I remember the moment I first started to realize how much control a director has over a movie — when I learned they consciously choose the colors that go into their movies. This is when it clicked for me that movies are moving images, first and foremost. The images aren’t just a canvas on which to tell a story, they are the story and should reinforce themes, mood, etc. as much as any dialogue or narrative beat does.
Mike Mignola, the famed comic writer/artist and creator of Hellboy, has one of my favorite explanations of how visual artists use color as a storytelling tool. “My original artwork, I really like in black-and-white, but when I’m telling a story, color is such an important tool […] for the most part I’m much more comfortable doing work where I know color is going to be there,” he said.
Of course, controlling color when you’re drawing is much simpler than controlling it when you’re filming. Some master filmmakers though, such as one Steven Spielberg, just have an innate sense of how to color their frames. Spielberg famously couldn’t control everything on the “Jaws” set — both mechanical and genuine sharks gave him headaches— but he got one request accomplished: have as little red as possible, so the bloody scenes would stand out all the more.
Why is there such little red in Jaws?
The biography “Spielberg: The First Ten Years” by Laurent Bouzereau features interviews with the man himself; the author asks Spielberg if it’s true he limited the use of red in “Jaws.” This color-coding has long been picked up on by viewers and scholars, so Spielberg didn’t exactly shake the world by confirming this. He did, however, discuss how he made the choice:
“I didn’t want red to be dominant on any of the sets. I told [production designer Joe Alves], ‘Please […] when you’re designing the picture and finding your colors, don’t use too much red, allowing for the blood.’ And in general, we pretty much stuck to that.”
There were a couple pointed exceptions, which Spielberg noted in the interview. Shark victim Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees) wears bright red swimming shorts, marking himself for death to color-conscious viewers. Martin (Roy Scheider) and Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) also drink red wine over dinner with Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) — Martin pours himself a whole water glass full. For these bits, though, the red colors act as “symbolism and foreshadowing” (Spielberg’s words) so red was appropriate. Think of the shot where Alex Kintner’s torn raft sways in the blood-filled waves; it’s one of the first bursts of red in the movie and stands out all the more by color contrasting with the yellow raft.
“Jaws” is not a gorefest; one of the most resounding praises for the movie is that it relies on tension and character building. There are shark attacks yes, but only in short bursts. Spielberg only letting red colors into the frame for important moments is emblematic of his overall restraint with the violence in “Jaws.”