In the summer of 1975, a giant great white shark from "Emmiti Island" made the tourism industry in coastal cities of the United States bleak that year, and even many Americans had a sense of fear for beaches and sea water! This giant great white shark that has brought fear to the American people is not real, but comes from the animal thriller "Jaws" directed by Spielberg.
This adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Peter Bunchley, published by Universal Pictures, Spielberg’s animal thriller triggered a movie-watching frenzy as soon as it was released, and eventually won a box office score of $471 million. It surpassed the 245 million US dollars of "The Godfather" in 1972 and ranked first in the world movie box office charts.
The success of the movie "Jaws" not only changed the production model and business model of Hollywood movies, but also made the "animal thriller" a thriller (or horror genre) officially established. Therefore, the great commercial success of "Jaws" can be regarded as the founder of animal thrillers!
The so-called animal thrillers, that is, the main content of the movie is about animals in nature. For some reason, a series of horror events have been triggered in human society or among humans. Because the origin of horror comes from animals in nature, and even pets in daily life, rather than monsters in outer space (such as aliens), genetically mutated monsters (such as Godzilla), and fictional ancient creatures (such as King Kong). ), so in comparison, the audience can have a more sense of substitution and realism when watching a movie, as if the story that happened in the movie would appear in reality!
From the perspective of film history, the world's first recognized monster thriller (also an animal thriller) was the silent film "Lost World" directed by Harry O. Hoyt in 1925. Since the silent film "Lost World" came out, Hollywood film practitioners have also shot many thrillers with the theme of "mutated animals" in the following decades: for example, the film "Wolfman" directed by George Wagner in 1941; "Deep Sea Monster" directed by Robert Gordon in 1955, based on an octopus as the story model; "Deadly Mantis" directed by Nathan Juran in 1957. However, most of the films mentioned above are B-level films, which are not well-produced. The type is mainly science fiction, and the content is more inclined to "mutant monsters", which is different from the animal thrillers mentioned today. .
Since the 1960s, the first true animal thriller in film history was "The Birds" directed by Hitchcock in 1963. The movie "Flock of Birds" mainly tells the story of the protagonist and his family who had to escape from the town when the protagonist’s town was attacked by a flock of birds. The film shows the essence of this genre through images of birds persecuting humans, and is known as the creator of modern animal thrillers!
The commercial success of "Jaws" in 1975 and the establishment of an animal thriller genre made this genre continuously enriched in content, and its commercial status continued to move closer to the mainstream. Since the development of this genre, a large number of excellent and commercially valuable works have been born: for example, the "Anacondas" series based on the python (1977); the "Rabid Dog" (1983) based on the dog. ; "Jurassic Park" series based on dinosaurs (1993); "Extreme Cold" based on octopus (1998); "Deep Sea Shark" based on sharks (1999); based on crocodile The prototype of "Prehistoric Crocodile" (1999).
So how did this thriller produced by Universal Pictures and directed by Spielberg stand out from the crowd of B-rated films, and how did it establish the genre of animal thrillers? In my opinion, there are two main reasons for the great success of the film "Jaws" at the commercial level: first, the director’s shooting style and the soundtrack complement each other; second, the deep-level character creation and role relationship. As an animal thriller, "Jaws", combined with the director's shooting style and soundtrack, makes the film's thriller atmosphere greatly rendered, making the screen image of "Jaws" more profound. Before the movie "Jaws", most of the thrillers with "mutant animals" were B-level films, and the overall production was not excellent. From the content point of view, the horror plot in the film mainly relies on exaggerated modeling design and exaggerated performances by actors. The movie "Jaws" is different. As the absolute protagonist of the whole film, "Jaws", the director did not give any panoramic view in the first half of the film, only some close-up shots. Even in the second half of the film, "Jaws" was in the dark most of the time, and more shots gave the Brody police officer and his team the reaction. It wasn't until the last moment of the film's "big battle" that the huge white shark really appeared on the big screen.
"The unknown is the most terrible." As a thriller, the movie "Jaws" implements this concept well, and through this shooting method, the film always maintains a kind of suspense, allowing the unknown thriller to accompany the whole movie. Combined with the filming method is the soundtrack by John Williams. From the behind-the-scenes footage of the film, we can see that Spielberg originally intended to use a soothing soundtrack to ease the brutal scene in the film, but the soundtracker John Williams finally adopted a mode of alternating two semitone notes. Come as the theme song of the great white shark, bringing a sense of anxiety to the audience. He himself described it as: "Like a shark, instinctive, ruthless, and unstoppable approaching you"!
This kind of soundtrack with Bernard Herman's style and the always suspenseful shooting method gradually pushes the film's thrilling atmosphere to the extreme as the plot develops. Another important aspect of the film is its relationship with the shaping of the characters and the characters. Only by virtue of this, "Jaws" surpasses the thriller in the general sense at the content level. In terms of character creation, the old fisherman Quint is the most representative and hierarchical character. In the film, the old fisherman Quint's first appearance gives the impression of being an arrogant and arrogant "negative role." When the sheriff and Hooper asked Quint for help and walked into Quint's residence, the old fisherman Quint gave the audience a cruel and bloodthirsty feeling. However, when Quint told the sheriff and Hooper about his past experience, the sense of hierarchy of Quint's role was immediately reflected, and his previous behaviors were "understood" to a certain extent. In the end, he was unfortunately killed in the mouth of the great white shark, with a hint of anti-war deep meaning!
In terms of role relationships, the confrontational relationship between marine biologist Hooper and the old fisherman Quinter is the best in the entire movie. The confrontation between Hooper, who has modern scientific knowledge, and the empiricist Quint, to a certain extent, symbolizes the confrontation between the old and new generations. At the end of the film, Quint was killed in the mouth of the great white shark. To a certain extent, it expresses the creator's attitude towards this relationship!
From the above two aspects, it is enough to see the superiority of the movie "Jaws", and it is enough to prove its historical position as the founder of the animal thriller genre! Time has passed, and forty-five years have passed. The film "Jaws" has been surpassed to varying degrees by later works in both technical and content aspects, and many official platforms are even questioning its historical status as a "classic". . However, as an art type, film has its unique creative background and limitations of the times just like novels, proses, and poems. People should not look at previous works with modern aesthetics!
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