It’s been a long time, I know. I won’t try to explain my absence. I’ll just hop back into it.
Twenty years is a long time in the cinema world. Allow me to rephrase: twenty years is an eternity in the cinema world. Consider that the following movies (and the artistic and technological landmarks associated with them) did not exist twenty years ago:
Toy Story – The year 1995 brought this digitization and irreversible revolution of animation
Titanic – The literal behemoth and the song that wouldn’t go away with it sailed away with oodles of money and awards in 1997, giving James Cameron enough to literally create a world.
Batman Forever – The nightmare that was Joel Schumacher as the director of the Batman movies began in 1995. The rebirth of the superhero movie that started with Spiderman came seven years later in 2002.
Twenty years ago, we hadn’t been to Middle Earth, Hogwarts, or Narnia. The Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games novels hadn’t even been written. J.J. Abrams was still working in television, Quentin Tarantino had only directed one film, and Michael Bay was 28 years old. We all still liked Mel Gibson, had last seen Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, and Tom Hanks had yet to win an Oscar.
This had yet to become a cliche . . . again.
With all that’s happened to movies in those twenty years, I am stunned to consider that twenty years ago this June was the first time Steven Spielberg opened the gates of . . . (cue the John Williams music . . . either major theme, take your pick)
The original poster . . . hence the image quality.
I honestly don’t recall if I saw Jurassic Park during its initial theatrical release. I was five at the time, so you would think if I did, I’d recall the traumatic event that many of my generation had at the hands of their first PG-13-movie-seen-in-theaters-that-scared-us-to-death experience. Even if I saw it later on video, I adored this film as a child. It became the principal reenactment of choice during recess, I built a make-shift park gate out of K’Nex and drove a toy jeep through it (all while humming the music, of course), and entertained thoughts of becoming a paleontologist (that one lasted about week, though). I even got the Jurassic Park board game for Christmas that year and still proudly own it to this day. So obviously when I heard the film was returning to the big screen, in IMAX no less, there was no question that I was going to see it.
Having done so, my opinion of the experience is best summed up by what I said to my friend next to me as the credits began to roll: “that’s a damn good movie.”
Let’s just start with the visual effects. Again, this film is twenty years old, yet not once do the visual effects show any noticeable or distracting signs of their age. In fact, the only element of this film that really dates it at all is the laughably archaic computers and information systems.
It’s a UNIX system . . . yeah, those were a real thing once.
Even still, Spielberg’s dinosaur wizardry is so convincing and disbelief-suspending that we often forget we don’t actually know what a T-Rex sounded like when it roared, if indeed it roared at all (same goes for the shrieking raptors).
The story-telling is absolutely phenomenal as well. Yes, you have about forty minutes to an hour of pure build-up, but man, what it builds up to is positively heart-stopping.
This scene is one of the most thrilling pay-offs ever.
The acting and characterizations are great, the dialogue is believable and appropriate (even with the kids towing the line between endearing and annoying and Jeff Goldblum’s snappy one-liners), and, of course, the music score is instantly recognizable by anyone in the Western world.
But there’s one element of the film that really sent it over the edge of awesomeness for me this time, one that was completely lost to me as a child and even most of the times I rewatched the film over the years. No, it’s not the 3-D and IMAX treatments (we’ll get to that). And it’s not the fact that I could completely forget sequels were ever made (though that did happen). What really made this amazing for me was the realization that Jurassic Park is, from a certain perspective, (are you ready for this?) . . .
. . . a feminist text.
“Oh, come on, Blake,” I can hear you say. “Must you add all this English major analysis junk to everything? If anything, it’s anti-feminist . . . there’s only two women, and they don’t really accomplish all that much.” Au contraire. Follow me on this one:
Jurassic Park is about a highly ambitious albeit short-sighted man who manages to somehow defy the natural order of evolution and genetics and brings back a species that went extinct millions upon millions of years before . . .
. . . and they’re all female.
I could write a whole paper about the fact that this scene takes place in a kitchen.
Not only are they all female, but during the said hour of buildup, we find out that they’re penned-up behind electric fences, fed like pets, being prepped to be marketed and sold as attractions for paying customers, and, perhaps most offensive of all, they are specifically and deliberately deprived of the amazing power that is inherent in all females of any species: the ability to create and give birth to new life . . .
It’s basically the antithesis of outlawing abortion, really.
. . . and all of this is done by a group of men.
There’s maybe one or two females here . . .
And what is the response of all these females being so subjugated? What do they do when the fences come down (literally in this case) and they meet face-to-face with their creators/prison guards/beneficiaries?
Well . . .
The barriers are broken, “life finds a way,” and the creatures take back the power and control denied them. Is it always violent? No. Are the carnivores specifically trying to kill everyone? No. They simply fulfill the endless amount of foreshadowing up to that point:
“If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is.”
“Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet’s ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that’s found his dad’s gun”
And, most telling:
“What’s so great about discovery? It’s a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world.”
If what John Hammond and his team of scientists did is rape, then Jurassic Park is the greatest self-defense/Take Back the Night PSA ever. Also, let’s not forget that the two female humans on the island both survived and contributed, through computer skills and bunker navigation, to the survival of the others.
What was that about sexism in survival situations?
And the 3-D conversion? I’m not a huge fan of the whole 3-D craze, but this was expertly done. And the experience on a huge IMAX screen amplifies and intensifies every awesome moment. As pricey as it is, I highly recommend you drop the $14 and remember why it is we all love Steven Spielberg so much.
As I said before, it’s still a damn good movie . . . go enjoy it again on the big screen before Iron Man 3 takes over the IMAX screens.
I don’t care who you are . . . you love that moment.
– Blake L.
[Awkward Pause] 