Shark Bait

On Being Drawn to Jaws

I have two thoughts about Jaws. They aren’t terribly original, but they do always spring to mind whenever I think about the movie.

Firstly, the story isn’t about a shark. It’s about three men in a boat, and the fragile bond they must form to defeat a common enemy. Secondly, the character of Quint is actually a latter-day Captain Ahab. He’s a man with deep-seated and longstanding grudge against an aquatic force of nature, and his obsession with destroying that force ends up destroying him.

While I’d love to capture some of these tensions and dynamics in a caricature on canvas, I have yet to figure out how to do so. But as you can see from these initial head studies of the four main characters (in which I must include ‘Bruce’ the great white), I’ve made the first tentative steps towards a plan…