JAWS: Opening Scene

JAWS
Steven Spielberg (1976)

Twenty years before Independence Day (1996) the 4th of July was threatened by another powerful and foreign force that challenged the cohesiveness of a small American community.

This foreign body that invaded the lives of patriotic celebrants, beer drinkers and barbequers became a direct affront to the cohesiveness of family and relationships for it tore apart the fabric of a community, the figure of a potential lover, and challenged the sanctity of marriage…

Just as ID4 begins out in space on the moon, so this film begins in an environment that is not our own, yet one that dominates a large part of the planet. The camera peruses the surface of this world that is not the surface of our world and finds there hints of softness, flowing images of life and growth, a fecundity and sumptuousness that recalls the power of seduction of this environment, one that Odysseus himself found all alluring and that has bestowed on our relationship with the sea both a sense of fear and attraction.

From this initial sequence of sensual coldness and dark unfocused danger the scene changes to one of earthly darkness around a campfire…the protective archetypal flames that protected our ancestors from the threats of the night…and around this campfire the rituals of youth are taking place…including seduction…

With merely a glance intention is communicated and two bodies leave the safety of the fire and light to venture into darkness…expectations, excitement, adrenaline, lust, all burst at the seams as the young man chases the disrobing young woman down the beach and down toward the sea…the dark, calm, shimmering sea that always attracts with the promise of refreshment… (look to the long running fence for little foreshadowing signs)…

The young woman swims out but the young man is overcome by the effects of the alcohol he has consumed and falls flaccid on the wet sand…in a way the sensual aspects of the promise are fulfilled for the sea is where life is supposed to have begun and the young man lays there in its wetness with what might be taken to be an erection (his leg standing up)…

Meanwhile the young woman…unprotected by the young man (we have fallen here into the realm of traditional gender roles, our continued reliance on them and the lack of proper attention to them) falls victim to a large predator (which happens to be fairly phallic)…what takes place and what we know is a shark attack because of the title and the hype even while we sit there shocked at the violence and the struggle … is something that begins as a sort of voyeuristic gander at the nude body of the young woman and then approaches dangerously and culminates in what might be considered a rape of sorts…

Oblivious to what has transpired the young man does nothing…we are the only witnesses (omniescent viewers, lucky us) and are unable to communicate with anyone…after the attack the sea that has been churned up so dramatically and violently settles once again into the calm moonlight image that it first presented…the perpetrator silent and invisible...the victim and object of desire disappeared…the role of the young man as a strong protector a failure for his (our) inattentiveness…

As to what might have been happening in society back then!? Well, Vietnam had been over by maybe a couple of years when the film was made. Nixon had resigned and Ford was in the Whitehouse. The looming influence of the war, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, etc. if that's not a threatening shadow swimming over a country don't know what could be...