Jaws was released 50 years ago. I first saw it yesterday. I have some thoughts.
First, It’s A Quint-essentially Gay Love Story
Jaws isn’t just about a big fucking shark. It’s also about the budding (and, sadly, unconsumated) romance between Hooper and Quint.1 Here’s the evidence:
Friends to Enemies
Hooper and Quint’s adversarial relationship gradually thaws and becomes something more as they move past their assumptions, spend time together, and begin to trust each other.
Could this be the most common trope in romance stories? Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy would be proud.
Opposites Attract
Hooper is educated, idealistic, and wealthy; Quint is dark, gruff, and traumatized. Overcoming obstacles together brings them closer, just like Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner’s characters in Romancing the Stone.
If the friends-to-enemies thing isn’t the most common trope in romance stories, this coming-from-different-worlds thing definitely is.
You Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine
What brings Hooper and Quint together? Showing off their bodies. This is ostensibly to compare their scars—but, let’s face, it, you can do that without sidling up to each other … and certainly without wrapping your leg around the other person’s.
Bury Your Gays
Of course there’s no happy ending for Hooper and Quint. Hollywood loves to kill off gay people, especially those in relatinships. Just ask Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar.
I’ve written before about Bury Your Gays and Dead Lesbian Syndrome, two of the oldest and most destructive tropes in film: Death Becomes Us.
Second, I Have a Marvel-ous Idea
Jaws should be the IP foundation for an entire media franchise—interconnected films, TV shows, theme park attractions and more—just like what Disney is doing (with diminishing success) with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Warner Bros. is doing (with no success) with the DC Extended Universe.
We already have a movie and a ride at Universal Studios. Now give us:
- Thorca
- Guardians of the Amity
- Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quintumania
- WandaFishin’
Third … You’re Gonna Be Popular!
Jaws needs to be Wicked-ized! Broadway needs a lavish musical prequel that tells the story sympathetically from the shark’s point of view—misunderstood, ostracized, and eventually villianized.
Elphaba’s name is derived from the first three letters of L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.2 As Jaws was written by Peter Benchley, the great white’s name should be Peebee.
Footnotes
- Don’t @ me, especially if you’re trying to straightsplain things to me. Just because you don’t recognize something is queer doesn’t mean it’s not queer. Just ask Billy Joel. ↩︎
- Gregory Maguire needed to create a name when he wrote Wicked because the character didn’t have one in the original book or movie. ↩︎