Stuff I Grew Up With/Franchises: Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park (1993)

Of all the movies, TV shows, and video games that I'll ever review on this blog, this is one of a select handful that were the biggest parts of and had the most influence on my childhood and, as such, I couldn't think of a better subject for the first installment of Stuff I Grew Up With. I was just a mere six years old when Jurassic Park was released in the summer of 1993; while my memory is understandably fuzzy, I think the first time I became aware of it was when I saw a short commercial for it one night. As short as it was, that 30 or so seconds was impactful enough for my mom to decide, "We have to see that!" Of course, before we did see it, everyone we knew was talking about it, including some kids we knew who said that they were scared out of their wits by it, which made Mom wonder for a bit if she should take me to see it. Of course, she eventually decided to do so and while there were indeed moments during the movie where I hid my eyes (which is ridiculous to even contemplate nowadays considering all of the horror films I've seen throughout the years), it would end becoming a movie-going experience that I would never forget even at that young age. When it came on video, my grandmother got a copy of it just so she could have something to keep any kids she had to watch occupied and, as a result, I must have watched it at least fifty times during my childhood (that's quite possibly a conservative estimate on my part). It was simply one of those movies that changed my life and, looking back on it, I understand perfectly why I loved the movie so much: when I was a kid, I loved dinosaurs and this was the movie that felt like it actually brought them back to life. I had seen a fair amount of old monster and sci-fi movies before this but, even at that young of an age, I knew that this movie was different. I didn't understand anything about filmmaking or CGI but I could tell that the dinosaurs and monsters in those old movies I'd seen before never looked quite right or real (that's not meant as a put-down by any means); however, when I saw Jurassic Park, it really felt like the dinosaurs were right there in front of the camera, chasing it, running with it, jumping over it, and such. It felt like a National Geographic documentary with footage of honest to God living creatures. To this day, those special effects still amaze me and I consider those dinosaurs to be the best CGI creations ever. It would never get any better than that. If the effects in the original King Kong made audiences of that generation go "ooh" and "awe," the effects in Jurassic Park are what made my generation do the same.

Speaking of that last part, when I saw a clip of Ebert and Siskel's original review of the movie on YouTube, Roger Ebert, even though he ultimately gave the film a thumbs up, said that it never felt like there was any sense of awe about the dinosaurs. Maybe it was because he was an adult or something but still, I have to ask, "Did you and I see the same movie?" That entire scene when the characters first see the Brachiosaurus eating the leaves on the tree and then the countryside of the island inhabited by herds of different types of dinosaurs is nothing but awe and amazement, enhanced even more so by John Williams' amazing, grand score. Aside from that, when the T-Rex appears and is stomping amongst the cars, the characters are clearly in awe of what they're seeing (mind you, they're scared out of their wits but they're still amazed). And what about the scenes where the baby raptor hatches out of the egg, Dr. Grant, Lex, and Tim see the Brachiosaurs singing in the sunset, and when they come across the sick Triceratops? Although I have no personal disrespect for the man, sometimes Ebert really frustrated me because it often felt like he either just didn't get it or simply ignored things to make a point. But, enough griping: let me tell you more about why Jurassic Park is awesome.

After thinking about it long and hard, I think I can safely say that this is probably my favorite Steven Spielberg movie. I like a lot of his films, like Jaws, Duel, the Indiana Jones movies, and such but, for me personally, this is the movie where he truly shines as a director, showing that he can create both a sense of wonder and majesty to appeal to the kids and nail-biting suspense and thrills for the adults in a single film. This opinion may simply be because this is the movie of his I've watched the most and was the one that introduced me to him but, regardless, I still think this is his greatest accomplishment in terms of just pure entertainment. It is nice that he did eventually decide to branch out and take on more adult-oriented material with stuff like Schindler's List, Amistad, and Saving Private Ryan, but I think these bigger than life, majestic, and wonderous movies are what he does best and are what he was born to make. He's kind of strayed far from these types of movies in recent years but, hopefully, he'll come back to provide us with some more soon.

