There was a mention elsewhere of how Quint related to Ahab in search of his Moby Dick, and this, for whatever reason (it is obvious, when one gauges some of Quint's actions, which many would consider ultimately harmful and nonsensical), hadn't necessarily dawned on me much until I was watching the last chapter of Jaws (1975) as Quint, Brody, and Hooper continue their mission to kill the Great White. When Jaws causes mechanical and structural problems to Quint's boat, the Orca, and after tricks involving harpooning yellow barrels to the shark in order to follow its movements and getting the right bead on it to shoot it fail, Brody attempts to radio the coast guard among others for possible help, the obsessive fishermen destroys it much to the chief's dismay. Then when Brody posits a question about why they don't just move the shark closer to shore away from the sea, Hooper gives him a simple look that says it all: he hints up to a busy Quint and looks back at Brody. Good acting isn't hard to come by in Jaws. I mean, Spielberg really owes much to the trio that absolutely holds our attention when the alluring photographic work of the little Orca out in the middle of the sea doesn't. Sure the film was built to greatness from a wealth of talent, from the editing process to the way the camera catches exactly what it needs to when it needs to. Like the distance shots of the barrel from the Orca, and how the camera is right where it needs to be at close up when the actors realize that their shark isn't just some dumb fish that they will easily outsmart and destroy without much difficulty. Quint, full of sure confidence at the beginning when a meeting of political minds at a town counsel trying to devise a plan to get that damned shark ruining the potential tourist season profits at the beach and in Amity that he can and will kill the Great White if paid handsomely for it, had met his match. Ahab is the perfect description of Quint. This Great White led to his destruction.
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