#104
Post
by Drucker » Sat Feb 06, 2016 12:00 am
So I finally whipped out my blu-ray of Jurassic Park this evening, a little nervously I’ll admit, to give it another shot. As I alluded to earlier in this thread, I saw this at the Ziegfeld Theater, age 6, during its initial theatrical run. I remember it was incredibly loud and I was terrified at points (definitely hid my head during the kitchen sequence). I was absolutely in awe, and as I mentioned, became obsessed with dinosaurs for a few years. I have vivid memories of seeing this, and watching it on a 64-inch TV really brought back tons of memories. (I had a VHS of it growing up so have seen it dozens of times.)
I imagine many people view Indiana Jones the way I viewed this film. While I never saw the Indy films until I was an adult, Jurrassic Park has been with me my whole life. Is the Sam Neil becoming okay with children part a bit corny? Sure. I also found the opening sequence very-Indiana Jones esque but far too fast-paced. Here’s an annoying lawyer. Here’s some paleontologists. Here’s the bad guy. It went by so quickly, that I imagine if I wasn’t fully familiar with the story I may have been very confused. If the film has a flaw for me, the attempts at being profound that Goldblum’s character point out are sort of unnecessary. In fact the villain from The Lost World is a better foil in this way. The strength of this movie is in its action sequences. A large-scale, hour long adventure of escape and survival, told with characters we spend the first hour getting close to. At the end of the movie, does Hammond really learn his lesson? I’m not sure, and worst of all it really doesn’t matter, because the whole point is dropped.
Rewatching the film though, the moments of awe were still powerful. The first time we meet the dinosaurs is still exciting. The T-Rex sequence, as Domino mentioned, is perfect, as is the kitchen sequence. But if I was totally in awe as a six year old at the sight of real dinosaurs, I was in love with the sets this time around. The film actually does a really great job of making you feel cramped. From the opening scene, so many of the nighttime shots are clearly sets, but they are made to feel very claustrophobic. The characters constantly spend time in confined spaces, from basements to cars to trees. Not unlike the humans, the dinosaurs are trapped, too, of course, and are constantly escaping from where humans have attempted to trap them. Does this convey the Goldblum line “life will find a way” to a degree? Yes. But more interestingly, the film, almost humorously, is constantly illustrating just how terrible it is to have dinosaurs and humans together. This is noteworthy, because the humans and dinosaurs are often going through the same thing, trying to wander places they don’t belong and break down fences. Rather than have some bland “a ha” moment of awakening, though, the film constantly hammers the point home, almost laughing in John Hammond’s face the whole time about what a terrible idea he’s had. All of his efforts to control everything are for naught, from his employees to the park to the dinosaurs. I need to rewatch the Spielberg films I’ve seen, and watch many for the first time, but I’d be interested in seeing how often this pattern re-emerges.
As far as I'm concerned the movie holds up, with a few areas that could've been better fleshed out/focused. But anything but a let down, for sure.