One common criticism of the movie is that, while the dinosaurs themselves are incredible, the characters are rather bland and undeveloped, which I really have to disagree with when it comes to most of the cast. For instance, I thought Sam Neill was perfect as Dr. Grant. He's been studying dinosaurs all his life and gets a chance to go to a place where they've been brought back to life in order to see them in the flesh. But, as excited as he is about the prospect, he does show some concern about what might result from this playing with God. In addition, he clearly despises children at the beginning of the film, doing everything he can to avoid Tim when the boy begins peppering him with questions, but when the kids are attacked by the T-Rex, he becomes horrified at what's happening and risks his own life to save them. From there, he clearly grows to really like them, becoming something of a surrogate father to them as he guides them through the park and risks his life many more times to save them from danger, culminating in the nice sight of him sitting with both of them sleeping on either side of him on the helicopter ride home at the end of the movie.

Dr. Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, is without a doubt my favorite character in the film. He knows from the start that creating dinosaurs is not a good idea and is always trying to warn John Hammond that this is eventually going to come back and bite him on the ass. One of my favorite scenes is when they're having lunch and begin discussing the implications of what Hammond has done as well as the moral standpoint of it all. Malcolm is trying to make Hammond understand just how dangerous it all is and when Hammond tells him that his scientists have done something that nobody else has been able to do before, he adds, "Yeah, but your scientists were so determined to see if they could, they didn't stop to think if they should!" He also shows what a rather conservative scientist he is by calling discovery "the rape of the natural world." He's also, as Goldblum tends to be, very funny, with a witty sense of humor that leads to some nice line, like when the T-Rex gets loose and he says, "Boy, I hate being right all the time!", when he, Ellie, and Muldoon barely manage to outrun the T-Rex and he asks, "Think they'll have that on the tour?", and when Hammond at one point compares what's happening to the dysfunctional opening of Disney Land back in the 50's, Malcolm adds, "Yeah, but John, if Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists!"

Richard Attenborough is also great as John Hammond, the man behind Jurassic Park. Instead of being portrayed as a mad scientist or a businessman who's mostly just interested in making money (as he is in the original Michael Crichton novel), he's instead a well-meaning billionaire showman who wants to give the world something it never had before, something that isn't an illusion like most of his previous attractions were, notably a flea circus he had at the beginning of his career, but something that a person could actually, "see and touch... not devoid of merit." Despite his age, Hammond mainly comes across as a big kid, bursting with the energy, enthusiasm, and, most importantly, wonder and spirit of a child and Attenborough is absolutely splendid playing all of those different sides of the character. In fact, he's so childlike that it's ultimately what leads to his downfall: he's so naive and overconfident about what he and his company have created that he doesn't at all see how potentially dangerous it is and feels that Dr. Ian Malcolm, as well as Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant to a lesser extent, aren't giving them their due credit and that scientists shouldn't stand in the face of discovery and not act. In fact, Malcolm himself sums up Hammond's naive nature towards the situation in one perfect line: "Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen but you wield it like a kid who's found his dad's gun." You could kind of compare him to Colin Clive's portrayal of Henry Frankenstein in the original 1931 film with how he's so confident about his work and the creature he manages to create and only gradually realizes that he's made a terrible mistake. It takes Hammond a little while to fully realize what a mistake he made, initially blaming the disaster entirely on Dennis Nedry's treachery and saying that next time, it will be flawless because he won't be so dependent on outside help, prompting Dr. Sattler to tell him that he never had control over the park in the first place, that it was an accident waiting to happen. From there on, Hammond does finally come around and realize what he's done, although he still remains fairly upbeat and tries to get the park up and running again (albeit mainly to stop more people from getting killed), with his mood only dampening at the end when he realizes that he has to leave his dream behind. The last look that he gives back at the park when he hears the Brachiosaurs singing in the distance just as they're about to leave is quite sad because you can see how shattered he is and the same goes for the last shot of him looking at the amber-encased mosquito at the tip of his cane, the source of it all, and lamenting all that's happened and reflecting on the innocent, well-intentioned dream he once had.

