Great Scene: “Jaws”
Monologues are common with stage plays, but not so much with movies. Of course, “motion pictures” are primarily a visual medium — motion / pictures — so dialogue, while important, is a secondary form of communication cinematically. However, great dialogue can transcend the adage, “show it, don’t say it.” And perhaps nothing better exemplifies that point than this great scene in the movie Jaws, screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel by Peter Benchley.
Brody is looking at a small white patch on Quint's other
forearm.
BRODY
(pointing)
What's that one, there?
QUINT
(changing)
Tattoo. Had it taken off.
HOOPER
Don't tell me -- 'Death Before
Dishonor.' 'Mother.' 'Semper Fi.'
Uhhh... 'Don't Tread on Me.' C'mon --
what?
QUINT
'U.S.S Indianapolis.' 1944.
BRODY
What's that, a ship?
HOOPER
(incredulous)
You were on the Indianapolis? In
'45? Jesus...
Quint remembering.
CLOSE ON QUINT
QUINT
Yeah. The U.S.S. Indianapolis.
June 29th, 1945, three and a half
minutes past midnight, two torpedoes
from a Japanese submarine slammed
into our side. Two or three. We was
still under sealed orders after
deliverin' the bomb...the Hiroshima
bomb...we was goin' back across the
Pacific from Tinian to Leyte. Damn
near eleven hundred men went over
the side. The life boats was lashed
down so tight to make the bomb run
we couldn't cut a single one adrift.
Not one. And there was no rafts.
None. That vessel sank in twelve
minutes. Yes, that's all she took.
We didn't see the first shark till
we'd been in the water about an hour.
A thirteen-footer near enough. A
blue. You measure that by judgin'
the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't
know... of course the Captain knew...I
guess some officers knew... was the
bomb mission had been so secret, no
distress signals was sent. What the
men didn't know was that they wouldn't
even list us as overdue for a week.
Well, I didn't know that -- I wasn't
an officer -- just as well perhaps.
So some of us were dead already --
in the water -- just hangin' limp in
our lifejackets. And several already
bleedin'. And the three hundred or
so laying on the bottom of the ocean.
As the light went, the sharks came
crusin'. We formed tight groups --
somewhat like squares in an old battle --
You know what I mean -- so that when
one come close, the man nearest would
yell and shout and pound the water
and sometimes it worked and the fish
turned away, but other times that
shark would seem to look right at a
man -- right into his eyes -- and in
spite of all shoutin' and poundin'
you'd hear that terrible high
screamin' and the ocean would go
red, then churn up as they ripped
him. Then we'd reform our little
squares. By the first dawn the sharks
had taken more than a hundred. Hard
for me to count but more than a
hundred. I don't know how many sharks.
Maybe a thousand. I do know they
averaged six men an hour. All kinds --
blues, makos, tigers. All kinds.
(Pause)
In the middle of the second day,
some of us started to go crazy from
the thirst. One fella cried out he
saw a river, another claimed he saw
a waterfall, some started to drink
the ocean and choked on it, and some
left our little groups -- our little
squares -- and swam off alone lookin'
for islands and the sharks always
took them right away. It was mainly
the young fellas that did that --
the older ones stayed where they
was. That second day -- my life jacket
rubbed me raw and that was more blood
in the water. Oh my. On Thursday
morning I bumped up against a friend
of mine -- Herbie Robinson from
Cleveland -- a bosun's mate -- it
seemed he was asleep but when I
reached over to waken him, he bobbed
in the water and I saw his body upend
because he'd been bitten in half
beneath the waist. Well Chief, so it
went on -- bombers high overhead but
nobody noticin' us. Yes -- suicides,
sharks, and all this goin' crazy and
dyin' of thirst. Noon the fifth day,
Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura swung
around and came in low. Yes. He did
that. Yes, that pilot saw us. And
early evenin', a big fat PBY come
down out of the sky and began the
pickup. That was when I was most
frightened of all -- while I was
waitin' for my turn. Just two and a
half hours short of five days and
five nights when they got to me and
took me up. Eleven hundred of us
went into that ocean -- three hundred
and sixteen got out. Yeah. Nineteen
hundred and forty five. June the
29th.
(pause)
Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
And here's the scene -- great delivery by actor Robert Shaw as Quint.http://www.youtube.com/v/U5ACYu_ZNNA&hl=en&fs=1