The Power of the Unseen
One has to wonder whether the opening scene of Jaws would have lodged so firmly in the mind had that mechanical shark worked. Imagine if Spielberg had actually been able to film the shark as it clutched the naked young Chrissie in its tremendous powerful jaws, shaking her like a rag doll this way and that. Now think back to the imagery of Chrissie being shaken like a rag doll by something very powerful under the water; something hidden from view. The opening sequence establishes that this is no ordinary great white shark, but a behemoth among sharks. And all this without showing the fish at all.
The Poster
Of course, one of the most memorable and influential examples of imagery from the film was never even realized on the screen. Movie posters for Jaws starting showing up not just in theaters, but in magazines months before the film actually opened. By the time it did open, precious few Americans were left who had not glimpsed the poster’s frightening portrayal of a shark of almost ludicrously large proportions rising up through the water with the utterly, obviously naked girl swimming on the waves. The poster for Jaws was the imagery equivalent of the theme song for Rocky; an absolutely vital piece of marketing genius that unquestionably pushed the film to greater heights than it might have achieved otherwise. As for Rocky, remove his stirring theme song and you likely lose an Oscar as well.
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Of course, that famous (and infamously oft-misquoted) bit of dialogue from the film does not qualify as imagery, but Brody’s classic example of understatement in the face of terror is the punctuation marks to one of the most collectively terrifying moments in American film history. Anyone who attended a screening of Jaws when it first came out will always remember how it might have seemed like the entire sold-out cinema jerked back in shock and awe just as Brody does at the unexpected appearance of the shark up close and personal. The very fact that dozens or even potentially hundreds of people all made the exact same physical movement backward when the shark nearly jump onto the boat is not just a memorable bit of visual imagery, it is also a reminder that Rocky is not the only film to benefit considerably from its soundtrack. It's not at all by mere coincidence that Spielberg recognized the subconscious power that John Williams’ two note musical cue for the arrival of the shark would have over packed theaters. By the time the captain recognizes the need for a bigger boat, audiences had already been conditioned not to expect to see the shark unless they heard those two familiar musical notes intoned in advance.
The Vertigo Shot
The single most famous individual shot in Jaws has the effect of endowing its imagery with dual layers of meaning. Chief Brody is trying to relax on the beach while keeping an alert eye for signs of anything with the potential to cause a panic. His anxiety is not helped by the fact that a constant stream of interruptions threaten to distract his intense policeman’s heightened sense of a present danger. He can’t relax because he needs to focus on signs of shark attack or some beachgoer crying wolf about a shark attack, but he can’t focus on that threat because he can’t relax because extraneous intrusions into his focus threaten to prevent him from seeing the shark before it can commit its crime. Suddenly, something very strange happens in the water and everyone on the beach seems to know it: he’s lost his chance to use that one bit of power to save lives. The camera seems to simultaneously move in toward Brody and away from him, but that’s impossible. A movie camera can only move in one direction at once. The result is disorienting and not unlike a slight case of vertigo in which the entire world seems to be whirling out of control. That is exactly what is going on in Brody’s mind as instantly loses the self-assurance of a trained cop who already knows a threat is coming and therefore only needs to be in the right place at the right time to stop it from happening. The effect is created by zooming in the lens while the rest of the camera dollies away. The name is taken from its use by Hitchcock in the film Vertigo. The imagery is equally powerful in both cases.
