Religious symbolism in Jaws?
11-27-06 | 11:54 AM
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From: Eugene, OR
Religious symbolism in Jaws?
My girlfriend is trying to do a little research on the religious (specifically Christian) symbolism in the movie "Jaws" for work (she works in a church). I've never been aware of any such symbolism, and my google searches have come up empty, but at least one coworker of hers seems to think that it exists. Can anyone help us see the light?
11-27-06 | 12:06 PM
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From: NYC
Originally Posted by Jerrycurl
My girlfriend is trying to do a little research on the religious (specifically Christian) symbolism in the movie "Jaws" for work (she works in a church). I've never been aware of any such symbolism, and my google searches have come up empty, but at least one coworker of hers seems to think that it exists. Can anyone help us see the light?
Early trailers referred to the shark as "the devil himself."
11-27-06 | 12:08 PM
#4
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Brody overcomes his own fears of water to put his community before him, and all without want of reward. This fits in well with Romans 15:1-2, as well as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
...Hmm, it's as if I recently did a project similar to this...
...Hmm, it's as if I recently did a project similar to this...
)
11-27-06 | 12:17 PM
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From: Lyon Estates
Originally Posted by Groucho
I don't know. Is there anything in the Bible about "seeing things that aren't there"?
You could consider the "breaking bread" scene biblical when Hooper offers Broody a pretzel.
11-27-06 | 02:18 PM
#10
I guess you can find religious symbolism in anything if you try.
http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/projects...oc_2002/A7.htm
Of course, hidden biblical characters do not have to be limited to human beings to have religious import. For example, critics have considered the marauding Great White Shark with its smart, malignant disposition in Jaws as a nature symbol of “menacing evil” (Malone, 1988, p. 35), or as “a demonic representative of the Dark Force” (Drummond, 1996, p. 219), possibly “the devil incarnate” (Kozloff, 1981, p. 82). Mythologically speaking, Lee Drummond (1996, p. 205) considered Jaws to be “old semiotic wine in the new cultural bottles of the moving picture” whilst biblicists Jewett and Lawrence (1977, p. 142) considered the filmic narrative as an American monomyth that had fused together “Apocalyptic...[and] retributive ecstasy.” They considered the story to be situated in an “Edenic setting...Amity Island...[which] suggests paradisal qualities” (p. 149), indeed, “Amity is Eden compared to New York” (p. 151). It subsequently featured “a disruption of paradise by evil” (p. 149) in the form of a killer shark variously characterised by Lee Drummond (1996) as “a demonic being unleashed from the dark recesses of the Death Force...[it was] Animal as an Evil Other” (p. 219), it was “the face of Evil itself” (p. 220), “an evil, malignant thing of the sea” (p. 221).
Jaws had plenty of blood (itself an iconic feature of Christianity) and was a film which Jewett and Lawrence (1977, p. 156) characterised as a “redemption drama with a sexually segmented redeemer.” This redeemer was in the form of Sheriff Brody, the resident “patriarchal savior of the community” (Ryan & Kellner, 1988, p. 57) who had to combat the evil shark as his professional nemesis (biologically, socially, spiritually, metaphorically). Indeed, Jane Caputi (1978, p. 309) argued that: “Christian symbolism in Jaws extends beyond its echoes of Leviathan,” that is, the biblical forerunner to the monster shark (Ps. 74:13-14). She considered that the film’s three main protagonists, Sheriff Brody (Roy Schneider), shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) and ichthyologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) are a “surrogate Christian Trinity” (p. 310). “We need not strain to discern that these three men are the superstar surrogates of three other well-known figures, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost of the Christian religion [Matt. 28:19], performing their appointed and mythic mission” (pp. 310-311).
In any case, “Jaws affirms that we live in a good world which, despite horrors, is not destroyed by an evil principle” (Malone, 1988, p. 35), but who is itself obliterated by Sheriff Brody as the conquering Christ-figure. The sacred had once again defeated the sinister. Why is Brody triumphant? In addition to it being an expected Hollywood convention, the shark is “a metaphoric projection of fear” (Ryan & Kellner, 1988, p. 168) and so this “Evil must vanish from the face of the earth” (Britton, 1979, p. 54) to ensure everlasting peace. Well, almost, until its many filmic sequels with its equally menacing relatives arrived! Indeed, the death-based “reward for the audience conforms to a Deuteronomic pattern of compensating every virtue and punishing every vice” (Jewett & Lawrence, 1977, p. 159). Sheriff Brody (metaphorically Jesus/Good) wins, the shark (metaphorically the Devil/Evil) looses, and safety and order (moral, spiritual, physical, social) returns to Amity Island (metaphorically a peaceful Edenic world once again).
