Jurassic Park (1993)
Dinosaurs have been cinematically resurrected from extinction many times before, but never as spectacularly as in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Here is an uncanny film in the truest Freudian sense, tricking us into believing, if only for just over two hours, that the dinosaurs we see are real. You can see all the little details: The color and texture of the skin; the shiny spittle on their jagged teeth; the dilation and constriction of the pupils; the heaving of their chests as they breathe. You can also hear the care that went into creating their various sounds, from quiet chirps to deafening roars. It’s all speculation, of course. And despite a theory positing that dinosaurs evolved into today’s birds, which the film addresses, Spielberg and his creative team kept to tradition and gave the dinosaur characters very reptilian features.
This was made possible not just through animatronic puppets, alone a gigantic step up from the B-movie claymation of the past, but also through the most advanced computer generated effects I’ve yet seen. They make the dazzling imagery of two recent James Cameron films, The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her seem amateurish by comparison. I make note of this because, in much the same way as the Star Wars trilogy, I believe Jurassic Park will be regarded as a game changer, a complete overhaul in the way movies get made. What was before impossible to conjure up can now be achieved with the click of a mouse and a few strokes of a keyboard. Entire worlds can be created from nothing. Make-believe will now be believable.
It’s debatable if the story, adapted in part by Michael Crichton from his own novel, is more serious science fiction or high-concept action thriller. Although there are select scenes in which characters discuss and debate the scientific ethicality of dinosaur cloning, many more scenes are constructed in much the same way as a monster movie, with hidden creatures jumping into frame and scaring the characters, and us. Having just said that, if you’re going to make a monster movie, this would be the way to go about it – not at all campy and the scary moments truly scary, with quiet build-up moments so tense and expertly edited that they evoke the better films of Hitchcock.
The message of the movie – as it was in Frankenstein, Island of Lost Souls, The Invisible Man, and a great many Atomic Age movies – is that science is dangerous in the hands of those that don’t respect it. We want this lesson to be learned by millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), who’s neither mad nor a scientist but is inching towards megalomania; he has invested in and overseen the creation of a dinosaur theme park, made possible by genetic scientists extracting DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes embedded in amber. Needing official endorsements to placate his investors, he brings a paleontologist (Sam Neill), his paleobotanist girlfriend (Laura Dern), an odd Casanova mathematician specializing in chaos theory (Jeff Goldblum), and an uptight investment attorney (Martin Ferrero) to the park, located on a fictional Central American island.
They’re soon joined by Hammond’s young grandchildren, one a budding computer expert (Ariana Richards), the other a plucky and well-read dinosaur lover (Joseph Mazzello). Not good news for the paleontologist; his dislike of technology is second only to his dislike of children. Naturally, later events will force him to take on a quasi parental role. Given the time and energy invested in making the film look good, I doubt audiences will respond to this subplot, if they notice it at all. Still, we know from Close Encounters, E.T., Empire of the Sun, Hook, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that Spielberg has an affinity for stories involving estranged fathers and children; with Jurassic Park, it’s interesting he would take the adult’s point of view, that he would allow the male lead to reap the rewards of parenting, however briefly.
Back to the plot. Hammond doesn’t know that his chief computer programmer (Wayne Knight) accepted a bribe from a rival genetics company to steal dinosaur embryos. The eventual heist creates numerous mechanical malfunctions, and the electrified fences that contain the dinosaurs fail. So begins a harrowing ordeal that pits humans against escaped carnivorous dinosaurs. The most notable among them are a roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex and a pack of horse-sized Velociraptors, whose lethal attack patterns, razor sharp foot claws, and superior problem-solving intelligence make them arguably the deadliest animals on the entire island. A brief but drenching tropical rainstorm in the dark makes select scenes especially dramatic.
Having not read the novel, I don’t know how faithfully the screenplay adaptation adheres to it. It doesn’t matter; the film is such a spectacular entertainment that I don’t think anyone, literary purists included, will care. Whether or not it tells a compelling story is something only personal opinion can determine; given the way it plays with scientific concepts, given that they’re often in service of scenes intended to thrill, some may argue that this is a glorified B movie. If that’s to be taken at face value, I can only say that B movies have their place, and if they happen to be very well made, all the better. However you want to label it, Jurassic Park is a superior technical achievement and tremendous fun, the most I’ve had at the movies in quite some time.
