‘Jaws’ Is Really a Vietnam War Movie
While Jaws is known as the first Hollywood Blockbuster, many have overlooked its subtle themes of the Vietnam War.
Jaws is known to be a lot of things, but perhaps the most widely agreed upon is it being the first Hollywood Blockbuster. But what many fail to see is that Jaws, albeit a commercial vehicle at first glance, shares a lot of characteristics with New Hollywood films. One of these is its reflections on Vietnam, lurking underneath its surface just like its famous shark. While there are more famous, explicitly anti-Vietnam New Hollywood films like Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, Jaws emerges as an unlikely Vietnam movie. This is because the shark in Jaws is a mysterious, foreign enemy, taking away the lives of the American youth and ripping apart the picturesque Americana of New England.
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