Robert Shaw’s delivery of the U.S.S. Indianapolis speech in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is one of the memorable moments in film history. It’s a throwback to the Shakespearean soliloquies performed in the 1940s, when actors such as Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness would take the spotlight and unburden themselves to the audience, explaining an otherwise inexplicable character. “To be or not to be” revealed not only what Hamlet was thinking but the extent of his turmoil.
The U.S.S. Indianapolis speech serves to both explain Shaw’s character Quint’s obsession with sharks—he hates them because they killed so many of his fellow sailors after the torpedoing of his ship by Japanese forces during W.W. II—while also preparing the audience for the dramatic ending of the film.
