I was surfing YouTube recently, and happened across one of the best moments in movie history - Robert Shaw’s monologue about the USS Indianapolis in Jaws.
This is allegedly based on a true story. I don’t know specifically, but I read a Roger Ebert review of the movie that said “it feels true.” I have watched the scene multiple times, and every time came to a deeper appreciation of how compact and involving the whole monologue is, and especially the brilliance of the writing.
Quint (Robert Shaw) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) and Chief (Roy Schneider) are out on the water, hunting the shark of the title. Quint and Hooper bicker thru out the movie, but this night they are all together in the cabin of the boat, all about half-drunk, and riffing off each other, trying to top each other’s scar stories. Hooper is silly-drunk and giggling, Chief is naïve, and Quint finishes his stories and proposes they drink a toast to Hooper’s scarred leg (from a moray eel).
Chief Brody, still naïve, asks Quint about a scar on his arm. Quint says he had had a tattoo removed. Hooper, still silly, suggests it said “Mother” and goes off in a fit of giggles. Then Quint reaches out, clamps hold of Hooper’s arm, says “Mr. Hooper, that was the USS Indianapolis”, and the brilliant scene is set.
Hooper instantly sobers, and asks hesitantly “You were on board the Indianapolis?” Dreyfus’ reaction initiates the scene. His shocked reaction and instant recognition of the Indianapolis reference tells us that something bad is about to be recounted. Then Chief, still naïve, represents the audience when he asks, “What happened?”
Quint begins the monologue as if it were a standard sea story of being sunk by a Japanese submarine. But then he adds the twist - his ship was on its way back from delivering The Bomb - 'the Hiroshima bomb". And suddenly it seems he is telling the story, not of a standard shipwreck, but of a curse being fulfilled. Delivering The Bomb has cursed them.
Now Quint begins, by framing his story. *“So, 1100 men went into the water.” *(He will repeat this at the end of his story, when delivering the punch line. ) Then there is the briefest possible pause, and he delivers the first terrifying understatement.
“Didn’t see the first shark for about half an hour.”
Now we know. We know what the curse is. And we begin to realize Quint’s insane obsession with sharks, and why he is out hunting one at all. And it’s not just “a shark”, but “the first shark”. There is much more, and much worse, to come.
Then Quint does his first juxtaposing statement.
“Tiger shark. Thirteen footer. You know how you tell when you’re in the water? Measure from the dorsal to the tail. But what we didn’t know is that our bomb mission had been so secret that no distress signal had ever been sent.”
He knows enough about sharks that he can estimate its size instantly. But it does him no good, because of what he doesn’t know. Despite his knowledge, he is helpless. Then Quint talks about the strategy the sailors adopted - forming into groups, and trying to frighten off the sharks by pounding the water and yelling.
Then the second terrifying understatement. Quint doesn’t have to exaggerate, the horror of his situation is too real for that.
*“Sometimes the shark would go away.
Sometimes he wouldn’t go away.” *
It is stated in almost child-like terms - just make the monster go away. But it won’t go away. This is reinforced by the reference to sharks having doll-like eyes.
Then Quint tells what it is like to see a shark attack, and refers to “that terrible high-pitched screaming”. He is talking about a particular kind of screaming, not just screams in general. And you can tell that he heard that kind often enough in the water to be able to distinguish it from ordinary screams.
Then the second juxtaposing statement - *“I don’t know how many sharks - maybe a thousand. I do know how many men - they averaged six an hour.” *That eerie precision of an average of six an hour, especially against his earlier statement “by dawn we’d lost a hundred men” means that this went on for a long, long time. And again, tells us why Quint is half-crazy, or more than half. He had to live thru it.
It’s like his earlier precise description of the length of the tiger shark - knowledge combined with helplessness.
Then Quint tells about his finding his friend. And starts out *“dawn on the third day”. *Our minds flash back to the “six an hour” average, and realize how horrific the experience must have been. And Quint gives a couple of quick biographical details about his friend (“Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Bosun’s mate. Baseball player.”) that humanize him. And then the discovery that Herbie isn’t asleep at all. And Herbie *“bobs up and down, just like a kinda top”. *Another child-like, toy reference. Quint is as helpless as a child, or perhaps as helpless as a toy being played with by the sharks.
Then Quint re-emphasizes the horror with “dawn on the fifth day” when a plane spots them. This has been going on, six an hour, for days. And Quint mentions that *“the pilot was a young fella, younger than Mr. Hooper here”. *Again, a child reference, and reinforced by the only reference Quint makes to his own reactions.
*“That was the time I was the most frightened. Waiting for my turn. I’ll never put on a life jacket again.” * Quint would rather die than wait helpless to be attacked again.
And then, just as he said at the beginning, he wraps it all up.
- “So, 1100 men went into the water, 316 come out, and the sharks took the rest, July the 25, 1945. But we delivered the Bomb.” *
The insane logic of war has drawn Quint in - so many men had to die, so that more men could die.
And then the final, haunting part of the scene. The focus comes back to the boat, and the three men hear a whale song. Hooper, just as he knew the Indianapolis story, knows it is a whale. And it is haunting and beautiful.
But it reminds us - the three men are out floating on the ocean, completely alone. And there are sharks in the water as well as whales. And no one is going to come and rescue them for a long time.
Regards,
Shodan