Six Discoveries I Made While Watching Jaws

Over the years, maybe after I’d watched Jaws a couple dozen times or so, I’d become familiar with what was playing out in every scene, and so with subsequent viewings I began to look around the camera frame to see what was going on elsewhere: in the background, to the sides, and sometimes even in the foreground. By doing so, I made quite a few interesting little discoveries within the scenes…things such as goofs and errors in continuity, people or objects I’d never noticed before, and even some mysterious happenings I have yet to figure out.

For those of you who’ve researched Jaws, and who’ve watched the documentaries and read behind-the-scenes articles, you no doubt have heard about Spielberg’s trademark falling stars, his voice being heard on the Orca’s marine radio, Scheider’s “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” line being ad-libbed, and the police report showing Chrissie Watkins’ death occurring after that of Alex Kintner (which was later shown to be June 29th, according to Mrs. Kintner’s ‘help wanted’ ad), and her body being transferred to the ‘corners office’:

But I’ve also discovered six things you may not have noticed or heard about while watching Jaws, and below is a list describing those half-dozen sightings, including one I hadn’t spotted until my most recent screening a month ago. So far, I haven’t been able to find any mention of these six anomalies elsewhere (save for the second one listed, which I read a discussion about earlier this week), so maybe you Jaws faithful are already aware of these little gems, and I’ve just been oblivious all these years. If you have noticed them before, let me know in the comments; if you haven’t, the red arrow in each photo will help guide you to what I’ve found.

Pipit’s Water Stick

This one seems so obvious, it’s odd that I didn’t notice it right from the start. During the sequence where young Alex Kintner is attacked while on his raft and dragged to the briny deep, a guy in a yellow shirt is playing with his dog Pipit along the shoreline. He’s throwing a stick into the water for the dog to chase, and at one point a man swims towards Pipit, collides with her, and seemingly grabs for her head! And it took me years to clue in that this wasn’t Pipit’s yellow-shirted owner…this was some stranger trying to steal Pipit’s stick from her mouth! The question is, why? Why was he antagonizing someone else’s dog? And for those of you who think Pipit was taken by the shark, think again: it was probably this jerk who was harassing her.

The Gorton’s Fisherman

Appearing all over the scene on the dock—where the supposed killer shark is strung up by his Buster Browns—is this fruitcake I like to call the Gorton’s Fisherman, who’s dressed just like the slicker-clad spokesman found on boxes of Gorton’s frozen seafood. Once you notice this interloper, you can’t help but not notice him, since he worms his way into nearly every shot Spielberg makes during this sequence. As it turns out, I’ve pondered the very same question that others have: is this character actually Steven Spielberg in disguise, making an odd, extended cameo? I’ve tried comparing these shots with photos of Spielberg taken on the Jaws set, but I can’t tell with certainty one way or the other…although there appears to be a slight difference between each person’s nose and chin. Who knows, maybe this really is just a local goofball who wandered onto the dock during filming, and thought he’d make himself a star.

An Ill Wind on Hooper’s Neck

What the hell? While the Matt Hooper character argues with some locals over the bite radius of a tiger shark, one of the group becomes riled up and begins…blowing on Hooper’s neck! For decades, my attention had been focused on the camouflaged fisherman on the left, threatening to put Hooper’s head in the shark’s mouth…and all the time the gray-clad fisherman on the right is trying to steal the scene by provoking Hooper with blasts of angry breath! It’s funny, too, that Dreyfuss reacts to it immediately before the scene abruptly ends, making me think this was an ad-lib on the part of the island actor.

The Amity PD Blazer

Not that it’s any big deal, but I thought it was kinda neat that this was in the background of the scene: Chief Brody’s gold-and-white Chevy Blazer, at the bottom of the hill where the ‘Amity Island Welcomes You’ billboard is located. It took the recent 40th anniversary screening of Jaws at my local theater for me to catch this, perhaps because it was easier to spot on the big screen. One thought: why didn’t Brody park the Blazer at the top of the hill, next to the billboard where Mayor Vaughn parked, and save himself and Hooper the long walk? Maybe because that roadway near the billboard was a one-way street, and they were arriving from the opposite direction?

Hooper’s Big Book of Birds

Aboard the Orca, during a lull in the action, Hooper is at the helm working on some sort of device or tool, and referencing a book to do so. But what is this tool, and more importantly, what is the book? And what is that in the top photo of the first page…a freaking bird? That’s what it looks like to me: a white parrot, perched on a fence or the edge of a table. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, and what you see is a bottle of milk or a power drill or something else, but to me it’s a plain-as-day white parrot. What that has to do with sharking, I’ll never know…for use as bait, perhaps?

The Scar We Never Wanted To See

I saved the best and the strangest one for last: while Hooper is unbuttoning his shirt, Quint is buttoning up his pants. This interlude took place once again on the Orca, when he and Hooper were comparing scars; our attention is on Hooper and his “She broke my heart” joke, and we never look over at Quint, who quite clearly has his trousers undone, and is hoisting them up, re-buckling them, and trying to zip up the zipper. Unfortunately, the pants are so old (or cheap) that he can only fasten them partially…and that’s the way they remain for the shot. I’m sure that scene originally had a moment where Quint was putting another scar on display, a sequence that was removed during pre-production, but do I really want to know what his below-the-waist story was all about? Ummm…no.

xxx