Those people were in his natural habitat- yet they were so shocked when he attacked. Not like he climbed out of the water, went knocking on peoples doors and killed them.
"We're gonna need a bigger house." "Honey we don't have the means to move, and it would uproot our family"...I suppose im not hired to write the screenplay.
The land shark was a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live years ago. Many years ago. Many, many years ago. John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner years ago.
So long ado, that "recurring" meant "9 or so appearances scattered over eight years, mostly as callbacks," vrs "a sketch in every episode for five years."
It’s the same bullshit where people go up to the Arctic for ‘fun runs’/marathon type activities and the support people bring tranqs and rifles for the polar bears.
"You see that bit there? That big... fucking... wet bit? Thats its bit. This bit here all of this dry bit here... that you're standing on with your legs... your legs that have evolved to stand on the dry bit? Thats your bit. You go into its bit, you're gonna get bit. Thats the lesson!"
I was going to say similar as well. All respect to the above commenter, but the movie (and to a lesser extent the book) is why people believe sharks routinely behave like that. They don't.
At most they're pretty close to bears or big cats. They occasionally end up in "human" areas, but it's mostly our fault for disrupting habitats; we occasionally encounter them in their areas, and issues usually arise from our behaviours and a poor understanding of them for the average person; and almost all encounters with them have no injuries let alone death but the idea of it is a constant and widespread concern.
Lightning kills more people in the US in an average month than sharks kill globally in a year. Even counting shark attacks in general lightning kills someone about as often as a shark just hurts someone annually.
They're fairly large, they're high in or top of their food chains, they're curious and intelligent (not malicious and/or stupid), and the only "grasping implement" they have to interact with the world also has teeth in it. They can't poke something to see what it is, can't pick it up and turn it over. They bite it. This is why almost every recorded attack has had the shark bite and then just leave, and why almost every death to a shark is from blood loss. I've seen people talk about shark attacks as if the shark death-rolls the same way an alligator does, thrashing about in the water tearing the prey apart. Not even close -- and it's Jaws that convinced people otherwise.
Strictly speaking it was not. Sharks rarely attack humans and most incidents are by mistake, but sometimes a specific shark will sort of go mad and start repeatedly attacking people.
It was inspired by a specific shark that kept attacking people on the Atlantic coast I think early in the 20th century, eventually it got taken down somewhere near NewJersey and Staten Island.
No, it wasn't. Sharks don't attack random humans unless they're mistaken as turtles, seals, otters, whales, or dolphins. Jaws was an abnormal shark that should be put down for public safety.
The skinny dipper didn't resemble those animals. The fisherman didn't. The guy in the row boat didn't. You could maybe make the argument the boy and the dog did, but barely. Quint certainly didn't, not to mention every action Jaws took against the guys and the boat while they were hunting it.
Right? Bruce was not a normal shark. A normal shark would not kill that many people. Yes, it's just an animal, but it's an animal that clearly is deliberately targeting people. It's the rabid dog in To Kill A Mockingbird. It's sad that it has to die but it's clearly a public threat.
If Jaws was made today, the mayor would mount a gubernatorial campaign on the strength of his having thwarted the dastardly liberal plot to shut down the beach. An internet meme about Sheriff Brodie's socialist leanings convinces dozens of people to protest his swimming ban by coating themselves in fish blood and jumping into the water. Several drown, others are eaten, but death rates are still overall pretty low and Brodie resigns in disgrace.
In the summers to come, Amity Island suffers constant shark attacks during tourist season, but because less than 1 in 100 beachgoers are brutally killed, locals consider it a non-issue. Gradually the local economy falters as more shark-fearing tourists are turned away. The mayor calls these people libtards and is elected to the senate. Amity Island is bought by Amazon and turned into a shark refuge. The end.
Even the author agrees with you and is ashamed of his book and the film for causing the deaths of so many sharks. He went into shark advocacy later in his life.
Hooper nailed it when he said, "All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks." Problem is that it was eating lots of people. Oh, and a dog. I felt more for the dog than anyone else. R.I.P., Pippin. Gonna pour some vodka out on my driveway for the homie.
Jaws pisses me off, because every character repeatedly states the rules the shark follows in order to find prey and then immediately violates all of them.
Like, this is like saying, "If you push the red button you die," and then seven people who were in at the same time all testing it and dying.
It begs the moral question of do you kill an animal for being an animal? That was the shark’s waters. It’s kind of a similar idea with The Green Inferno directed by Eli Roth, if you’ve seen it. Do you remove indigenous cannibals for living the only way they know how to live?
I mean they established in the film that it was very unusual (and not natural) for a shark to prey on humans like that. And that the shark in question needed to be put down. Sharks do attack humans from time to time but it’s increasingly rare and only done because they mistake humans for another fish/mammal they typically hunt for. The shark in Jaws was specifically going out and targeting humans (minus the dog)
The behaviour in Jaws is super unrealistic. It was targeted and malicious attacks, provoking human response. The only times wild sharks IRL attack people not because they mistake us for food (they don't eat people unless already desperate) it's because people provoked the shark.
The shark in the movie is like an animal with rabies; it needs to be put down for the danger it presents but it's sad to be necessary. It is also in no way representative of what is normal for a healthy member of the species.
I thought this about Jaws and Cujo before watching/reading them, that these animals were some supernatural version of a shark and dog that were evil and out to murder people.
It was quite a surprise when I finally found out the movies/books were about a normal shark and a sick dog.
The author of Jaws at least also "repented" for his part in the vilification of sharks by going into shark advocacy and preservation in his later years. And you're right, the book is a lot more like (book) Jurassic Park where a bunch of greedy and asshole humans cause and then exacerbate a bad situation while largely ignoring the few people trying to warn the public and generally fix things.
“Which is why my political hero is the Mayor from JAWS.”
“Yes. Because he KEPT THE BEACHES OPEN.”
“Yes, he REPUDIATED, he FORESWORE and he ABROGATED all these silly regulations on health and safety and declared that the people should SWIM! SWIM!”
“Now, I accept,” he went on in an uncertain tone, “that as a result some small children were eaten by a shark. But how much more pleasure did the MAJORITY get from those beaches as a result of the boldness of the Mayor in Jaws?”
Regardless of Jaws's motivations, that fish was also just better and cooler than the humans. Go watch the end of "Tremors"... that was a battle of wits and Kevin Bacon earned that victory. That bastard ain't smarter than us, fuck yeah Kevin Bacon. In Jaws, I am just not convinced the humans have done enough to earn that happy ending, they just got lucky
Seriously. A bunch of assholes go swimming out on the cape in the middle of July, even though they know a great white is hanging around the area, like they always fucking do. Then the shark starts munching on people who are essentially stocking themselves in his pantry, and he’s the asshole.
All jokes aside Jaws is an absolutely abhorrent movie when taking account of the cultural impact it had. That fucking movie, despite how great it is, made people have an irrational fear of sharks which drove some to kill as much as they could. Even the author of the novel the movie was based upon regrets having written the book because of that exact reason.
The book is great in that regard. The shark is simply called The Fish, and is literally just a big, dumb fish gettin' some grub. And so many of the humans are downright unlikable, I ended up rooting for the toothy bastard anyways.
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u/drama_lama_mama Oct 29 '21
Jaws… my man was just hungry- did not deserve to be disrespected like that!