Jurassic Park

Who still remembers a cinematic structure called "The Drive-In"? I do. This was the very first place my young mind was introduced to the spectacle of computer generated imagery.

In 1993 Steven Spielberg outdid himself by creating a tour de force that finally broke E.T.'s (1982) worldwide-grossing record and became one of the most influential films of its time. Jurassic Park introduced the world to dinosaurs as animals and not monsters.

Spielberg promised the world dinosaurs, and he delivered. He wasn't satisfied with simply satiating moviegoers or bluffing his way through the two-hour film with glimpses of badly remodeled reptiles. He relied on a team of specialists to create animatronic dinousaurs and used go-motion and stop-motion animation, computer generated imagery, and new motion capturing technology called dinosaur input devices. Even watching Jurassic Park again in 2008 the CGI and the authenticity of the animals is remarkable.

I didn't care that most of the dinosaurs didn't exist until after the Jurassic period had actually ended. I was too caught up in cute and cuddly dinos that spat poison, the sneezing veggiesaurases and the raptors that knew how to open doors.

Sadly, the actors were overshadowed by their animatic co-stars. Sam Neill did his best to appear intellectually composed as the hero paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant with Laura Dern as sidekick Dr. Ellie Sattler, while the king of cool Samuel L. Jackson tinkered away on his computer as the park's chief engineer and Jeff Goldblum delivered witty one-liners and prophecies of doom as chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm.

Sure there are cheesy moments (the final scene in which the rescue helicopter flies over the ocean into the sunset), clichéd moments (the child-wary Dr. Grant saves the kids and warms up to them) and predictable moments (Samuel L. Jackson's unseen death). But there's also a fair amount of shock factor, largely due to the highly intelligent raptors.

While Jurassic Park begins leisurely, things soon spiral out of control. Spielberg uses excellent pacing and takes you on a rollercoaster ride through chaos – from the first breathtaking encounter with the Brachiosaurus feeding off tree tops to the thrilling introduction to T-Rex. We're even gripped when the characters stumble upon a sick Triceratops, run into a stampeding heard of Gallimimus' and witness one close shave and daring escape after another.

What probably made Jurassic Park such a hit with all audiences regardless of their age was the kiddy-friendly yet fairly logical DNA harvesting explanation of the cloning process that was used to give birth to the dinosaurs from mosquitoes preserved in amber that fed on dinosaur blood. But in the end you're left with the humbling sensation that nature cannot be predicted or controlled.

In the words of Dr. Alan Grant, "nature finds a way".

- Megan Kakora

Quotes:
Dr. Alan Grant: You married?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Occasionally. I'm always on the lookout for the future ex-Mrs. Malcolm.

Dr. Alan Grant: It looks like we're out of a job.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Don't you mean extinct?

Dr. Alan Grant: Do they show intelligence?
Muldoon: They show extraordinary intelligence, even problem-solving intelligence. Especially the big one. We bred eight originally, but when she came in she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one... when she looks at you, you can tell she's working things out.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...

Dr. Ian Malcolm: But again, how do you know they're all female? Does someone go into the park and, uh... lift up the dinosaurs' skirts?

Tim: [after the tour car falls on them at the bottom of the tree] Well... we're back... in the car again.
Dr. Alan Grant: Well, as least you're out of the tree.

Trivia:
Spielberg found out about Crichton's novel in 1989 when they were discussing a screenplay that would become the extremely popular TV series "ER".

Billionaire and park creator John Hammond was Richard Attenborough's first acting role in 15 years.

The glass of water sitting on the dash of the Ford Explorer was made to ripple using a guitar string that was attached to the underside of the dash beneath the glass.

The roar of the T-Rex is actually the sound from the aircraft simulator at NASA Langley Research Center.
All the merchandise (T-Shirts, stuffed dinosaurs, lunch boxes, flasks, etc.) shown in the film were, in some part, actually created to be sold with the movie.

For her audition, Ariana Richards who played Hammond's granddaughter Lex Murphy, stood in front of a camera and screamed wildly. Spielberg "wanted to see how she could show fear".

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