Year: 1993Film: Jurassic Park
Box Office Gross: $356,784,000
Awards: 3 Oscars for sound, effects editing and visual effects
Actors: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Sir Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wayne Knight
In the true spirit of Spielberg, Jurassic Park was full of wonder, mystery, lots of special effects and a fantastic story that has become part of our culture. I know I'd never heard the cry of
the velociraptor before this movie. As for background: Two paleobiologists (one studying plants, the other dinosaurs - Dern and Neill, respectively) are brought to authenticate a new theme park on an island. Attenborough brings them, along with a mathematician (Goldblum) and his own grandchildren to check out the "fully automated" island now covered in dinosaurs. With a bit of scientific hand waving, we find out you can now grow your own dinosaurs and they'll be available as a tourist attraction. However, of course things go horribly wrong and our heroes have to save everyone (although Newman doesn't make it thanks to the little bitty spitting dino) and use their knowledge of what the dinosaurs might have been like to escape and survive. It's got awesome special effects and the wonder that that characters experience seeing a field of dinosaurs holds up every time I see the movie. The terrifying dino-hide and seek scenes scared the bejeezus out of me in the theater in my teens not knowing who would escape and who the dinosaurs would eat. It's 
great for kids (not little ones, but most kids can be entertained rather than scared) and was a lot of fun rewatching over the years. There are a lot of scenes I enjoy, but my favorite still has to be watching Neill lay against a triceratops and feel her breathe in and out. You really got the sense that these jaded biologists were finding the wonder again. I never saw the sequels, or read the books of sequels. I'm happy in my ignorance that all ended fine and the dinosaurs lived happily ever after on their island alone.
3 comments:
Paul and I were just talking about how magical this movie was when it first came out! I wonder how I would respond to it today and if the special effects look dated. One of my childhood friends knew how to play the "Theme to Jurassic Park" on piano, and now I can't even remember how it goes!
Thank you for this trip down memory lane. :-) My dad let me go out to the movies to see this the night before I had to take a biology final in seventh grade. I remember my excitement that he was going to actually bend the rules that way. It definitely made the movie even better.
I haven't watched this since it came out on VHS(!) but would love to go back and see if all the magic it held for me as a kid resurfaces. But even for 1993, those were so me amazing effects.
I still get scared just thinking about the raptors, but then again I cry at Nemo.
Love,
Carol
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