When it comes Dr. Ellie Sattler, while I do think Laura Dern is another actor who played her part well, I do agree with the critics in that there's not much to her. It's obvious that she does care a lot about Grant, wishing that he would come around in his attitude about kids, no doubt so she can have one with him one day, as well as everyone else and even takes on some dinosaurs herself when necessary but, other than that and the scene where she breaks through Hammond's delusion about having control over Jurassic Park, there isn' much to say about her. The two kids, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), I actually like and don't find that annoying, except for some of the moments when Lex is getting overly panicky and when Tim is talking Grant's ear off on and whining about certain things, like when he's saying, "Come on, Lex!" when she's trying to reboot the computer system while Grant and Sattler are trying to keep one of the raptors from getting into the control room. I've always wished he would do something useful, like hand one of the adults the gun on the floor so they can shoot the raptor. But, other than those little issues, I've always liked and actually cared about them, especially during the famous kitchen scene with the raptors. The other supporting characters are the ones that are more than a little bland: Samuel L. Jackson (before he was Sam "Motherfucking" Jackson) really has nothing to do in his small role other than spout some techno jargon, complain about the constant glitches the park's system suffers from, and get killed off-camera; Wayne Knight is your typical obnoxious, greedy fat guy (not much different from his role on Seinfeld, actually) and the main reason why everything goes downhill; and Martin Ferrero as the lawyer Donald Gennaro does nothing but worry about the park, then become really greedy when he sees the financial potential of it all, and ultimately proves to be a complete an utter coward who abandons Lex and Tim to fend for themselves when the T-Rex appears, which leads to him eventually getting eaten. Finally, even though he was also not all that developed, I really liked the late Bob Peck as Muldoon, the game warden whose main concern are the raptors. He came across as really cool, like someone who truly understands how to deal with dangerous animals, and just felt like somebody you'd want to have at your back in a deadly jungle. He's one of the first who seems to understand the potential danger of the park, especially when it comes to the raptors (when the security system shuts down, his first concern is whether or not the raptor fences are out), and is often concerned during the tour about what may happen, especially with a tropical storm approaching the island. He proves to be quite a badass when he needs to be during the jeep chase with the T-Rex and goes as far as to kind of use himself as bait for the raptors in the jungle in order to give Dr. Sattler a chance to reach the maintenance shed to turn the security system back on. Unfortunately, this ends up getting him killed, which sucks because I wanted him to live, but at least he went out as something of a hero (although, if you think about it, if he knows raptors so much then he should have known that they were probably leading him into a trap).

Of course, the main reason the movie is still as popular as it is are the dinosaurs and the amazing technology used to bring them to life. My favorite always was, and still is, the T-Rex. When I was a kid, I thought the T-Rex was simply the most awesome thing ever. He was powerful, unstoppable, terrifying, and, above everything else, just plain cool. I always thought his roar was really awesome as well. Above everything else, though, he has undoubtedly the best scene in the whole movie: the awesome sequence where the cars are stuck at his paddock and he breaks out right where they are. It's simply one of the most intense, action packed scenes ever put to film and as a kid in the theater, I was mesmerized by what I was seeing (I don't know why but, for some reason, I always liked the shot from inside Grant and Malcolm's car where you see the T-Rex stomp towards Lex and Tim's car, having been attracted by the flashlight the former is fiddling with). I remember being scared for Malcolm when he tries to distract the T-Rex so Grant can rescue Lex and Tim after the dinosaur has turned their car over but ends up getting chased and nearly killed by him. That then leads to the part where the T-Rex eats Gennaro, the sight of which really freaked me out. And after all of that, the scene ends perfectly with the T-Rex pushing the car that Tim is still trapped in over a cliff, forcing Grant and Lex to repel down the side of it on a cable, and then letting out a mighty roar like he knows exactly what he's done and is proud of it. The T-Rex remains a powerful and foreboding presence throughout the film, usually only sensed either by the sound of his roaring in the distance or his thundering footsteps, but that's enough to make it clear that, with the power off, he's going to be the biggest threat to the characters' survival, culminating in other great sequences like when he chases Malcolm, Sattler, and Muldoon in the jeep through the jungle and when he pops out of the trees to feast on a Gallaminus. And yet, despite how much of a threat he is, Spielberg was smart enough to know that the T-Rex would be popular with audiences and decided to have him eventually turn out to be the unofficial hero of the movie, saving the survivors from the raptors. Some may say that was Spielberg catering to his audience, especially since there was no way he could have gotten into the visitor's center without them hearing or even seeing him, but that's just so freaking awesome to me that I don't care at all. I ask, how could you not love the triumphant last shot where the T-Rex has killed the raptors, having thrown one into the Tyrannosaurus skeleton in the lobby, and lets out a final roar as the banner that says, WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH, falls down in front of him? Kick ass!

