A quick note: I wanted to say something about this since I found out about it three weeks ago, but I've been restricted in personal obligations and classwork. Since some of my workload has lightened briefly, I took the time to write this up.
As a movie buff, I've watched a wide number of movies, and I'm happy to go into detail about film references. I also get annoyed lightly when a film reference gets botched. I'm very patient and recognize that not all people have the same experience and passion with films that I do. Most people have better things to focus on.
However, I do take offense when a reference not only fails, but the person making the reference seems to have made no effort to actually understand what it is they're talking about.
On Monday, October 10, Mike Huckabee made an effort to defend Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump by comparing him to Quint (Robert Shaw) from the 1975 movie Jaws.
"He’s vulgar, he’s salty. He might even get drunk. But hold on, here! He’s the guy who’s gonna save your butt and save your family. And so at the end of the day, when he kills the shark, you’re happy about it," he said on the program.
Casual movie viewers found much to mock about the comment.
Now true, in most of his screentime, Robert Shaw's Quint is not an easy character to like. He's crude and blunt ("Here's to swimming with bowlegged women"). He doesn't hesitate to tell anyone what he thinks of them, if his speech to the town hall (which he begins by scraping his fingernails across a chalkboard) and interactions with Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) ("You got city hands, Mr. Hooper. You've been countin' money all your life") are anything to go by.
If the above was what Huckabee was referring to, he may have had a point. But how exactly does Huckabee's metaphor compare to the film?
Quint Dies
First and foremost, anyone who has ever seen the film Jaws - or read the original novel by Peter Benchley - knows that Quint is killed by the shark.
The scene in question (link).
For anyone who hasn't seen the film or can't follow the link, this is what happens. The shark leaps out of the water and onto Quint's boat, the Orca, causing it to begin sinking. Quint tries to hold himself against a table, only for an air tank to roll onto his hand. Despite Brody's (Roy Scheider) efforts to save him, Quint slides down the boat deck into the shark's chomping maw. Although he manages to attack it with a machete through the nose as the shark thrashes him around, Quint ultimately dies gushing and screaming blood as the shark drags him beneath the water to finish him off. Although somewhat tame by today's standards, the scene is still quite shocking and violent for the time of its release and first-time viewers.
Clearly, the film makes no effort to hide the outcome of this scene: Quint is dead. If his sagging back as the shark takes him under or the copious amount of blood doesn't say it, then maybe the remnants of flesh in the shark's teeth moments later do a better job.
This did not escape even the night of Huckabee's comment. "Captain Quint got eaten by the shark," said Megyn Kelly. To his credit, Huckabee appears to remember this before she corrected him, but too late to have been able to do anything about it.
Quint Did Not Kill The Shark
Most obviously, if Quint is killed by the shark, he cannot have killed the shark. That honor belongs to Brody, who famously thrusts a compressed air tank into the shark's mouth and manages a million-to-one shot that leaves the shark an exploded, bloody mess in the water (and seagull food).
Even Jaws and star Richard Dreyfuss commented on it, tweeting "Quint did not kill Jaws."
Where Huckabee's comment may have had merit, though, lies in Benchley's original novel.
In the scene, the shark leaps onto the Orca's transom, as in the film. Here, though, Quint goes on the offensive, lunging at the shark and harpooning it repeatedly while at the same time becoming tangled in ropes and netting. Eventually, the shark retreats, dragging Quint under the water with it, where he eventually drowns.
In the novel, Quint's death was meant to resemble the death of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (#24 in the attached link). Much less cinematic than Spielberg's version, but it still gets the job done.
For the film, Spielberg felt the shark deserved a more cinematic death, hence the famous action-packed and explosive confrontation between Brody and the shark. In the novel, Brody is left unarmed and floating helplessly in the water as the shark approaches him... when it suddenly dies of exhaustion and wounds from Quint's attacks.
In the novel, Quint's death was meant to resemble the death of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (#24 in the attached link). Much less cinematic than Spielberg's version, but it still gets the job done.
For the film, Spielberg felt the shark deserved a more cinematic death, hence the famous action-packed and explosive confrontation between Brody and the shark. In the novel, Brody is left unarmed and floating helplessly in the water as the shark approaches him... when it suddenly dies of exhaustion and wounds from Quint's attacks.
If the above is what Huckabee meant or referred to, his comparison may have had precedent. But Huckabee explicitly brings up the film, not the novel, which marks this another strike against him.
Quint is Not A Saint
Huckabee seems to be under the impression that Quint is a hero because has a moral code or stands up where no one else did. "But he died saving the other people! That’s what he did," he said.
He can't be more mistaken.
Early in the film (in the town hall speech linked to above), Quint makes it clear he has a price as he offers the town an ultimatum:
"I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, Chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. Now you gotta make up your minds. You want to stay alive and ante up, or want to play it cheap. Be on welfare the whole winter. [...] Ten thousand dollars, for me, by myself. For that, you get the head, the tail... the whole damn thing."
