inane rambling about jaws

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

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