Speaking of the Velociraptors, while the T-Rex is undeniably the biggest overall threat, they are the dinosaurs who end up being the real villains of the movie when they manage to escape from their pen. They're built up as a serious threat right from the beginning with the opening scene where a worker is killed by one while trying to move it into its enclosure and throughout the film, we get more and more of a sense of how dangerous they are with what we hear from Muldoon and that scene where they feed a live cow to them in their enclosure and we hear them rip the poor thing apart. Although it's not explicitly stated, the fact that they're not part of the actual park tour but are being kept in a large pen with an electrified fence around it is another hint as to how lethal they are (not even the T-Rex is that unpredictable). In fact, upon a recent viewing, I realized that you don't get to really see the raptors until they escape from their pen, which isn't until the third act. Until then, you only see a brief glimpse of one's face during the opening scene, the fossilized skeleton of one that Grant's team unearths in Montana, a newborn one that hatches out of an egg, and the aftermath of their feeding on that cow, the act itself which you only hear rather than see. It all helps to add even more suspense as to what exactly the raptors are and what they're capable of and once you finally do see them, you're able to appreciate what a threat they are. They're sleek, fast, ferocious, lethal, and, worst of all, intelligent, able to figure out how to solve problems like open doors and coordinate attacks on their prey. They tear Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) to pieces (off-screen, mind you) in the maintenance shed, rip Muldoon apart after luring him into a trap in the jungle, and even come very close to killing the remaining characters. That scene in the kitchen where Lex and Tim try to hide from the raptors is a very tense and well-paced scene and really shows off Spielberg's ability to create suspense. On top of everything else, the raptors have a sense to them that comes across as just plain evil. As ferocious as he is, the T-Rex comes across simply as a predator who's doing what he does but the raptors feel genuinely sinister, no doubt due to how intelligent they are and how they coordinate and plan their attacks. However, it's more than just that: they seem to really relish the hunt and killing their prey, more so than any other dinosaur, and the design of their faces add even more to this malevolent feeling. Case in point, no other dinosaurs actually smile before attacking, which these things do a number of times. While I still like the T-Rex best, the raptors have long since become another favorite dinosaur of mine, even though I do know now that they're not all that scientifically accurate. (I called them Vipers for some reason when I was a kid and initially thought that they killed the goat at the T-Rex paddock, somehow missing the shot of the T-Rex gulping down what was left of the goat; I was a little dumb when I was a kid.)

The other dinosaur that really left an impact on me as a kid was the venom-spitting Dilophosaurus. Before I saw the movie, I got a big picture book about it and in there was a picture of Wayne Knight screaming with the creature's black poison all over his face. I was so young that I didn't understand what I was seeing; all I understood from the way the pictures were organized was that this dinosaur with the crest on its head was the cause of it, making me afraid of that thing before I had even seen the movie. It was to the point where, when Nedry drives off into the jungle after shutting down the security systems of the park and stealing the embryos, I was already hiding my eyes, dreading the appearance of the Dilophosaur long before it actually appeared. Nowadays, though, I can truly appreciate what a cool creature it is. I like how innocent it looks at first, with its small size and cute chirping noises, but then, when it approaches Nedry when he tries to climb back up the hill to his jeep, it suddenly opens a big fin out of his neck and around its head, lets out a very threatening hissing roar, and hits Nedry right in the face with his poison. Nedry gets blinded and is just barely able to get back into his jeep, smashing his head into the top part of the door and dropping the can full of embryos he stole, but he then realizes that the thing somehow got into the jeep as well and attacks him. You don't even really see it kill Nedry; you just hear his screams and the Dilophosaur's snarls as you vaguely make out it attacking him through the misty windshield from outside, which was more than enough. That dinosaur may have had only one scene but it was a memorable one and I've always wished for the Dilophosaurus to make another appearance in one of these films (and not just as a hologram in Jurassic World, either).