http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/projects...oc_2002/A7.htm
Of course, hidden biblical characters do not have to be limited to human beings to have religious import. For example, critics have considered the marauding Great White Shark with its smart, malignant disposition in Jaws as a nature symbol of “menacing evil” (Malone, 1988, p. 35), or as “a demonic representative of the Dark Force” (Drummond, 1996, p. 219), possibly “the devil incarnate” (Kozloff, 1981, p. 82). Mythologically speaking, Lee Drummond (1996, p. 205) considered Jaws to be “old semiotic wine in the new cultural bottles of the moving picture” whilst biblicists Jewett and Lawrence (1977, p. 142) considered the filmic narrative as an American monomyth that had fused together “Apocalyptic...[and] retributive ecstasy.” They considered the story to be situated in an “Edenic setting...Amity Island...[which] suggests paradisal qualities” (p. 149), indeed, “Amity is Eden compared to New York” (p. 151). It subsequently featured “a disruption of paradise by evil” (p. 149) in the form of a killer shark variously characterised by Lee Drummond (1996) as “a demonic being unleashed from the dark recesses of the Death Force...[it was] Animal as an Evil Other” (p. 219), it was “the face of Evil itself” (p. 220), “an evil, malignant thing of the sea” (p. 221).
Jaws had plenty of blood (itself an iconic feature of Christianity) and was a film which Jewett and Lawrence (1977, p. 156) characterised as a “redemption drama with a sexually segmented redeemer.” This redeemer was in the form of Sheriff Brody, the resident “patriarchal savior of the community” (Ryan & Kellner, 1988, p. 57) who had to combat the evil shark as his professional nemesis (biologically, socially, spiritually, metaphorically). Indeed, Jane Caputi (1978, p. 309) argued that: “Christian symbolism in Jaws extends beyond its echoes of Leviathan,” that is, the biblical forerunner to the monster shark (Ps. 74:13-14). She considered that the film’s three main protagonists, Sheriff Brody (Roy Schneider), shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) and ichthyologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) are a “surrogate Christian Trinity” (p. 310). “We need not strain to discern that these three men are the superstar surrogates of three other well-known figures, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost of the Christian religion [Matt. 28:19], performing their appointed and mythic mission” (pp. 310-311).
In any case, “Jaws affirms that we live in a good world which, despite horrors, is not destroyed by an evil principle” (Malone, 1988, p. 35), but who is itself obliterated by Sheriff Brody as the conquering Christ-figure. The sacred had once again defeated the sinister. Why is Brody triumphant? In addition to it being an expected Hollywood convention, the shark is “a metaphoric projection of fear” (Ryan & Kellner, 1988, p. 168) and so this “Evil must vanish from the face of the earth” (Britton, 1979, p. 54) to ensure everlasting peace. Well, almost, until its many filmic sequels with its equally menacing relatives arrived! Indeed, the death-based “reward for the audience conforms to a Deuteronomic pattern of compensating every virtue and punishing every vice” (Jewett & Lawrence, 1977, p. 159). Sheriff Brody (metaphorically Jesus/Good) wins, the shark (metaphorically the Devil/Evil) looses, and safety and order (moral, spiritual, physical, social) returns to Amity Island (metaphorically a peaceful Edenic world once again).
11-27-06 | 06:17 PM
#12
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I'm sure if you researched the religious symbolism of Moby Dick you could find a lot of similarities with Jaws. Just replace "Ishmael" with "Quint" and "White Whale" with "Great White Shark". 
It's a place to start at least.
It's a place to start at least.
11-27-06 | 06:19 PM
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From: Right now, my location is DVDTalk, but then again, you should already know that, shouldn't you?
Originally Posted by dick_grayson
Roy Schieder blew up a great white shark.....just like Jesus did.
Actually, wasn't the original tagline: "JAWS...what would Jesus chew?"?
11-27-06 | 06:27 PM
#14
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Didn't Brody and Noah's wife say "You're gonna need a bigger boat". ??
11-28-06 | 08:48 PM
#17
DVD Talk Gold Edition
What does it say about all the supposed Christian symbolism in Jaws, when you consider it was made by a Jew?
Speilberg must be laughing himself silly. I would.
Just goes to show you that there's no greater delusion than self-delusion.
Speilberg must be laughing himself silly. I would.
Just goes to show you that there's no greater delusion than self-delusion.
11-28-06 | 11:25 PM
#19
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Originally Posted by Jon2
What does it say about all the supposed Christian symbolism in Jaws, when you consider it was made by a Jew?
Speilberg must be laughing himself silly. I would.
Just goes to show you that there's no greater delusion than self-delusion.
Speilberg must be laughing himself silly. I would.
Just goes to show you that there's no greater delusion than self-delusion.
Kafka was Jewish.
11-29-06 | 01:59 AM
#22
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Originally Posted by Suprmallet
Reminds me of this girl I knew who was writing a detailed thesis on the Christian symbolism in Kafka's work. She asked me to read it and give my opinions. I took the copy she gave me and I gave it back to her with only one note:
Kafka was Jewish.
Kafka was Jewish.
11-29-06 | 03:50 AM
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From: Gateway Cities/Harbor Region
"Jaws" real title was "Jews".
11-29-06 | 05:46 AM
#25
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Originally Posted by Suprmallet
Reminds me of this girl I knew who was writing a detailed thesis on the Christian symbolism in Kafka's work. She asked me to read it and give my opinions. I took the copy she gave me and I gave it back to her with only one note:
Kafka was Jewish.
Kafka was Jewish.