Why yellow is the most important color in Jaws

Red means danger, right? Not in Jaws, in Steven Spielberg's 1975 masterpiece it is yellow that is the signifier of danger, of warning, of the underlying (and underwater) great white shark.

And that shark is also largely unseen, only having four minutes of actual screen time.

Things may have been different if the shark was not broken, but Spielberg had to think "what would Hitchcock do?" and he hid the shark for as long as possible, which only heightened our fear and suspense. Something which still remains to this day.

The score to Jaws, by John Williams, gets much of the praise, with the music being the shark for the most part - alongside those point of view shots and masterful Oscar winning editing by Verna Fields.

But besides that and the water level camera, the other element of Jaws that helps gives us that constant feeling of unease, is the presence of the colour yellow. It's like a harbinger of doom, meaning that the shark is omnipresent even in scenes that it isn't a part of.

And that provides a constant feeling of unease and trepidation.

The usual sunny colour signifies the presence of the shark, think about it, featuring on everything from Alex Kintner's lilo, those yellow barrels, the shirt that Pipit's owner is wearing to the yellow chord featured on the boat that the estuary victim is rowing.

Here's all those yellow signifier moments in Jaws that you may have missed.

Some are obviously intentional, others may not be, but once you start seeing yellow in Jaws it is almost hard to stop.

Amity Island sign

As Chief Brody sets off in his car to what turns out to be the first victim of the shark, Chrissie Watkins, he drives by an 'Amity Island Welcomes You" sign for the 50th regatta.

The border of the sign, which we return to later in the film after it has been graffitied with a shark fin, has a border of yellow around it.

And the woman in the image is laid atop a yellow lilo, that looks very similar to Alex Kintner's.

Mrs Kintner's hat

A young boy exits the water to ask his mum if he can have 10 more minutes in the water, meet Alex Kintner. His mum is wearing a large sun hat, which is yellow. As the tension of what appears to be a normal beach scene escalates, so does the colour yellow.

Pipit's owner

We all love Pipit the dog. Right after the Alex talks to his mum, we see Pipit's owner throwing a stick into the shallows for the dog to retrieve. His owner is wearing a yellow shirt.

We see him later stood at the edge of the beach calling for his dog, only his stick remains floating on the surface.

If the shark has killed a dog, all bets are off for who is next.

Alex's lilo

And then Alex leaps out onto the water on his yellow inflatable, and we see him paddle out.

And sadly, it is Alex who is the next victim of the shark.

His mum, still wearing her yellow sun hat, initially confused by the commotion and people being rushed out of the water.

And then her desperate calls for him at the water's edge.

His bloody and tattered lilo then washes up on the beach.

Harry's bad hat approaches

As the red herring of the top of Harry's swimming hat approaches a swimmer, we - along with Chief Brody - think this could be the shark. During this moment the people walking between shot acting as cutting moments between Brody and the sea are all wearing yellow.

And when Harry comes and speaks to Brody, he is even drying himself with a yellow towel.

Mayor Vaughn's jacket

The mayor of Amity is known for his loud jackets, but in the town hall meeting scene where they discuss the incident and closing the beaches, Mayor Vaughn is wearing a yellow mustard jacket. This is also the scene where we are introduced to Quint.

Hooper explores Ben Gardner's boat

The shark is not there, but it has been, the hole in Ben Gardner's head is proof of that...oh and his head that comes looming out of it. Just before that moment, Hooper has managed to retrieve a shark tooth, which he looks at with his yellow torch.

At this point, in the darkness of the water at night, we are fearful that the shark could be out there. The torch quite literally shines a light on its possible presence.

Even when Hooper surfaces, after been spooked by Ben's emerging head, the water around him is illuminated yellow, as if the shark is all around. Or perhaps it is because Hooper had an accident of another kind.

Mayor convinces people to go back into the water

The beaches are open, and everyone is having a wonderful time, not quite. No one is going in the water, so Mayor Vaughn convinces a family to go into the water. They carry with them a lilo that looks similar to the one that Alex was on.

Is the grinning Mayor sending them to the same fate?

Beach evacuation

After the cardboard fin is spotted, panic sets in and the sea is evacuated, during this sequence we see a child atop another yellow lilo - hinting that the same fate could await them as it did Alex Kintner …

…and a yellow helicopter flies by as a woman screams in the water holding her young child.

Sh sh shark lady

After the false alarm of the cardboard fin a woman sees a fin entering the estuary and pond, as she does and shouts shark, to the right of her is someone wearing yellow on the rocks.

Estuary victim

His death in Jaws is still pure nightmare fuel but check out the yellow rope on his red boat prior to his attack.

Quint's shack

Surrounded by shark jaws, Brody and Hooper talk business with Quint, part of that conversation sees both Hooper and Brody framed by a yellow stained-glass window.

Yellow barrels

The daddy of all yellow signifies in Jaws is of course the yellow barrels. These were a necessity to indicate the shark when he wasn't working and showcased his presence without the need to show a dorsal fin or the shark emerging from the water.

The increasing number of barrels on the shark also showed how powerful it was, especially when Quint said that it couldn't stay down with three barrels on him, not with three he can't.

Well, apparently, he could.

Spielberg isn't the only director to have used a colour as a signifier, two of the most famous examples are Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo and M. Night Shyamalan in The Sixth Sense.

In Vertigo. Hitchcock used a lot of green, which - using the psychology of colour - is usually associated with something mysterious and sinister. This represented the character of Madeline, with Scottie (James Stewart) represented by the colour red.

Red was used in a different way in the Bruce Willis film, The Sixth Sense. Red was a signifier of death or the spirit world, from a red balloon to a red doorknob and the child's red jumper.

Words by Dean Newman

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