God I love watching that scene, it makes me laugh for some reason, not because it's corny or anything but it has this morbid humorous quality about it that is a delight to me. There's no real dignity in death for the most part and Robert Shaw nailed it by being simultaneously genuine and horrifying to being darkly humorous.
shareMakes me sad
shareI have to admit i wish he had survived along with brody and hooper !
shareYeah, but Quint lost it therefore setting up his own demise
Brody had a family and a job to finish and Hooper was too young to perish
It all felt right to me
Yes, he could have survived if he had followed the Chief's advice and gotten a bigger boat! He also smashed the radio because he wanted no help from anyone. It was him against the shark.
All those years of remembering his lost crew mates. I got the impression that he was almost prepared to join them. Survivor guilt maybe. But he was going to get that shark or die trying.
Every time I watch it I find myself always wishing Quint would live. :)
shareThere was dignity in some sense. Quint was lucky to escape with his life after the USS Indianapolis incident in WWII when his pals suffered days of uncertainty as shark food. It was then, presumably, that Quint's fascination and love/hate affair with sharks began. His dying to a shark attack brought his life to a poetic full circle. I wonder if he might have chosen his death to be at the fins of a shark for exactly that reason (perhaps a little less gruesome). I imagine that hard-edged guys like him get a certain comfort at having been taken down by somebody or something they respect. I haven't watched any BTS material for Jaws, but I wouldn't be surprised if this full circle thing is what Spielberg (and Milius?) had in mind for Quint.
shareA GREAT scene in a GREAT film.
shareKey:
When the movie begins and Crissy dies...we can't see the shark at all.
With each of the later killings , we see more of the shark: his circling fin with the boy; his head and open jaws with the lifeguard.
But only once the shark reaches the end of the movie and his "biggest star victim," do we see the shark in all its gulping, gnawing, swallowing glory...eating the most fitting and flamboyant character in the movie.
Comedy trivia:
Robert Shaw went on the Johnny Carson show in 1975 to promote Jaws right before it came out. This dialogue:
Johnny Carson: So this new movie Jaws, about a killer white shark. Looks to be quite the blockbuster, huh?
Robert Shaw: Yes, I think so. I get killed, though.
Carson: HEY, c'mon, don't tell the audience THAT.
Shaw: Oh, not to worry , the other two fellows survive.
Carson: HEY...don't tell them THAT either!
Wicked smile from Shaw.
Quint did the right thing in kicking the shark a couple times in the face. They say that could discourage sharks from attacking further and go after easier prey.
shareImagine if Quint’s kick to the nose had discouraged the shark and it retreated and found Hooper who was the weaker prey. Quint and Brody would kick to shore on the barrels singing “Spanish Ladies.”
shareHe was an animal A monster
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