10 Movie Scenes That Do So Much Without Actually Saying Anything

Steven Spielberg's Jaws is both a masterful suspense thriller and immaculate character-driven drama, the latter perhaps evidenced no better than by the ingeniously straight-forward dinner table scene between Brody (Roy Scheider) and his son Sean (Jay Mello).

Moments before this, we see Brody berated by the mother of shark victim Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees), who slaps and admonishes him for letting the public continue to swim on Amity Island's beaches even after a girl was previously killed by a shark.

An extremely despondent Brody is then sat around the dinner table staring at his food, when his son starts imitating his actions. Brody eventually notices and then playfully scowls at his boy.

As a kid this scene might've seemed "boring," but it's a really excellent example of quiet, moving character work. Brody is at arguably his lowest moment here and his son provides him with just the lift he needs, strengthening his resolve to take down the shark.

A lesser movie would've had Brody and his wife verbally talk through his pain, but this wonderfully subtle exchange is a much better, sweeter alternative.