Jurassic Park

This week we’re traveling back to 1993 to discuss Jurassic Park. As I mentioned in my first post, growing up I loved creature features (still do) and this was my all time favorite. I’ve watched this film so many times over the years that I could have written this review without watching it first. Of course I did watch it, I’d never pass up a chance to watch this film. I chose this week to revisit this gem as a birthday gift to myself (my birthday is on Friday). 

Jurassic Park was written by Michael Chrichton and David Koepp and directed by Stephen Spielberg; it was based on the novel of the same name by Chrichton and was released on June 11th, 1993. Jurassic Park had a budget of $63,000,000, made $47,026,828 upon opening, and went on to make $1,032,020,521 worldwide (including re-releases). Jurassic Park received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon release, with critics praising the groundbreaking special effects, acting, score (provided by John Williams), and direction.

Like the novel it’s based on, Jurassic Park follows a paleontologist named Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his partner Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist (Laura Dern) who are recruited as consultants at Jurassic Park, an island housing cloned dinosaurs that will be opened as a theme park. After park staffer Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) sabotages the security system, the dinosaurs escape their enclosures and begin killing. The survivors must traverse the island and find a way off while avoiding the once-extinct predators.

Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies so it would be really easy for me to just lavish the film with my praises, but I’ll try to be a little more unbiased in my assessment. As always, let’s start with what works.

The obvious place to begin is with the star of the show, the dinosaurs! These special effects are really spectacular. Spielberg uses a mix of practical effects and groundbreaking CGI. The special effects still hold up, even 27 years later, though some of the CGI is starting to show its age (the shot of Grant and Sattler in front of the Brachiosaur is the obvious example). The practical effects are the real standouts here, as they usually are. In particular the mechanical T-Rex is a sight to behold. 

The cast across the board is aces. In addition to the actors mentioned above, the cast also includes Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm, Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold, Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon, and Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards as Tim and Lex Murphy. There’s not a weak performance in the bunch, with even the kids keeping up with Sam Neill in their scenes together. It’s difficult to pick a standout but for me is Dern and Goldblum, both bringing wit and charisma to their respective roles. 

The frequently sung heroes of Jurassic Park are Spielberg and Williams, with good reason. Spielberg in recent years has built up a reputation for crowd-pleasing blockbusters, and there is some credence to that, but it is very dismissive of the man’s actual talent which is on full display. Williams’ score is also a major highlight and one of the best film scores ever composed.

So, are there any problems with this film? A couple, but nothing that brings the film down too much. The kids can be a little aggravating at points (something the franchise will continue to grapple with over the years), but they’re ultimately only minor irritants and their contributions are greater than what they take away. 

There are some minor issues with the screenplay, mainly Nedry’s subplot. The Nedry subplot exists solely as a reason for the dinosaurs to escape and wreak havoc and it largely works, but a closer look does beg some questions that the film doesn’t answer, largely who is he working for and what are their goals? At the end of the day though, his role is that of a catalyst and nothing else really matters. 

What stands out the most for me about Jurassic Park is it’s sense of wonder. It could have been easy for Spielberg and Crichton to make this film a non-stop action thriller, but instead they take the time for the characters to stop and explore what the sudden non-extinction of these animals means to them. The film balances the horror sequences like the attack on the jeep and the Velociraptors in the kitchen with the wonder of Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm seeing a Brachiosaur for the first time or Grant and the kids watching a herd of Gallimimus. It’s telling that the best scene in the film doesn’t have any dinosaurs, but just features Laura Dern and Richard Attenborough eating ice cream together.

Jurassic Park is an absolute masterpiece. Even my minor issues with the film don’t begin to overcome it’s successes. It would be easy to dismiss the film as only having merit due to its groundbreaking special effects, but the film has aims much higher than that and achieves them. Jurassic Park is spectacular.

Rating: 5 Chilean Sea Bass out of 5

Other Observations

• Does the Dog Die? The T-Rex eats a goat, but I bet you already knew that.

• Harrison’s Favorite Scare: Tie between the first appearance of the T-Rex and the Velociraptors in the kitchen scene. Masterful.

• The Louisville Orchestra did a John Williams concert a year or so ago and they began it with the Jurassic Park theme and I cried. It’s truly beautiful.

• As a kid I was convinced that dinosaurs would be cloned and would attack us, so I had plans on how to avoid that. All of those plans involved me letting my brothers be eaten while I got away. No regrets.

• I will definitely be covering the sequels at some point, so look forward to that.

• I had a whole paragraph about my love for Laura Dern that I cut from this review because it wasn’t relevant in the end. But, let it be known that I FUCKING LOVE LAURA DERN!

• Here’s a list of the JP merch I own: Jurassic Park: The Board Game (it’s fucking fun), Jurassic Park hightops, three Jurassic Park t-shirts (one of which is a Pride shirt), Velociraptor claw bottle opener (a gift from my good friend and Booze & Buffy cohost Jason).

• Next Week: We’re traveling back to 1932 to cover White Zombie.