JURASSIC PARK (1993)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure/Survival
THE MOVIE:
Where would monster movies be without Jurassic Park? Although, not strictly speaking, a “monster movie” (Spielberg was very conscious of making his dinosaurs animals and not movie monsters,) Jurassic Park helped usher in a new era of creature features and for the first time applied CGI to the task of creating photorealistic creatures. Over the next few years when this technology became cheaper and easier to use it helped usher in a whole wave of CGI-aided monster movies such as Anaconda (1997), The Relic (1997), Mimic (1997), Deep Rising (1998), Deep Blue Sea (1999,) Eight-Legged Freaks (2002) and a whole slew of others. Jurassic Park took a B-movie premise and gave it a respectful presentation, with an A-List director.
Jurassic Park is a distilled version of the late Michael Crichton’s blockbuster novel (and one of my favorite books) about an island theme park featuring dinosaurs cloned from amber-preserved DNA. This clever premise skirts actual science just enough to be plausible. With the unprecedented realism of its visual effects, Jurassic Park has the feel of credible speculative fiction. Although, how cool would it have been if Spielberg had chosen to realize it as a faux documentary? If this movie ever gets remade (and there is good reason to do it) this is the route that they should go. It also launched Crichton-mania in the mid to late 1990's with (among others) adaptions of Congo, Sphere, and Disclosure rushing into production in Jurassic Park's wake as well as the Crichton-developed TV series E.R..
The movie removes some of the Crichton’s interesting subplots (such as the dinosaurs escaping the island,) features less dinos and waters down the novel’s commentary about science and responsibility but the main story is essentially the same. A small group of scientists are recruited to evaluate the island prior to its public unveiling when a combination of a tropical storm and industrial espionage take out the park’s security systems causing the dinosaurs to escape their enclosures and overrun the island. The heroes must then do everything they can to escape the island.
Jurassic Park was a pop cultural phenomenon when it was released. It was a movie whose sheer size and visuals had to been seen (not to mention heard) in a theater to be done justice. Even people who don’t normally go in for big summer special effects movies wanted to get a glimpse of Spielberg’s dinosaurs. One could actually make the ironic argument that the CGI technology used to bring the dinosaurs to life for the movie was a bit like Hammond’s technology to bring his dinosaurs to life in the story. It was a bit of a circus atmosphere: pay your $6 at the door and get a glimpse of the most realistic dinosaurs you’ll ever see. I vividly remember going to see it with a couple of high school buddies. June 11, 1993. Regardless, until Titanic was released, Jurassic Park enjoyed a four-year reign as the all-time box office champ.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
The effects have held up nicely over the last sixteen years and feature a seamless blend between CGI, animatronics, and even some suitmation. At some points (such as the raptor kitchen chase) the three techniques are so deftly blended together that it is next to impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.
The filmmakers were pushing technology to its limits when they made this movie so some of the more demanding sequences from the book were probably cut from the movie (such as the T-rex river chase) for technical and financial reasons and scenes like the annoying car-in-the-tree sequence were probably added as “filler.” Of course, they more than made up for this in the two sequels which featured an orgy of dinosaurs.
The sound design must also be given credit. As amazing as the visual effects were, the sound effects and vocalizations created for the dinosaurs are equally impressive. Who can ever forget the earsplitting roar of the T-Rex? The same is true for the more avian and unnerving raptor calls and screeches. Not to mention the distinctive Dilophosaur hiss. I don’t think hissing has ever been done better. Not even by my cat.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Dilophosaurus
Brachiosaurus
Tricerotops (lying down only)
Velociraptors – Introduced the word velociraptor into common speech.
Parasaur
Gallimimus
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
There are many amazing sequences in this movie but my personal favorite is a quick shot right after Grant and all land on the island. After you see the first Brachiosaurs there is a beautiful long shot of a herd of dinosaurs bathing in the lake in the golden sunlight. They should make a poster of this:
DVD AVAILABILITY:
Widely available on DVD, either on its own or in a reasonably priced three-pack with its sequels. Back in the waning days of the VCR, Jurassic Park was the movie with which you showed off your home theater system. The most recent trilogy boxed set, the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack, does not include all of the extras of the previous set.
Sadly, no Blu-Ray as of yet.
SEQUELS:
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), and a third sequel is currently in development hell.
MINORITY REPORT:
First casualty: A Costa Rican worker (probably played by a Mexican) gets munched on by a caged raptor.
The only black character of consequence is a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson, who makes a novice minority-character-in-a-horror-movie mistake: He leaves the group to turn the lights on. No! If you are black and in a monster movie, you never leave a group of white people!
Minority Survival Threshold: 26%
Annoying-Ass Kid Survival Threshold: 100%
SEE ALSO:
King Kong (2005)
READ ALSO:
Check out The Science of Jurassic Park by Rob Desalle and David Lindley. And also Crichton's novel.
Not that I condone reading.
THE TRAILER:
TRIVIA:
Actual velociraptors were only the size of a turkey. They would still mess you up.
Interestingly, around the time of the movie's release a related species was discovered that closely resembled the velociraptors in the movie.
Believe it or not, the kids were actually much more annoying in the book.
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