Scottish billionaire industrialist John Hammond and his company, InGen, a company that specializes in genetics and bioengineering, has managed to clone a number of Dinosaurs on Isla Nublar, off the coast of Costa Rica, with the intention of opening up a theme park with these animals on display. When a worker is killed trying to move a Velociraptor before opening day, Hammond's backers have second thoughts. So they request a lawyer, along with a mathematician, a paleontologist, and a paleobotanist, be sent to the park to look it over and make sure it is safe for the general public. Unfortunately things soon go wrong, the power on the island fails, and the Dinosaurs escape their cages.Jurassic Park is, hands down, one of my favorite movies of all time. I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the greatest films of all time. The score is magnificent, the effects hold up still today, and even though I've probably seen this movie a dozen times, I'm still on the edge of my seat during the Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor chase scenes. It is well-acted, well-written, and paced exceptionally well.
One thing Jurassic Park doesn't have going for it is its realism. Only two of the Dinosaurs featured on the park (Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus) actually lived during the Jurassic period. The other species did not exist until the Cretacious period (and this is indirectly mentioned by Alan Grant early in the film). Additionally, the Dinosaurs featured in the film likely did not look like they actually looked long ago. Some of them may have actually had feathers, and Dilophosaurus was too small, which Wikipedia states was so that audience members didn't confuse it for the Velociraptor. So some changes did have to be made for the purpose of the story. So basically, if you have a school test on Dinosaurs coming up, don't neglect to study, relying on what you learned in Jurassic Park.
Themes
Two major themes were developed throughout the film. One of those themes is man vs. nature. All of the problems of the movie (and, indeed, of many of the sequels) is that nobody listened to Jeff Goldblum. Pretty early on Ian Malcolm, the mathematician, gives John Hammond an earful regarding his worries about bringing Dinosaurs to life from the past. Dinosaurs had their chance and were selected by nature for extinction. Bringing them back now into an entirely foreign ecosystem will have effects that no one can predict. And later in the film, when Hammond is explaining to paleobotanist Ellie Sattler why he wanted to create the park, to give people something real, tangible they can experience, unlike the illusion of a flea circus, Sattler adds to what Malcolm said earlier by explaining that Hammond and his crew never had control; that was the real illusion, thinking that he could control nature itself.
Another major theme explored in the film, which resulted in personal growth for both Hammond and Alan Grant, is that of evolution (which should be expected from a movie about Dinosaurs) -- but not evolution on a grand scale, evolution on a personal one. Alan Grant, one of the greatest minds in paleontology, is stuck in the past. He likes to get his hands dirty and hates computers, thinking they take the humanity out of his work. He doesn't like them and doesn't understand how to use them, even though they could greatly help with his work. On the other side of the coin is John Hammond, the progressive industrialist, who believes in pushing forward with scientific advancement without weighing the costs. As Ian Malcolm states, in one of my favorite lines in all cinema, his scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should. InGen didn't do any of the disciplined hard work, Malcolm tells him, he just took what others had learned and applied it, so he doesn't take any of the responsibility. But Hammond learns what a terrible mistake he's made when the Dinosaurs he brought to life almost kill his two grandchildren. And while sitting in a tree with Hammond's grandchildren, reflecting on the Dinosaurs around him, he realizes that now that there are living Dinosaurs around, he'll have to move ahead with the times. Hammond and Grant are two sides of the same coin: Grant learns that not all progress is bad, and Hammond learns that progress untempered by respect for nature and without consideration of ethical implications, leads to disaster.
Grade: A+
This is about as close to a perfect movie as you can get, I think. The special effects, mostly practical effects with some computer-generated ones, still hold up quite well, even today. The themes explored in this movie are interesting and well-done, in a way that leads to organic growth by the main characters. And of course, being directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie is competently handled and suspenseful in just the right ways.
Jurassic Park
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Michael Crichton and David Koepp
Starring:
Sam Neill as Alan Grant
Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler
Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm
Richard Attenborough as John Hammond
Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon
B.D. Wong as Henry Wu
Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold
Wayne Knight as Dennis Nedry
Joseph Mazzello as Tim Murphy
Ariana Richards as Lex Murphy
Martin Ferrero as Donald Gennaro
