Structurally Speaking: Jaws (Part II)

Welcome back to my "sequence method" analysis of Jaws. For those just tuning in, an explanation of the sequence method can be found here (the first four points) and here (the last four points), but you may want to start with the "Why structure, anyway?" post. The first part of the Jaws analysis can be found here. Questions? Disagreements? Think I should be discussing the brilliance of Jaws 4? Go to the Forums, by clicking here. Finally, there's a discussion about casting a theoretical remake of Jaws that needs, nay, demands your input.

And now... Part II.

Sequence Five (15:34)

The fifth sequence in the story consists of three scenes. In the first, Brody is depressed because of his failure as a sheriff, but Hooper comes to his house to convince him to cut up the caught shark and prove that it isn't Jaws. (For those new here, I refer to the villainous shark as "Jaws".) In the second scene, they sneak onto the dock and cut up the shark; when it's clear it's not Jaws, they go out onto the water and find Ben Gardner's boat, Ben Gardner's head, and the shark tooth (dropped). In the third scene, Brody and Hooper try to convince the Mayor to close the beaches on the 4th of July, but the Mayor aint havin' it -- especially with no tooth.

In a screenplay constructed "by-the-book", if you will, Sequence Five is kind of an odd duck. If you'll remember, there are eight sequences in an average screenplay, and eight points that hold the sequences together. Seems natch'ral that each point would correspond with a sequence, but they don't -- Sequence Three has two points associated with it (the Main Tension and the Point of No Return), and so Sequence Five doesn't have any any. Instead, it's suggested that Sequence Five is the "Subplot Sequence" -- a moment in the story when the focus is redirected towards one of the supporting characters and their subplot. (The example subplot given in David Howard's book is, during a story about Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic, about his wife worrying about him. Something like that. Maybe Burley can fill in the details here. Did I mention I don't have the books in front of me?)

What's interesting is that while there is no subplot in Jaws, look at the scene list for this sequence carefully. Notice anything? Throughout nearly the entirety of the sequence, it's Hooper who's calling the shots, in a sense taking over the protagonist role from Brody. It's Hooper's idea to cut up the shark, it's Hooper's idea to go out on the water, it's Hooper that finds the tooth, and it's Hooper that argues most vociferously with Mayor Larry Vaughn. It follows the sequence method, in spirit if not to the letter.

Sequence Six (19:07)

Three scenes in Sequence Six, although, like Sequence Four, more could be argued. The first scene is the 4th of July. It starts with the arrival of the tourists (no, not those tourists), builds as the extent of Brody's police security is revealed and the Mayor urges people to go into the water, and finally climaxes -- one false (the kids with the cardboard fin) and the real one, the sh-sh-sh-shark! In the pond! While definitely the highlight of the sequence, there are two more scenes necessary to make it complete. In the second scene, Brody finally gets the Mayor's approval to hire Quint to kill the shark. In the third scene, Brody convinces Quint to allow him and Hooper to accompany him, setting up the third act.

The structuring point of Sequence Six is the Second Culmination. To recap, the Second Culmination answers the question posed by the Main Tension, back in Sequence Three. Back in Part I, I stated the Main Tension as "Will Brody be able to solve the shark problem before the beaches open up again?" The answer, of course, is "No". While the Second Culmination is intended to match up with the highest point of action and tension in Sequence Six (and that's what happens here; the Fourth of July scene answers the Main Tension), note that, in this case, it doesn't come at the end of the sequence -- in fact, it starts the sequence. While we generally associate words like culmination, climax, action, tension with a story's ending, in actuality these qualities can come at any time. Since the answer to the Main Tension creates such chaos, there needs to be enough scenes for this chaos to be absorbed by the characters so that some kind of response can be given (and the third act set up); hence, the much slower-paced scene at Quint's place, where Brody negotiates his and Hooper's place on the boat.

Please note again, however, that every part of this sequence method analysis is a judgment call -- there are no right answers. And every choice made can create difficulties or oddities that may not seem to fit in with the sequence method structure. For example, I've decided that the end of the second act is when Brody goes off with Quint and Hooper to find Jaws. Seems right, doesn't it? The first act ends and the second act begins with the city council meeting, and the second act ends and third act begins with the trio out at sea. I mean, doesn't that feel right? I think it does, yet it brings up an interesting conundrum: it means the third act is 49 minute and 56 seconds long -- only 4 minutes and 29 seconds shorter than the second act.

That's a long third act. Most third acts are usually, at most, 30 minutes long, and usually in the 15-20 minute range. Did I do something wrong, or does Jaws simply have a longer-than-normal third act? As I've suggested, there is no right answer. If I've demonstrated that Jaws has a 50 minute third act, then it does. And someone else can come along and demonstrate how the real end of the second act doesn't occur for another 30 minutes, making the story more "normal", and they'd be right, too. (And hopefully said someone will post their findings in the Forum.)

After much deliberation, I've decided that the extra-long third act is the way to go. However, this has some unintended effects, detailed below.

