark, it's about people."

Best to you-

[RaeaXo]

Just want to say, as a huge deep diver of the USS Indianapolis, having listened and watched every survivors story and documentary and the movie of course, survivors have said that the sharks were eating the living. One man said that they tried to huddle together in the water to seem larger so the sharks wouldn’t go near them, but as people got delirious from the salt water, they would kind of swim off on their own, and then still alive, they would be eaten by a shark.

[croftatron]

Watched this with my dad also. He was a deep sea trawler man who operated in the North Atlantic/Icelandic waters. He enjoyed this movie and would tell me stories of his time at sea. A real bonding moment.

[jakattak]

Didn't realize this was gonna be a father son breakdown... Love when Eric gets personal, it adds a layer to all his breakdowns.