Jurassic Park: A Movie So Good, It Probably Didn't Even Need Dinosaurs

Uh oh, it’s time for another movie post (aka series of posts). This time we are looking at Jurassic Park, which just so happens to be my favorite movie. I have seen this movie more times than any other, and it was pretty much my whole life when I was six years old. This movie was released in 1993, was directed by Steven Spielberg, and was based on a book by Michael Crichton. Those names are probably all you need to hear to know that this is a great movie. Spielberg is probably the greatest action/adventure movie director ever, and Crichton writes excellent books for adaptation into movies. It was also scored by John Williams, who is responsible for some of the most iconic movie music ever (his movie credits make Kenny Loggins and Harold Faltermeyer look like chumps, and those two ain’t chumps).  If anyone can pack 65 million years’ worth of adventure into one movie, it is these guys (Science Note: The term 65 million years was used throughout the movie. The source is the fact that the Cretaceous Period ended 65 million years ago, aka the end of the reign of the dinosaurs. The Jurassic Period was actually 145 million years ago, but since the dinosaurs in the movie are taken from throughout the Mesozoic Era, it’s not really a big deal. Jurassic Park is catchier than Mesozoic Park any day. The only time I might have a problem with its use is when Grant says “You can’t just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct” since the T-Rex didn’t exist in nature that long, but the line is still sweet and Alan Grant can do no wrong in my book so I will let it slide. End Science Note.) Now I could go through this movie scene by scene and point out all the things that I think are stupendous, but I will try to restrain myself and today we will just cover the basics of what make this movie so amazing. Massive spoiler warning, so if you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend you watch it (I also recommend you should watch it if you just haven’t seen in it a while, or even if you just finished watching it, it bears repeating).

So the movie opens with some shaky bushes at night, cuts to a chubby guy, more bushes, dude chewing gum, bushes again, then this.

This guy is here to let all the people who expected a romantic comedy know that they are in the wrong theater

We are shown a mysterious box, there is some un-subtitled Spanish being yelled (which is a nice trick to convey mood without explaining exactly what is happening), the location is given as Isla Nublar - 120 miles west of Costa Rica, and after the box is set down the intense chap with the shotgun starts giving orders to pushing teams and about Taser charges. Animal growling and screaming are emitted from the box and the pushing team reacts to this with fright. The box is pushed into position by the pushing team, the pushing team steps away (I really like the idea of a pushing team if you haven’t noticed but they aren’t in the film any more, which is a shame, so I will stop talking about them), then Jophery the Gatekeeper is introduced (to help us deal with the lost of the pushing team, last mention, I promise). The gate raising goes awry (despite the fact that some ambiguous locks were successfully engaged) and Jophery is violently pulled into the box. There is then some intense shots of the (at the moment un-named) intense chap struggling to pull the gatekeeper out, with plenty of shocky Taser action, and close-ups of a sinister reptilian eye. The scene ends with intense chap yelling “Shoot her, shoot her” while losing his grip on the death rattling Jophery and it cuts away to the sound of gun shots. All this takes place in less than three minutes. I know I promised not to go through this movie scene by scene, by I think since this is the first thing that you see, it is important. In story telling terms, this part of the movie is called The Hook, and I think it is super effective in this case. A possibly evil mega corporation is hinted at by all the weapon toting guys in matching jumpsuits and hardhats, danger is established, our main antagonist is introduced as a powerful and mysterious creature, and the plot of the movie is set in motion. It was also very entertaining as an action scene, so we are off to a good start.

                The strong start is just one example of how Jurassic Park contains all the core components of a good movie. This movie doesn’t push any boundaries (other than special effects), and doesn’t give any moving social commentaries or anything like that. What is does do is provide an entertaining unadulterated cinematic experience.  Let’s look at the plot. It is easy to follow while being chocked full of action, drama, suspense, and excitement. I will now present it as a series of bad decisions.

• Dangerous work environment  that lead to death of worker
• $20 million dollar lawsuit over dead worker
• Investors start inspection that consists of sending three scientist and a lawyer on a weekend trip
• Conspiring to corporate theft
• (Happened earlier but now introduced) meddling with science that you don’t fully understand
•  Unwittingly unleashing powerful  forces
• Failing to throw a flair properly while trying to imitate the legend that is Dr. Grant (not really that important to the plot, but a really bad decision)

The rest of the movie is just damage control as the characters try to survive the repercussion of all those bad decisions. Any of those decisions could probably make a movie by themselves, but all of them combine to escalate a situation into a frantic struggle for survival. It also involves the classic theme of being hosted by your own petard / brought down by your own hubris, which is always good. Add a few dinosaurs and you have yourself a winner. Don’t let me forgot the nice setup and reward in the movie with Grant describing a raptor attach early in the film and an attack unfolding in just that manner later in the film. The T-rex vision based on movement premise is also introduce in that scene, so a lot of foreshadowing going on there (Science Note: The visual acuity of a Tyrannosaurus Rex was almost certainly not based on movement, but it did make for a tense action scene, so I will let it slide again, also Alan Grant rules all the schools).

                The overall structure is clearly well built, but were the movie magic is really apparent to me is in the individual scenes. Here are some of my favorite shots from the movie.

They're moving in herds

Various reaction to children

Various reaction to feminism

Those Cryo Tanks are incredibly tech-sexy to me

Best climax ever?

The sets are detailed and interesting, the characters are blocked in ways that fit the setting but let you see everyone, and the CGI and animatronics is well integrated into the shots. It has subtle stuff like the violent storm in the beginning of the second act as an analogy for the forces of nature being unleashed while also serving the plot. Even the fact that the costuming has all of the main characters wearing different colors is great. When you have names like Spielberg and Industrial Light and Magic in the credits, quality work is not a surprise, but I just really appreciate how well this movie was made. The three academy awards that it won were for sound and special effect, but that is generally all you can expect with a science fiction action movie. Schindler’s List, another Steven Spielberg/John Williams film, dominated the awards that year, and I’m not sure if you can even get nominated for two movies in the same category in the same year. Everybody in this movie seems like they brought their A-game.

                All the aspects of Jurassic Park combine into a perfect storm of good movieness, but even with everything that I have just described I am still forgetting the most important part. The Characters. This post has already gone on long enough, so will have to cover that in the next one. Join me then, and will see how long that ends up being (probably two posts long).