Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws is celebrating its 50th birthday, but despite its more than deserved legacy, there’s one big plot hole in the movie that is still bothersome. Based upon Peter Benchley’s eponymous 1974 novel, Jaws centers on the quiet community of Amity Island finding its waters under threat by a vicious Great White shark that devours anyone who dares go swimming. Amity Island Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) leads the charge in putting a stop to the shark’s feeding frenzy, allied with eccentric fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) and ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss). Despite an infamously troubled production that took the movie 104 days over schedule and more than doubled its initial budget of $4 million, Jaws became the biggest box office hit of the time, catapulting Steven Spielberg’s career and effectively launching the modern summer movie season.
The timelessness of Jaws can be seen half a century later in both the many Jaws knock-offs that have been produced (some better than others), along with Jaws‘ own three sequels failing to replicate its impact. However, there is still a speed bump or two to be found even in a classic like Jaws, and the one that arguably stands out the most is the anger Mrs. Kintner (Lee Fierro) has for Chief Brody over her son Alex (Jeffrey Voorhees) being killed by the shark. That’s because Jaws goes out of its way to emphasize that Brody was not to blame for Alex Kitner’s death.
Mrs. Kintner’s Anger Over Her Son’s Death Is Directed at the Wrong Target
Right when Chief Brody, Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), and the people of Amity Island are celebrating what appears to be the capture of the shark terrorizing their community, the grieving Mrs. Kintner arrives and slaps Brody in the face. Mrs. Kintner then reveals that she had just learned of the death of Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) by the shark the preceding week, and proceeds to bitterly berate Brody for allowing Amity Island’s beaches to remain open despite knowing that a killer shark was in the island’s waters. While Mrs. Kintner’s anger over her son’s death is absolutely justified, the entire opening act of Jaws makes clear that Brody himself is not to blame.
As soon as Chrissie’s remains are discovered on the beach, Brody immediately uses his authority as Chief of Amity’s police department to invoke as many safety measures as possible. Already listing “shark attack” as the likely cause of Chrissie’s demise on his official police report, Brody immediately begins putting together “Beaches closed” signs with orders for his deputies to post them on the island’s beaches. Right as Brody prepares to pull a squad of Boy Scouts out of the bay for their own safety, Amity’s Mayor Robert Vaughn arrives to gently but decisively overrule Brody’s efforts to close the beaches. In short, Chief Brody did absolutely everything in his power to close Amity’s beaches and begin measures to deal with the shark problem, only for Mayor Vaughn to pull rank and keep the beaches open. It’s possible that Mrs. Kintner might not have had all the information when she chided Brody for her son’s death, but it is clear that her rage should have been directed at Vaughn. And she’s in good company.
Mayor Vaughn Is Responsible for Nearly Every Death in Jaws
While Brody takes the shark’s presence in Amity’s waters seriously from the start, Mayor Vaughn is guilty of multiple cases of criminal negligence given how much he tries to sweep the shark under the rug. Vaughn’s desire to keep Amity’s beaches open is due to the town’s economy being heavily reliant on summer tourism, and with the Fourth of July holiday coming up, Vaughn doesn’t want to create a panic that could drive away tourists. The problem is that after Chrissie’s death in the opening scene, most of the shark killings in Jaws are directly attributable to Vaughn’s incompetence and prioritizing of PR over the safety of Amity’s residents and tourists alike.
As a result of Vaughn overruling Brody to keep Amity’s beaches open, a dog and Alex Kintner are both killed by the shark. However, Vaughn still doesn’t learn from these tragedies, once again undercutting Brody’s measure to close Amity’s beaches by declaring they will only remain closed for 24 hours, and ignoring the offer of a seasoned fisherman and U.S.S. Indianapolis veteran like Quint to kill the shark for $10,000, instead allowing groups of untrained Amity locals to kill a tiger shark and declaring the shark’s threat over. When the autopsy on the shark is performed by Hooper and Brody reveals the tiger shark was not the killer and that a much larger Great White shark is still out there (Brody and Hooper discovering the corpse of fisherman Ben Gardner on their late-night patrol of Amity’s waters).
Vaughn still downplays Hooper and Brody’s warnings, only allowing them to bring added security to the beaches while keeping them open for the Fourth of July. It is only after another Amity Islander is devoured by the shark on the Fourth of July (along with Brody’s son Michael having a close encounter) that Vaughn agrees to hire Quint to eliminate the killer fish. Jaws certainly comes down hard on Vaughn by this point, but that also makes Vaughn dodging the anger (and potential legal action) of Mrs. Kintner, while Brody shoulders the guilt instead, is a grave injustice that avoids Vaughn’s responsibility for the deaths of at least three people and one dog.
Brody’s Guilt Over Alex Kintner’s Death Is Still Understandable
After being chastised by Mrs. Kintner, Brody returns home and gets drunk, the gravity of Alex Kintner’s death clearly weighing greatly on him, and Brody’s drunken sorrow still makes sense in the context of his role as Amity’s Police Chief. Even though Brody took every possible measure to prevent further loss of life from the shark’s rampage, he still clearly wishes he could have done more. The fact that his efforts to close Amity’s beaches were overruled so easily leading to Alex’s demise is a dark contrast to Brody’s proud boast to Hooper about the island community’s very low crime rate, Brody telling Hooper “In Amity, one man can make a difference. In 25 years, there’s never been a shooting or a murder in this town”.
Brody’s inability to stop Amity’s beaches from staying open stands at odds with that optimism, and helps explain his despondent feelings after being held responsible for Alex Kintner’s death by his mother. Even though Brody did everything possible to close Amity’s beaches only to have his efforts undone by Mayor Vaughn, he still wishes and perhaps even feels like he could have fought Vaughn harder on the matter, even though the support of Amity’s city council would have made it a losing battle. Still, that almost makes it that much more unfair for Mrs. Kintner’s anger at Brody to go unchallenged in Jaws. Brody was looking out for the safety of Amity’s population in every way he could while Vaughn did everything possible to downplay the shark’s threat, so it really should have been Mayor Vaughn, not Chief Brody, on the receiving end of Mrs. Kintner’s anger and that of everyone else on Amity Island.
Jaws is available to stream on Peacock.