Quint makes good on his promise not to go out and hunt the shark, as he's not seen taking part in the mass shark hunt that claims the life of Ben Gardner (Craig Kingsbury)* shortly after. He's later seen laughing at the proud city folk who have caught a tiger shark in the belief it's the maneater they're looking for.
Quint only becomes involved afterward when Brody forces Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to sign a voucher hiring him to kill the shark after the Fourth of July attack in the estuary.
Furthermore, Quint's death doesn't come about as the result of a noble sacrifice of any sort. While shocking and dramatic, his death happens almost accidentally and has largely no effect on anyone's livelihoods on the island (that we know of).
Lastly, it is doubtful that Quint seriously put any consideration into what the people on Amity Island would think when he had the massive shark lunging at his legs.
Quint is Out of His Depth
Quint is clearly set up to be an established shark hunter, if his blunt demeanor, equipment, implied three decades of experience and the massive number of shark jaws hanging about his home are anything to go by.
Throughout the third act, though, every effort Quint makes to bring the shark in fails.
First, Quint attempts to reel the shark in using a fishing rod. Given the shark's size as revealed later, this quickly fails when the line snaps.
Later, Quint's plan is force the shark to the surface by shooting harpoons attached to flotation barrels to it. The failure of the first barrel is excusable, since the shark may have had sufficient force to hold the barrel down long enough to at least escape the general vicinity. Even after he shoots it with (implied to be unprecedented) three barrels, the shark still manages to dive.
After shooting it with the second barrel, Quint has them tied to the Orca's transom in order to tow the shark into shore and drown it. Not only does this fail as the shark manages to break free, the shark manages to truly demonstrate its strength by dragging the boat backwards, nearly tearing it in half in the process. It's only by sheer luck that it manages to rip the cleats tying it to the Orca off before taking the rest with it.
Quint being in over his head is brought up in this exchange with Hooper:
Hooper: You ever have one do this before?
Quint: No.
Quint's inexperience dealing with the unprecedented behavior of this shark leads him to make the decisions that lead to the final comparison.
Quint Screws Up More Than He Fixes
Although Quint's trip out to sea makes it possible for Brody to eventually kill the shark, he takes a number of actions that make the situation worse for himself, Brody and Hooper.
This is foreshadowed during the nighttime scene. When the shark assaults the Orca during the crew's brief nighttime respite, Quint drops a lantern that bursts into flame and nonchalantly asks Brody to put out the fire.
It's a few minutes later (during the day) that Quint makes his first stupid decision. When Brody decides to call in to shore for assistance, Quint responds by smashing the radio beyond repair.
Quint's third act (as mentioned above) is to try and tow the shark in while tied to the Orca. While this nearly results in the shark tearing off the transom (which it later does anyway by jumping on it), the resulting water intake floods into the Orca's already damaged engines.
Quint's final mistake that brings about the majority of the climax comes about when he decides to lure the shark into shallow water. Against Hooper's advice, Quint ramps up speed, ultimately overtaxing and destroying the Orca's engines (if the massive smoke cloud and small explosion that follows is anything to go by). As the result, Quint leaves himself, Brody and Hooper stranded out at sea with no safe way of getting to shore or calling for help.
Ultimately, this was all the result of Quint ignoring Brody's famous warning: he never got a bigger boat.
The Verdict
When I started writing this analysis, I thought Huckabee was a nut for coming up with this comparison. As I went into this further and deeper, though, I realized he may have had a point after all.
True, Quint is not a presidential nominee, but look at his character arc.
He's a man who appears to be an expert in his field who is clearly in over his head and makes things harder for his partners.
When the time comes for Quint to come face to face with his opponent - a version of everything he hates and fears about sharks, given flesh and teeth - Quint ultimately loses horrifically. He falls down the deck of the Orca, desperately shambling backward as the shark lunges at him. When it finally bites into him, Quint stabs back screaming for his life while his blood spills into the water, where he finally meets his end as he is devoured.
I stand corrected. If Quint's character arc is anything similar to Trump's campaign, Huckabee may have been right after all.
Post-Election Thoughts
I wrote this when I wasn't sure how the election would go.
In the end, I will say this: despite the similarities, Trump is still not Quint, he is not a hero, but there is blood in the water.
Other Notes
* Other than appearing as one of the most memorable jump scares in film history, Ben Gardner actually appears in a few scenes before his demise. He's first seen helping Hooper onto the dock as the latter arrives. Gardner later delivers a monologue mocking the other fishermen ("Wait'll we get them silly bastards down into that rock pile. There'll be some fun. They'll wish their fathers had never met their mothers when they start digging their bottoms out and slamming into those rocks, boy.")
Sources
- Huffington Post, The: This ‘Jaws’ Analogy Did Not End Well For Mike Huckabee - Maxwell Strachan, 11 October 2016
- Mental Floss: 25 Incisive Facts About Jaws - Sean Hutchinson, 20 June 2018
- Observer: Twitter Trashes Mike Huckabee’s Terrible ‘Jaws’ Metaphor - John Bonazzo, 11 October 2016
- Vanity Fair: Richard Dreyfuss Calls out Mike Huckabee’s Pro-Trump Jaws Metaphor - Joanna Robinson, 11 October 2016
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