Spielberg: Jaws Act III
Chief Brody is moving toward a point of reckoning. He moved from New York to Amity to prove that One Man Can Make a Difference, and needs desperately To Prove His Worth. In Act I he Did What He Was Told, in Act II he Took Charge (but still did so while Working Within The System). Faced with the utter corruption of the System, he has come to the point where he realizes that, to face the monster, he must head out "into the woods," as it were, Face His Fear and learn the truth about himself.
Common moviegoers (that is, civilians) tend to like the second half of Jaws more than the first half. They say that the movie only really "gets going" when the three guys head out onto the water to hunt the shark. There is a lesson in this: an audience responds to an active protagonist, and up to this point, poor Chief Brody has been reactive, spinning his wheels and losing ground against the forces arrayed against him. The final shot in Act II, where Brody has gotten the signature from the Mayor and moves through the hospital corridor on his way to destiny, says it all. Brody’s attitude, shoulders back, head down, jaw set, stride confident, has been seen in many, many movies but is most recognizable in westerns: Brody is the quiet American sheriff, slow to anger but unstoppable once roused to action. The action cuts from Brody walking from left to right through the frame, and then directly to Quint walking in the door of his house, also from left to right, almost as though Brody has become Quint in the cut. (Quint also emerges seemingly from the mouth of a shark-head mounted near his door — foreshadowing in reverse!)
Spielberg: Jaws Act II
So. We’ve made it through Act I of Jaws. Chief Brody, the fish-out-of-water “new guy” in town on Amity Island, has been confronted with an unknowable terror and, seeking To Prove His Worth, has Done What He’s Told. This choice has led him to catching what is probably the wrong shark and getting slapped in the face by a grieving mother.
As Act II begins, we find Brody sullen and depressed, licking his wounds at the dinner table and getting drunk.