Jaws - How Spielberg Creates Suspense on the Beach

In the first episode of this video essay series I breakdown the beach scene from Steven Spielberg's pop classic Jaws.

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Sequence without commentary - https://vimeo.com/122302722

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"Spielberg asserted his own role and deftly organized the elements of a roller coaster without sacrificing inner meanings. The suspense of that picture came from meticulous technique and good humour about its own surgical cutting. You only have to submit to the travesty of JAWS 2 to realize how much more engagingly Spielberg saw the ocean, the perils, and the sinister beauty of the shark, and the vitality of its human opponents."

David Thompson in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film

"Spielberg uses his gift in a very free-and-easy, American way - for humour, and for a physical response to action. He could be that rarity among directors, a born entertainer - perhaps a new generation's Howard Hawks."

Pauline Kael in her review of The Sugarland Express

Films Referenced:

Sabotage (Hitchcock, 1936)
Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
Pierrot Le Fou (Godard, 1956)
Weekend (Godard, 1967)
Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
Carrie (De Palma, 1976)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Spielberg , 1982)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg , 1984)
Jurassic Park (Spielberg , 1993)
Saving Private Ryan, (Spielberg , 1998)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg , 2001)
Catch Me if you Can (Spielberg , 2002)
War of the Worlds (Spielberg. 2005)
Munich (Spielberg , 2005)
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Spielberg, 2011)
Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012)