I never really cared for the Triceratops, the Galliminus, or the Brachiosaurs when I was a kid (I wasn't big fans of herbivores back then), although I now I do appreciate them for the majesty and wonder they bring to their individual scenes, particularly the Brachiosaurus since it's the first dinosaur they come across and shows them exactly what Hammond has been able to achieve and the Triceratops for how she's so magnificent that she brings Sattler to tears and turns Dr. Grant into a kid again as he's able to interact with the dinosaur that was always his favorite when he was young (I always smile at the shot when Grant puts his ear against her side to listen to her breathe). However, even as a kid, the last scene on the island, when Hammond hears the Brachiosaurs' calls and he can't help but look back in regret, always got to me. Even then, I understood how brief but touching a moment it was and I could feel how genuinely sad Hammond at was about having to abandon this place that he had always wanted to create. Finally, while we're still on the subject about the dinosaurs themselves, I feel I would be remissed to not at least mention the quality of the special effects used to bring them to life but I don't know what I can say about them that hasn't already been said. They're absolutely incredible and, as I said at the beginning, are the greatest CGI creations ever in my opinion. It really is amazing how a movie from 1993 has better CGI than a good number of all of the other films that have come in its wake but it really does. However, I think what helps is that you also have a lot of very convincing animatronic dinosaurs courtesy of the late Stan Winston and his studio mixed in with the CGI, creating what has to be the perfect blend of digital and practical effects. Of course, now I know which shots are digital and which are practical but at the time, the blend was so seamless that it was very easy to believe that these dinosaurs were real (which I genuinely wanted to be true, even though I knew in the back of my head that it wasn't). Those animatronic dinosaurs, particularly the T-Rex and the Triceratops, are so detailed, well-designed, and lifelike in their movements that it's kind of hard to remember that they are simply machines. It really makes me pine for those days when there was still an attempt to make use of both techniques rather than just relying solely on CGI, because you can't beat something that's actually in front of the camera. In any case, I think if I said anything, I'd just be preaching to the choir: bottom line, Jurassic Park is a film that deserves its place as a landmark in the history of movie magic.

The last bit of kudos I have for this movie goes to Spielberg's frequent collaborator, John Williams, who manages to provide another amazing score for one of his films. His music is able to bring to life both the wonder and magic of the dinosaurs, particularly in that first scene with the Brachiosaurus, as well as the terror and excitement when things turn sinister and the park becomes a war zone. That bit that plays during the jeep chase with the T-Rex is as intense and thrilling as you can get, the music that Williams composes for the scene in the kitchen with the raptors is so nerve-wracking and ominous that it really makes you bite your nails at points, and the piece during the climax where the characters get attacked by the raptors in the visitor's center lobby makes the whole thing feel all the more urgent and thrilling. For that matter, the movie opens with a very foreboding bit of music that's composed of a few impactful, "Dooms," some people subtly vocalizing, and a very mysterious and creepy piece when the title comes up. And finally, the ending where the helicopter flies off into the sunset not only leaves you with a satisfying feeling that you've been on a great adventure but the there music just punctuates that feeling even more so. That said, though, if you watch the credits to the end, the music becomes very sinister again and hints that it might not be over (which it wasn't, of course).

Maybe I'm just blinded by the fact that it was such a big and important part of my childhood but, honestly, Jurassic Park is a movie that I can find very few faults with and it remains one of my favorites to this day. Some people may say that the characters and story are underdeveloped or that they're disappointed that it pretty much becomes a monster movie during the second half but I just don't care. For one, I love monster movies, so I have no problem with this eventually becoming one, for another, I think the characters and story are developed a lot more than people give them credit for, and finally and most importantly, this is a movie where spectacle is everything. It's meant to be nothing less than an exciting, bigger than life adventure, and as such, it's as close to perfection as you can get. If the original King Kong can be kind of the same ilk (no disrespect, by the way; King Kong is awesome!) and yet get all sorts of acclaim, why can't Jurassic Park? When it comes right down to it, they're both perfect testaments to the same thing: the wonder and magic of the movies.