This series is dedicated to matching memorable movies with the signature day each year upon which I could watch them forever. Bowing to the day it original came out, I now take a look at what is arguably the most famous creature-driven thriller of all time:
Jurassic Park (1993, Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg)This and The Rocketeer (1991) are the only two films I have a distinct memory of going to see with my family at the theaters in the early 90s. To this day, I always like to watch Jurassic Park in a dark room because of this.
The bass sound drop at the beginning of the film is immediately attention grabbing. Chances are always high that if you're dealing with a great Spielberg film, you're also dealing with a great John Williams soundtrack.
The opening scene is kind of strange really. Great, but strange. It almost has a big budget, made-for-TV feel. Upon this, what is undoubtedly my umpteenth viewing of the film, I have to acknowledge that the faces you first see aren't memorable or important to the plot. The danger they're all safe-guarding against isn't abundantly evident. And the scene ends in a terrifying but mostly unsatisfying way. This is all good stuff, and is a setup that demands you keep watching out of morbid curiosity. And it's really the best place to start the film, given that the opening depicts the incident that kicks off the tragedy to follow. (Oops, spoiler alert!)
"Because Grant's like me. He's a digger." Such a solid scene ending on the piece of amber. Again, another scene with characters who we don't much see or care about again (Gerrano dies and is hardly mourned, after all), but is perfect for foreshadowing more of the world we're in and gives us the perfect segue into Montana. Grant and Sattler are a truly fun duo to watch. They are both kind of dorky and lost in their scientific expertise, but they have a lovable charm and cuteness about them (not at all hurt by their good looks) that stays with them all the way through the end of the movie. Neill and Dern deserve a lot of credit for this.
Goldblum's Ian Malcolm has such a strong showing in the first movie that his character ended up headlining the sequel over Grant or any of the others. Malcolm comes off as the perfect foil for Grant without ever being unlikable or unimportant to the plot. He is the first to truly question the wisdom of the park's planners and his cognizance here would seem to make him the villain, but he is more the cool, sunglasses-and-leather-jacket-wearing soothsayer.
The scene about DNA and dinosaur blood and gene sequences would have utterly slowed down and killed the momentum of a lesser film, but in Jurassic Park it plays like a captivating bit of education that pulls together everything since the "He's a digger" scene till now in all its pseudo-science animated glory. It's easily the "weakest scene" in the film because it's purely exposition, but for all the thinking viewers who ever enjoyed this movie it's essential.
I had a crush on Ariana Richards's Lex character when I watched JP in the early days. Coupled with the fact that she had a crush on Grant who is a paleontologist, a career for which at that early age I was already keen on exploring when I got older, I found myself identifying most with Grant, which always heightened the thrill of the viewing experience for me given that Grant is the main hero.
Malcolm poetically remarks, "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs." To which Sattler then adds, "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth." Poignant and funny.
It's such great writing, pacing, and acting/character development to have Grant and Malcolm discussing Ian's tawdry family/love life when the weather starts to pour and they draw closer and closer to danger. This is probably the lowest relational point between Grant and Malcolm, but they still manage to have brief little moments of realness and brotherhood. Like the shared words on being scared, Grant offering him his canteen of rain water, and their collective efforts to save Lex and Tim from the Rex. It's super hard not to love both characters at that point.
The Rex attack on the lead car all the way through the car drop that just narrowly misses Grant and Lex who are literally hanging by a rope is one of the all-time greatest thrill sequences in film history. The movie pretty much doesn't let go of you at this point until the end. It's not all absurd, pompous action and obnoxious developments that aren't justified. It lets quieter moments back in every few scenes, but they always serve some emotional purpose beyond simply resetting your decibel levels lower before blasting you with the next thrill chase.
Dennis Nedry's death at the jaws of dilophosaurs at 1 hour and 14 minutes into the film is truly the point at which doom starts to set in. You now know that potentially no one is safe and all hope at getting the park's computer systems back online is in jeopardy. The movie officially turns a page into disaster film territory, the mission becoming only to survive and escape, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I love how not all of the challenges and dangers the characters face are dinosaur related. Escaping the falling car out of the tree. Climbing an electrified fence. Navigating a UNIX system database to initiate computer programs. The story never fails to deliver on basic action-adventure elements that allow all the characters moments to shine or be vulnerable.
Grant completes his character turn and growth when he promises to stay up all night to ensure the kids stay safe, and then he tosses his lucky velociraptor claw to the ground. His love affair with dinosaurs is over.
Another one of those quieter scenes: Hammond and Sattler's conversation about the flea circus. This scene redeems Hammond from being a simple dinopark tycoon villain to something more sympathetic.
And right after that, Grant and the kids discover the dinosaur eggs. This scene, too, redeems the dinosaurs from being simple eating/killing machines. "Life found a way." After all, the dinosaurs are only adapting and reacting to survive in the environment they've suddenly been thrust into.
Ever since the first time I watched this movie, I thought it was a little more than convenient that a trapeze-swing-like pair of vines with a stick between them happened to be just in the path that Sattler ran to get to the shed. The only bit of hokum in an otherwise perfect movie.
"Clever girl." This line may be one of the most quotable in the entire film. And with Muldoon's quiet admission and violent death at the teeth and claws of that clever girl, one of the most thrilling sequences begins as the humans square off in a hide and seek match of wits and nips. It's fairly clever on the part of the storytellers to have the kids escape the clutches of the deadly velociraptors thanks due to two things that would have only been found since the age of man: mirror-like reflections and ice cubes.
The shot of the velociraptor's profile covered in computer screen reflections of lines of DNA code is full of symbolism!
In true Spielbergian fashion, the Tyrannosaurus comes out of seeming nowhere to rescue the heroes from the velociraptors—a final bit of redemption. There is a pattern to Spielberg's films where a lot of work is done earning the audiences trust in the first 2/3 of the film, only to burn through all of that capital in the final act in over-the-top turns of event. Go big or go home. It's solid Storytelling 101.
And the movie ends without any witty dialogue or pontificating about the future or lessons learned. The characters that survived are just glad the nightmare's over. We as the audience obviously want more, and that's a great way to leave your audience. Don't overstay your welcome in storytelling. And while there have been many sequels to follow in the Jurassic franchise, the first movie is and always will be the best. It's because of that want for more that more were made, and I completely understand from a business perspective. But as the credits roll their last, John Williams's score subtly treads into cautionary territory with those low swaying horn sounds. Return to Jurassic Park, only if you dare!
June 11 — 5 of 365 logged
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