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i tend to post mostly my self-indulgent fanfic here in relation to jaws but the reason it as a movie and cultural touchstone intrigues me so much is mostly how absolutely 1970s America it is. top to bottom it exists as a perfect little time capsule of white middle-class American sentiment in that timeframe and it leaks out in everything, from the writing to the characters to the actors and directors themselves.
I forced my roomie to watch it a little while back (their first time seeing it) and they were floored by the indianapolis speech because from a modern, or at least just slightly more culturally aware perspective, it's like "is this supposed to be... admirable? is this supposed to garner sympathy?" and that line of thought got me thinking about Quint as a character and his differences in book vs. movie. i came away from the whole thing thinking basically:
no matter what, Quint wins. in a cultural sense, at least.
uhh have a cut here cause this seems like it'll get long
he dies in the movie, sure, but it's as a prophetic martyr. he is absolved of all his sins as he is torn to shreds because he has done the heroic deed of dying in a meaningful way. thus, all the perceived slights and grievances that the town of Amity had for him are erased, and he can be remembered for his one final act, rather than anything else. he wins because despite being essentially an outcast for the majority of his life, he did what other people didn't want to do, and now the town will deify him in order to cover their guilt. the very manifestation of the thought "don't speak ill of the dead." I think this is also something that carries over to the real world, with quinthead dudes finding the caricature of a grizzled old vet who drinks all day and rejects the frills and commodities of modern society for simple (read: romanticized lower-class) living to be suuuper cool and something to aspire to. his death only spurs on the desire to uphold him as some sort of figurehead of righteous masculinity, being prepared to lay down his life for his beliefs.
then there's the book. I haven't finished reading it so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I do know that Quint lives, and is the one to deliver the killing blow to the shark, while Hooper dies in the cage. so, here's another win. once-spurned old fisherman saves the town in one heroic swoop and can return to society with a loving embrace, accepted now that he has fulfilled his destiny and actually hunted his white whale. from a narrative standpoint, I think the movie has a much more satisfying and well-rounded story for Quint, but that's neither here nor there. the main point I'm making is this: Quint is the caricature of American veterans that doesn't actually exist, but conservative talking heads worship like deities. he gets people to make podcasts about him and write officially published fanfiction about all his Epic Wartime Adventures. he gets to be elevated to a status in pop culture that few others can get to.
I say all this with a deep love for Quint in my heart, btw. I love Shaw's portrayal and am obviously very obsessed with jaws in general. but part of that obsession stems from the fact that there's so much to dissect when you actually think about the character and writing and acting choices made on-set. Quint is twice as tragic of a character when realizing that his hatred for sharks is him falling for the propaganda that got him to join the military in the first place. he has misplaced the blame of his suffering on an animal because to actually work through his trauma and hatred would be to realize that the real fault lies with the American military system, and since his entire identity revolves around being this grizzled, washed-up vet, it's impossible for him to actually come to grips with that. so, the sharks are an easy out. it's the thing closest in front of him that he can grab on to. and, as a little bonus, it means he gets to keep hurting.
there's a sort of divinity in suffering that toxic masculinity loves to uphold. talk to 88% of white dads and you'll find it in every other sentence. to be wanting is to be vulnerable is to be emasculated. they must strive to desire for as close to nothing as possible. of course, they'll have surface-level wants, trinkets like crossbows or tactical flashlight/stun-gun/battering ram thingys they can point to when it comes time to make christmas lists, but beneath that is a genuine desire to not desire. to live in a constant state of slight discomfort is good, it reinforces your masculinity, it makes you tough and resistant to the cruelty of life. it hardens you. it's almost easy to get addicted to suffering, when you experience it this way.
so of course, the grizzled old war vet, stuck in his ways and resistant to social change, is going to want to keep coming back to that constant low-level hurt. comfort in routine. he hurts because to stop hurting would hurt more. does this make any sense? maybe not, but I'm writing mostly stream-of-consciousness here without pausing to think about connecting any of these discordant thoughts. ANYWAY. this is what I mean when I say Quint wins culturally. as a character he certainly doesn't win much, he's the king of shit city when it comes to tough breaks, and at the end of it all he gets rewarded by getting brutally killed. yet as a fictional character he is the most perfectly memorable, valiant, noble individual in the minds of all boomers and gen-Xers that grew up on jaws. being able to peel back that curtain and view him as the deeply sad, tragic character that he is, who only serves to perpetuate the institutions that hurt him in his youth and then die with nothing resolved, makes his character so much more substantial.
which is also why the shark serving as a narrative device for capitalism is also so potent to me. it's the same problem replicated over and over and over in each little subnarrative, and it's deeply tragic in its lack of resolution: capitalism gets its greedy, prodding fingers into a situation, and only ever makes it worse, bloodier, and more drawn out. Quint and his crew are abandoned and left to get torn apart by sharks because the American military has a vested interest in turning bloodshed into money. the mayor refuses to let his precious little cash cow of a summer beach town be shut down because he doesn't want to lose out on any income (I actually am very intrigued by the mayor's connection to the mob in the novel, which is completely dropped in the movie. but that's yet another layer of capitalist profit). the town ignores the pleading of those who Know Things About Sharks and run to their boats as soon as they find out there's a cash bounty on the line. all of these instances are individuals who have been warped by the incredibly efficient propaganda machine of capitalism into doing Bad Things and perpetuating the cycle. none of them are strictly to blame, and the shark certainly isn't to blame (it's an animal, doing things out of instinct.), but being manipulated by corporate greed makes monsters out of us all.
