Jurassic Park

365 Films

Entry #18

Jurassic Park (1993)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Some movies are so vivid that you remember the exact time, place, and date on which you saw them.  Those details begin to morph with the actual film itself and intertwine as they settle into your memories.  It gets to the point where the film and your memory of the time and place in which you saw it become inexorably linked.  When you watch the film again, not only are you taken back on that journey to a magical world were Dinosaurs have been brought to life through advanced cloning techniques, but also the time in your life when you first laid eyes on that journey.  I remember specifically that we saw Jurassic Park (that would be Mom, Nate, and Tess) on its opening day, which coincidentally was the last day of school of my third grade year in June of ’93.  In fact, school might have literally just ended as we raced out the door to get to the AMC Painter’s Crossing theater as quickly as possible.  Like pretty much all children, we were fascinated by the concept of Dinosaurs wreaking havoc on a theme park designed to contain them.  I don’t think I knew exactly who Steven Spielberg was at that time.  Rather, I had no idea of the kind of event that a film of his would promise to be.  I had not seen Jaws at this point, or Close Encounters.  I’m sure I had seen E.T. but I was far too young to register who directed it or what that meant exactly.  I think the only Spielberg film I was aware of at this point was Hook, and we all know how that turned out.  As a result, I went into Jurassic Park colder than any other Spielberg I’ve seen since.  I had no idea what to expect.  I suppose it’s moot at this point to say that the film went over like gangbusters.  It was a watershed moment for special effects, summer movies, dinosaurs, and even Jeff Goldblum.  He would go on to an incredibly lucrative second career playing the anxious and neurotic scientist in a boatload of other disaster movies.  Jurassic Park was an amazing movie-going experience for me as a nine-year-old.  I remember jumping out of my seat when the raptor bursts into frame after Sadler proudly boasts about turning on the power.  That being said, as awe-inspiring and exhilarating as it is, Jurassic Park has not aged as well as my personal favorite Spielberg films.  I don’t think it comes anywhere near Jaws in terms of a theme park ride movie, as just one example.  The Indianapolis speech in that film alone, is more gut wrenching and compellingly human than anything in Jurassic Park.  Nor does it come anywhere near his post-Saving Private Ryan oeuvre (that’s right, I used the word).  The point is: he’s made plenty more entirely satisfying movies than Jurassic Park.  But very few struck such a vivid chord as this one.