This is the movie of my life. At three years old, I wasn’t allowed to watch the VHS that my brother bought, so I snuck into the room to watch it anyway. I can’t remember what it was like, but I imagine I was filled with both terror and awe. What I remember quite vividly is memorizing the lines and acting the movie out. My sister would complain about my one-child show, but my mother said to leave me be. I remember reciting Alan’s velociraptor monologue to my younger cousins, who would shiver in fear and delight. I remember pretending that a T-Rex was chasing the car and I would yell frantically in the back seat. There was also the time my cousin and I played Lex and Timmy in the jeep, screaming as the Rex breaks through the roof. And I remember the dreams. Hundreds of them about dinosaurs and Jurassic Park that I still have to this day. It makes me feel closer to my child self.
I can thank Jurassic Park for my fascination with dinosaurs. But it didn’t evolve into a paleontology career. I could be digging up fossils right now. A new one is practically being discovered every day. Dinosaurs were once thought to be stupid, sluggish lizards, but the opposite is true. A lot of them, like tyrannosaur and velociraptor, had feathers. Their bones are very similiar to modern day birds. The two legged ones are the avian species, while the likes of stegosaurus and other herbivores are non-avian.
Dinosaurs continue to exert a powerful hold on the imagination because they seem mythological. How could such gargantuan animals have existed on our planet? While we are a different species, humans and dinosaurs share a common ancestor.
Prehistoric Planet is an excellent series that portrays these animals as nurturing parents, mating partners, and vicious predators. A lot of people prefer this depiction of dinosaurs to the big budget movies where they terrorize people. Why not both!
The newer films in the Jurassic franchise are mediocre, but I won’t ever pass up the chance to see dinosaurs. Jurassic World can’t live up to or surpass the original, but it just lacks the magic and wonder that makes Jurassic Park such a rarity. I know this movie by heart, but it always feels new. I am three years old again each time I venture to Isla Nubar.
Watching this film is a lesson in filmmaking taught by one of the very best. The symmetry of shots, the colors, the deft use of suspense, and the quiet, vulnerable moments. It’s the action movie with soul. The groundbreaking technology still holds up all these years later. When Hammond says he wanted the park to be something that people can see and touch, that’s the experience watching Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs are so real and tactile. It’s impossible to not believe they can actually stalk, claw, shoot venom, and bite.
“You can’t think through this one, you have to feel it.”
That’s something else the latest installments lack. Sure the dinosaurs are terrifying and massive, but the texture is gone. All there is is spectacle. The dinosaurs are never in enclosed spaces, like a kitchen or a bunker.
And while the dinosaurs are the main attraction, they never overshadow the people. Brash, sarcastic, obnoxious Ian Malcolm; idealistic and naive showman John Hammond; stoic badass Robert Muldoon; Ellie Sattler: smart, brave, tough wise, one of the first female characters to make a distinct impression on me. She embodies what I strive to be.
And of course, the man, the myth, the legend: Alan Grant. The first grouch I ever loved, the blueprint for all the rest who would follow, particularly Carl in Up. Protecting a child in the wilderness, gigantic funky birds, and another tough, beautiful lady named Ellie. In recent years I’ve come to realize that Alan is my dad. There’s a softie hidden beneath his grumpy exterior, too.
Thirty years of mayhem, thrills, queenie (T-Rex) and wishing it could be real. What can I say, I do share Hammond’s vision. We should at least build a park with auto “erotica” dinosaurs who terrorize the guests. I want to live in this movie!
In another thirty years, I think we’ll still be running to catch up. Happy anniversary to the movie that made me.