Was Brody dirty?
How else could a police chief afford a house on Martha's Vineyard.
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MovieChat Forums > Jaws (1975) Discussion > Was Brody dirty?
He spent many years as a NYC police officer. He likely made decent money doing that. It's probably possible that he even got a housing allowance or incentive from the Amity town council to relocate to the island to take the chief position.
In the book he was clean. Likely the cleanest character by far. The mayor not so much. Quint was unscrupulous. And Hooper had an affair with Brody's wife.
The book was horrible. Between the mafia killing Brody's son's cat and Hooper fucking Ellen Brody, it was like the shark was an afterthought. Appropriate enough that it just died of exhaustion while swimming after Brody. The movie improved on it in every conceivable way.
Benchley's Beast struck me as what Jaws (the novel) should've been. There was some local political intrigue, but only enough to drive the plot forward and motivate the characters. To this day, I remain fascinated with giant squids because of the novel.
And, ironically, the TV miniseries adaptation completely blew it.
But regarding the OP's question, Brody was the chief, most likely courted by the town council specifically for his experience. The house would've been part of the benefits package.
Yeah, I agree the book was not that great to be honest. The movie adaption was MUCH better. I don't recall the mafia killing a cat. The book had a few nice moments here and there but it did fall flat against the movie.
Have you ever seen the 1977 killer squid/octopus movie Tentacles?
I believe that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (original) had a good scene where the crew battled a giant squid.
You mean this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh14eYq91iE
Yeah, saw it on TV way back when. But thanks to your reminder, it finally occurred to me that Benchley's Beast ends the same way. The men fight the giant squid but can't beat it, and at the last minute whales come to the rescue (sperm whales in Benchley's book). He HAD to have been influenced by that to some extent.
As for the cat, I may be wrong about literal mafia, but the councilmen had shady connections, so they sent a thug over who took the cat right off Brody's son's lap and snapped its neck, ostensibly to teach Brody "subtlety"
Yeah, that's it. Tentacles with John Huston. I saw it on television as a kid back in the late 1970s and it did scare me. Decent movie that was hard to forget about. Much better than Orca with Richard Harris which was rather stupid. But of course Jaws was the king of all of these types of movies.
shareI thought the book was better than the film. Seeing as how a shark killing people at the beach can wreck a summer community like Amity, the details of its affects on the town were interesting to read.
The ending was especially better in the book, much better than the happier hollywood ending of the film. The shark kills Hooper, Quint and sinks the boat before expiring from the harpoons in its body. None of that fake aluminum scuba tank exploding crap of the film.
I do have to agree about the scuba tank atom bomb explosion thing. LOL. It was kind of silly to be honest.
share50 years ago, there may still have been some housing on Martha's Vineyard that a police chief could afford. Now, the police chief probably has to commute from the mainland.
maybe the house came with the job
The opportunity was there. For the right price the Kintner boys death could’ve easily been blamed on Jack the Ripper.
At least til Hooper showed up and exposed the scam.