Mrs Kinter must have known.... - Jaws (1975) Discussion

[–] Sandman81 (1510) 5 years ago

Not necessarily. In a small town where there isn't really any crime, who knows what kind of authority the Chief of police would have as opposed to the Mayor.

Also, there was evidence that Brody knew about the girl before Alex Kitner was killed, and still let people in the water. Whereas the Mayor had plausible deniability. The only people who would know that the Mayor knew before hand were the guy from the newspaper (in the Mayors pocket), the Coroner (ditto), Brody (who the Mayor would just say is lying to cover his own butt), and the Deputy (The Mayor would say he's lying for the Chief).

And lastly, Brody was an Outsider, the Mayor was probably an Islander. Assuming Mrs. Kitner is an Islander, then it would be easier for her to believe the story that puts the blame on a cop from the mainland.

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[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

No, apparently Brody had the legal authority to close the beaches after the first shark attack, and started to do so, but backed down after the mayor and town leaders pointed out that it'd hurt the economy of the entire island and that he'd have to live with people who knew that he'd cost them the chance to earn enough money to get through the winter.

Brody had a choice of bad options, and chose the wrong one.

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[–] Sandman81 (1510) 5 years ago

Brody may have ultimately had the authority to close the beaches, but it was made clear on the ferry that the Mayor would throw enough hurdles in his way to make it impossible. First you had the reporter saying that Brody would need a city ordinance or a resolution by a board of selectment. Obviously he would never get either of those, since it would have to come from people whose lives depended on the beaches being open. And second, the coroner was changing his report from shark attack to boat accident. So now Brody would have no probable cause to close the beaches. Brody may have backed down, but he did so because he knew it was fight he could not win.

And even if he did manage to close the beaches immediately, then what? There's no second attack, Jaws moves on to another territory, and the town loses a fortune. The Mayor immediately shifts blame on to the overreaching Chief, and the newspaper, which was in the Mayor's pocket trashes Brody as an incompetent mainlanders who had no regard for their beautiful island home. Brody would have nothing to back him up, not even the coroners report.

Mrs. Kitner probably didn't have any inside scoop on island politics. So some neighbor, probably another islander told her that the Chief would be the one to close the beaches, and not only did he not do that, but he was sitting there that day watching all the kids endanger themselves. And that was easy enough for her to believe and she went with it.

Though perhaps one day she did get the true story, because she was at the Brody's house the day after Sean was killed.

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[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 5 years ago

If the Mayor had any integrity he would have stepped in and set the record straight that Brody wanted to close the beaches, but of course we all know the Mayor had no integrity.

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[–] Stratego (30779) 5 years ago

It was ridiculous she only held him responsible. It was pretty clear in that small town where the Mayor stood and that he put pressure on Brody to keep the beaches open. She should've slapped them all in the face. I thought that scene was pretty dumb, to be honest. Not a good way to ask sympathy for her.