Sequence Seven (23:46)

Three scenes here as well, each organized by an encounter with Jaws. In the first, Quint hooks the shark, but loses him. In the second, Jaws makes his first real appearance ("We're gonna need a bigger boat") and they hit him with a barrel, but he gets away. In the third scene, Quint gives his Indianapolis monologue, and Jaws hits them again, disabling the boat.

A note here about sequences. Two things define a sequence, I believe, and they're interrelated. One, a sequence, while part of a larger whole, also has a beginning, middle, and end, and is held together by some idea or action or theme. Second, there is a real time limit to a sequence -- generally, a sequence should not be much longer than 20 minutes. Although this originated from real physical limits (the length of a film reel) now overcome through technology, I think twenty minutes is a real (for lack of a better word) psychic limit. How long can a person pay attention to a dramatic story before they begin to break what they're seeing into comprehensible chunks? If this is going to happen anyway (and I believe it will), then it makes sense to take control of that process at the beginning, during the writing, and use that natural inclination to tell stories better. (It should be stated that, although the Platonically Ideal screenplay has eight sequences, longer movies, like The Godfather or The Lord of the Rings, have more than eight. A normal length movie can also have more, or fewer, than eight sequences if circumstances call for it.)

That said, note the length of this sequence. While it clearly breaks the "rules" I've just set up, it has an excuse: Quint's monologue. The famous monologue, of Quint's experience during WWII, is an incredible moment, a revealing look into the hard-hearted sea captain and the soul of the movie. It's also, in terms of plot, completely superfluous, and if the four-minute story were excised, the sequence would drop to a more manageable 19 minutes. But pushing the time envelope here is a good move -- I can't imagine Jaws without this moment.

Now, normally, Sequence Seven is the location of the seventh point: The Third Act Twist/Tension. However, having such a long third act means one of two things: either having two extremely long sequences of nearly 30 minutes apiece... or having an extra sequence. I've opted for the latter, and since this, the Seventh Sequence, doesn't have any correlating sequence points, I'm considering it to be the extra sequence.

Sequence Eight (14:24)

Another three scenes. Scene one: They repair the boat, but when Brody tries to use the radio to call for help, Quint destroys it. Scene two: They hit Jaws with a second barrel, and Jaws responds by towing the boat, damaging it further. Scene three: Quint tries to lure Jaws into the shallows, but he burns out the engine in the process, stranding them.

In the sequence method, the third act is, like the second act, kind of its own little story. Although the third act is (usually) fairly short, it also needs something like a Predicament or a Point of No Return to turn the story upside-down, to goose it and keep the audience on their toes. Enter the Third Act Twist/Tension. What is the twist in this sequence? The destruction of the radio is a truly shocking moment, as it's the only moment on the boat where one of the characters takes a dangerous, antagonist stance towards another character, a stance that's been reserved for Jaws up until this point. This would be a fine choice; however, I'm going to choose the engine burn-out instead, if only for more writerly reasons. (The loss of the radio is unfortunate, but it isn't until they're dead in the water, so to speak, that the story really twists -- their options are now extremely limited.)

It should be noted that the David Howard book calls it simply "The Third Act Twist". I've added the "Tension" part of it, since it seems that the Twist portion of it suggests a question, much like the Main Tension of Sequence Three. Since I'm adding it and it's not "official", I'm not going to demand that the question be answered with a simple Yes or No; instead, I'll suggest that the question posed here is something along the lines of "How will they defeat the shark now?"

Sequence Nine (11:37)
Four scenes conclude the movie. In the first, Brody and Quint lower Hooper into the cage to poison Jaws, but Jaws destroys the cage and chases Hooper away. The second scene is Jaws getting onto the boat and eating Quint right in front Brody. The third scene quickly follows: Brody tosses the tank into Jaws' mouth, and as the shark rushes towards him, Brody shoots the tank, blowing Jaws to smithereens. In the final scene, Hooper reemerges, and he and Brody paddle back to shore.

The final point of the method is the Resolution. The Resolution is pretty simple, and I imagine most people grasp it intuitively. Simply stated, the Resolution answers any outstanding questions raised by the movie, so that the movie can end. Using more literary terms as a reference, the Resolution combines both the Climax and the Denouement. The shark blows up. Quint is eaten. Brody and Hooper are alive, and they get back to shore alive (watch the end credits if you doubt this). We can imagine more questions and scenarios from this point (for example, will the town of Amity survive, even though Jaws is now dead?), but in terms of the questions raised and conflicts established by the story, there is nothing else that needs to be said.

(It's true that some endings can be "open" or ambiguous -- but I seriously question if films with those kinds of endings truly don't have a Resolution. For example, Limbo has a ridiculously open ending -- but the questions and conflicts of the story, the ones that matter, are answered before that moment. For a film that really, truly doesn't have a Resolution -- and is amusingly self-conscious about it -- see the previously mentioned Valdez is Coming.)

And that's that. I hope this look at Jaws, while not as deep as it could be, was a good introduction to the somewhat-obscure ideas of the sequence method. I plan to do a few more of these (starting with The Matrix), but now that I feel like I've explained these terms as well as I can for now, they'll probably be a lot shorter. If you have any questions, or would like to suggest your own structural breakdown of Jaws, please post here. Thanks!