The Jaws Monologue

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

Even allowing for Hollywood hyperbole, Shodan, he pretty much nailed the story: http://www.ussindianapolis.org/story.htm

But I agree, one of the most memorable moments in film.

There’s a bit in Maria Bamford’s show Lady Dynamite where her agent creates a un-politically correct claymation musical about the incident…from the shark’s point of view.

The story is basically true. However, most of the deaths were due to exposure or thirst, not shark attack (and the sharks were mostly oceanic whitetips, not tiger sharks). The sharks mostly fed on those who had already died from other causes rather than attacking living survivors.

The maximum estimate of 150 shark casualties would mean about two an hour rather than six. Still pretty horrific of course.

Also, the Indianapolis was carrying components for the atomic bomb, not a functional bomb itself.

This is why I love particular actors and their deliveries. Often, it’s not just the lines they recite (anyone could read or memorize Quint’s speech), but it’s how it’s delivered.

No one could deliver that speech the same way Shaw did. That’s the mark of a true actor (and director, who is able to get the best performance out of the actor) and editor (who is able to put that performance in the final cut). Which is to say that film is indeed a collaborative experience.

I totally concur that Dreyfuss’s “You were on the Indianapolis?” is one of the greatest shifts in mood you’ll ever see on screen. The fact that Chief Brody, the star and viewpoint character of the movie was essentially a bystander only adds to the scene’s magnificence.

There are stories about the filming of that scene too - Apparently Shaw and Dreyfuss did not get along at all. A lot of the tension between their characters on the Orca was quite real. Shaw also had a drinking problem at the time. Since the scene called for them all to be drinking, he did it drunk. Nothing from that session could be used. He apologized the next day, and got the entire speech as seen in the movie in the first take.

A check of IMDB states this, too, yet I could swear I once read that the scene had been done in two takes over two days. On one day, Shaw had been drinking, and on the other day, he had not, and you could tell just by looking at him which were the drunk takes and which the sober. He certainly looks buzzed at some points, and stone cold sober at others.

And that mirthless half-smirk Shaw has on his face thru out most of the monologue. Quint is crazy, and we are finding out why.

And the camera shots work as well. Most of the scene is tight focus on Shaw’s face, interspersed with some reaction shots from Dreyfus and Snyder. Both those actors know not to over-react to the story, which would hurt the understated horror of the tone. Just listen to Shaw, drowning in the terror of the story. One quick glance at each other, to communicate that they are becoming aware of how dangerously crazy the shark hunter is, and why.

Notice also - most of the scene is a tight shot of Shaw’s face. But over his shoulder is a window on the ocean. Where it is completely empty. They are all alone. And there are sharks in the water.

Regards,
Shodan

Brilliantly acted and one of the strongest ten or so minutes in any film ever. Part of me believes that whole film was intended just to provide context for that scene. The film’s denouement just gave us a resolution to the pathos that scene engendered.

I got to vicariously experience the horror twice. The first time I saw the movie, I had no idea that the Indianapolis was a real ship. The second time I saw the movie, I knew about the Indianapolis and the scene’s effect on me was even more powerful.

I’m sure the survivors of the Indianapolis didn’t know exactly how many of their fellow sailors died by shark bite, exposure, or thirst. They weren’t doing autopsies as their friends were dying in the water and carefully tabulating the results. I wouldn’t look for a survivor telling his story to have known or cared about the exact breakdown. I doubt such a survivor would take much solace later to learn that the mix of tiger sharks vs. white tips was in fact tilted towards white tips. What he knows is that over 800 of his fellow sailors didn’t survive five days of shark attacks and other threats. It’s more realistic that he told the story as he did than it would have been if he relayed the story with strict accuracy as to the details. This is exactly the type of discrepancy that would creep in when you are telling a real story based on your experience instead of drafting a tale based on reading the Wikipedia summary. The scene is perfect as it is even if it illustrates why you shouldn’t look to Hollywood dramatizations as historical records.

What I read/heard was that the Indianapolis speech itself was done in one take the day after the drunken filming. It’s possible the rest of the scene, such as describing the arm wrestling semifinal celebrating his thirds wife demiiiise, included shots from the drunken takes.

The crazy thing was that the film was completely intended to be a standard monster movie. It was only the fact that the mechanical shark kept breaking down that turned it into the masterpiece it was, with scenes like the speech, and the shots from the shark’s point of view, etc.

In Kevin Smith’s film Chasing Amy there is a great homage, of sorts, to this scene.

Jason Lee, Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams are talking about sexual injuries they’ve suffered. After hearing Lee’s story Adams says breathily, “I got that beat…”

I’ve read that too and I know that’s why my pet theory doesn’t hold water but I’d still like to believe that brilliant filmmakers put together a great mise en scene solely to support one of the finest moments ever committed to film rather than believe they lucked into an effective bit largely because their mechanical shark (named Sam? or Harry?) didn’t work right.

Posted many times about this scene. One of the greatest pieces of cinema ever made. Thanks OP, great analogy.

Bruce!

Which is why there’s a prominent great white by that name in Finding Nemo.

Yes, sharks chewed through the crew of the Indianapolis much in the same way I believe Nicholas Cage will chew through the scenery in this movie about it.

On a documentary I saw, Spielberg confirms that two takes from two different days were used for this scene - and that you can tell the difference by looking at whether Shaw’s shirt is buttoned or not.

There’s another touch I love about this scene. At one point we see Chief Brody lift up his shirt like he’s going to show his scar and tell his story, but he decides not to. This also highlights his character. Leaving the big city PD to work in a small time. Wanting to keep things simple, etc.

“We all know about you, Chief. You don’t go in the water at all, do you?”

Maybe his scar story has to do with that.

Dumb question…why did he remove the tattoo?

IIRC, that was an appendectomy scar. Didn’t quite measure up.