Regarding the movie Jaws:
In the final scene of Jaws, Martin laughs when he sees Hooper. The writer probably intended this as catharsis.
I wonder your opinion.
I don’t think it’s accurate, though. In that context, I don’t know…
The biggest contradiction in the film is that they have to go out to sea to catch the fish.
But the fish already comes there, to the shore.
Moreover, it’s an absurdity that someone with a traumatic problem with water is the Sheriff on the island.
The shark comes and goes, like an assassin, hiding in the huge ocean and only striking when easy prey is within reach. Perhaps some sort of bait operation could have been set up, with the fishermen waiting for the shark to come to them, but time was of the essence. Every day the shark wasn’t caught, people weren’t coming to the island for their summer vacation and local businesses that depended on the summer season profits to stay afloat suffered. They had to go find the shark, wherever he was, as soon as possible.
The script originally had Hooper being killed by the shark. Several factors combined to cause a re-write. The original script followed the book, and had Brody’s wife and Hooper engaging in an affair. Spielberg received some shark-cage footage shot by legendary shark expert Rod Taylor, and he liked it so much that he cut it into the movie. However, there was nobody in the cage, and the best way to use it was to have Hooper escape the shark. Spielberg felt these two changes better suited Richard Dreyfuss playing the character.
I presume that the laughter was, as you say, catharsis, relief that it was all over, and also bemusement that Hooper, who had been thought dead was indeed very much alive. Also, presumably, Hooper had witnessed the explosion and knew that the shark was dead.
Brody’s “traumatic problem with water” was a simple fear of drowning. He didn’t have a problem with being near water, he just didn’t want to go in it. It is possible that he had a near-drowning incident when he was younger that gave rise to the fear. I believe the character was supposed to be NY city policeman before moving to Amity Island to take the sheriff’s job.