I have no idea where I'm going with this, but I've just had a few things knocking around my brain for a while now and I wanted to get them out somewhere so they'd quit bothering me. one day I'd really like to do a detailed writeup of my whole shark-as-capitalism-made-manifest type thing, but that'll be in some misty future. I'm too sleepy right now.
I forced my roomie to watch it a little while back (their first time seeing it) and they were floored by the indianapolis speech because from a modern, or at least just slightly more culturally aware perspective, it's like "is this supposed to be... admirable? is this supposed to garner sympathy?" and that line of thought got me thinking about Quint as a character and his differences in book vs. movie. i came away from the whole thing thinking basically:
no matter what, Quint wins. in a cultural sense, at least.
uhh have a cut here cause this seems like it'll get long
he dies in the movie, sure, but it's as a prophetic martyr. he is absolved of all his sins as he is torn to shreds because he has done the heroic deed of dying in a meaningful way. thus, all the perceived slights and grievances that the town of Amity had for him are erased, and he can be remembered for his one final act, rather than anything else. he wins because despite being essentially an outcast for the majority of his life, he did what other people didn't want to do, and now the town will deify him in order to cover their guilt. the very manifestation of the thought "don't speak ill of the dead." I think this is also something that carries over to the real world, with quinthead dudes finding the caricature of a grizzled old vet who drinks all day and rejects the frills and commodities of modern society for simple (read: romanticized lower-class) living to be suuuper cool and something to aspire to. his death only spurs on the desire to uphold him as some sort of figurehead of righteous masculinity, being prepared to lay down his life for his beliefs.
then there's the book. I haven't finished reading it so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I do know that Quint lives, and is the one to deliver the killing blow to the shark, while Hooper dies in the cage. so, here's another win. once-spurned old fisherman saves the town in one heroic swoop and can return to society with a loving embrace, accepted now that he has fulfilled his destiny and actually hunted his white whale. from a narrative standpoint, I think the movie has a much more satisfying and well-rounded story for Quint, but that's neither here nor there. the main point I'm making is this: Quint is the caricature of American veterans that doesn't actually exist, but conservative talking heads worship like deities. he gets people to make podcasts about him and write officially published fanfiction about all his Epic Wartime Adventures. he gets to be elevated to a status in pop culture that few others can get to.
I say all this with a deep love for Quint in my heart, btw. I love Shaw's portrayal and am obviously very obsessed with jaws in general. but part of that obsession stems from the fact that there's so much to dissect when you actually think about the character and writing and acting choices made on-set. Quint is twice as tragic of a character when realizing that his hatred for sharks is him falling for the propaganda that got him to join the military in the first place. he has misplaced the blame of his suffering on an animal because to actually work through his trauma and hatred would be to realize that the real fault lies with the American military system, and since his entire identity revolves around being this grizzled, washed-up vet, it's impossible for him to actually come to grips with that. so, the sharks are an easy out. it's the thing closest in front of him that he can grab on to. and, as a little bonus, it means he gets to keep hurting.
there's a sort of divinity in suffering that toxic masculinity loves to uphold. talk to 88% of white dads and you'll find it in every other sentence. to be wanting is to be vulnerable is to be emasculated. they must strive to desire for as close to nothing as possible. of course, they'll have surface-level wants, trinkets like crossbows or tactical flashlight/stun-gun/battering ram thingys they can point to when it comes time to make christmas lists, but beneath that is a genuine desire to not desire. to live in a constant state of slight discomfort is good, it reinforces your masculinity, it makes you tough and resistant to the cruelty of life. it hardens you. it's almost easy to get addicted to suffering, when you experience it this way.
so of course, the grizzled old war vet, stuck in his ways and resistant to social change, is going to want to keep coming back to that constant low-level hurt. comfort in routine. he hurts because to stop hurting would hurt more. does this make any sense? maybe not, but I'm writing mostly stream-of-consciousness here without pausing to think about connecting any of these discordant thoughts. ANYWAY. this is what I mean when I say Quint wins culturally. as a character he certainly doesn't win much, he's the king of shit city when it comes to tough breaks, and at the end of it all he gets rewarded by getting brutally killed. yet as a fictional character he is the most perfectly memorable, valiant, noble individual in the minds of all boomers and gen-Xers that grew up on jaws. being able to peel back that curtain and view him as the deeply sad, tragic character that he is, who only serves to perpetuate the institutions that hurt him in his youth and then die with nothing resolved, makes his character so much more substantial.
which is also why the shark serving as a narrative device for capitalism is also so potent to me. it's the same problem replicated over and over and over in each little subnarrative, and it's deeply tragic in its lack of resolution: capitalism gets its greedy, prodding fingers into a situation, and only ever makes it worse, bloodier, and more drawn out. Quint and his crew are abandoned and left to get torn apart by sharks because the American military has a vested interest in turning bloodshed into money. the mayor refuses to let his precious little cash cow of a summer beach town be shut down because he doesn't want to lose out on any income (I actually am very intrigued by the mayor's connection to the mob in the novel, which is completely dropped in the movie. but that's yet another layer of capitalist profit). the town ignores the pleading of those who Know Things About Sharks and run to their boats as soon as they find out there's a cash bounty on the line. all of these instances are individuals who have been warped by the incredibly efficient propaganda machine of capitalism into doing Bad Things and perpetuating the cycle. none of them are strictly to blame, and the shark certainly isn't to blame (it's an animal, doing things out of instinct.), but being manipulated by corporate greed makes monsters out of us all.
I have no idea where I'm going with this, but I've just had a few things knocking around my brain for a while now and I wanted to get them out somewhere so they'd quit bothering me. one day I'd really like to do a detailed writeup of my whole shark-as-capitalism-made-manifest type thing, but that'll be in some misty future. I'm too sleepy right now.
