In “Jaws”, bungling officials confront an invisible threat

“A FILM ABOUT a shark” was Steven Spielberg’s description of “Jaws”, the movie released in 1975 that established his box-office power as a director. More elaborate interpretations abound for his tale of a ravenous great white terrorising the genteel seaside town of Amity on Long Island. Is it a comment on corruption after Watergate, a parable of the Vietnam war or an illustration of Freudian castration anxiety? Fidel Castro, in an excursion into film criticism, reckoned it was a devastating Marxist critique of American capitalism.

The movie supports so many theories because of its layered plot and styles—one reason it is amenable to repeated viewings. Nerve-tingling suspense is intercut with picket-fence melodrama and humour. It is a buddy movie crossed with an adventure on the high seas. From the perspective of the pandemic, though, “Jaws” seems at heart to be a film about the untameable power of nature. An invisible, relentless assailant makes no distinction as to whom it attacks. Like some leaders today, the officials who must confront it are vacillating and helpless.

Much of the tension is achieved through the power of suggestion. The shark is not fully seen until long into the story (mostly because the mechanical models constantly malfunctioned). As in the lockdown, when the streets outside are the domain...