Film Talk: Jurassic Park hits the big 30
It was the flick that for many, changed the cinematic experience forever. A triumph in visual effects and a bold and breathtaking spectacle, it inspired wonder, awe, and gave us the most terrifying water ripple ever captured on camera. This month it celebrates its incredible 30th birthday, and as such it's time for us to hop in that chopper, tie our seatbelts together, and step through that beast of a wooden gate once again. We can only introduce it as the great John Hammond once did folks. Welcome... to Jurassic Park.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this 1993 masterpiece unites film fans in almost universal agreement over its brilliance in a way that few other flicks have ever achieved.
Produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen, it is the first instalment in the monstrous (see what I did there?) Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, and is based on Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name.
Before Crichton’s novel was even published, four studios put in bids for its film rights.
With the backing of Universal Studios, Spielberg acquired the rights for $1.5 million, and Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen.
Where the true magic of this flick lay was in the creation of its true stars – the dinosaurs – and to pull this off, groundbreaking computer-generated imagery (courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic) was combined with life-sized animatronic creatures built by special make-up effects creator Stan Winston and his team of wizards.
With a stellar ‘supporting’ cast including Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough and Samuel L Jackson, this mighty flick is a celebration of all the things that make great popcorn cinema, and in the adventure genre is almost as close to perfection as it gets…
On the island of Isla Nublar, entrepreneur John Hammond (Attenborough) has created the impossible – a biological preserve and animal attraction filled with living, breathing dinosaurs.
Desperate to put his investors at ease and secure the park’s opening to the world, Hammond calls in three experts to bear witness to the wonder of his achievement.
Palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant (Neill) – along with palaeobotanist Dr Ellie Sattler (Dern) and mathematician Dr Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) – arrives at the island and is stunned to be sharing it with the formerly extinct creatures that he has devoted his life to studying.
Though the trio are all sceptical of Hammond’s plan to open the island as a theme park, they agree to road test the consumer tour he has designed.
However, awe is quickly replaced with horror after a devastating malfunction sets the dinosaurs on the loose, and leaves Jurassic Park’s guests fighting for survival against some of the most ferocious predators ever to have walked the Earth…
Grossing over $912 million worldwide in its original run, Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film of 1993 and in fact sat as the highest grossing film ever made until 1997, when Titanic knocked it from the top spot.
Receiving highly positive reviews from critics, it was as beloved by the establishment as it was by movie goers and won more than twenty awards, including three Oscars.
A landmark achievement in film-making, in 2018 Jurassic Park was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” – a testament to Crichton’s imagination, Spielberg’s vision, and his team’s ability to bring it to life.
With now iconic performances from an exceptionally talented cast, Jurassic Park sits as the definitive modern classic, and the incredible genesis point of a saga that has now delighted audiences for three decades with adventure, excitement and life finding a way. To match this pearler, all other flicks must go faster.
