I haven't always been a movie addict. I only really developed my appetite for cinema during my teenage years, after I changed schools and fell in with a movie-loving crowd. In the summer after my freshman year of high school, I saw JURASSIC PARK on opening day and was blown away by the experience. Over the next year or so I think I saw the movie at least eight times on the big screen, and I never got sick of it. Yet in the intervening years, I don't think I've watched JURASSIC PARK from beginning to end since it was first released on video.

Why is this?, I wondered. How could a movie I couldn't get enough of in the theatres become just another movie to me when viewing it at home? The big screen experience is part of the equation, I think- even more than most big-budget extravaganzas, JURASSIC PARK is made for the big screen, with big sound, to be seen with a big crowd, and no home theatre system, however big, however loud, could compare. But more than that, it's the nature of the film that causes this. JURASSIC PARK is a lot of fun, certainly, but while people remember the film fondly it doesn't exert the same pull years later as, say, STAR WARS or RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, to name two other blockbusters of my youth. Films like those have attained a special iconic status for audiences, with their stalwart heroes and emotional pull- they've become like favorite songs, justifying endless re-visitation. JURASSIC PARK, by contrast, is a thrill ride, pure and simple.

Tonight, when I was watching JURASSIC PARK on the big screen for the first time in over a decade, I was struck by what an efficient entertainment machine it really is, since after the characters are introduced and the scene is set, the film is all about using the dinosaurs to create suspense. The film even lacks a larger-than-life action hero, opting instead for Dr. Alan Grant, an Every-Scientist played by Sam Neill. Spielberg could have cast a more dashing actor in the role, but he made the right choice- Neill gives the character a kind of reserved warmth, and while he engages in a little bit of derring-do, he only does that when absolutely necessary, never to show off.

The other principals in the film are much in the same vein, serving the material without overwhelming it. Laura Dern gives Dr. Sadler a no-nonsense appeal and convincing but unintimidating intelligence- the character is an independent woman but hardly a feminist icon. Jeff Goldblum makes Dr. Malcolm a chatty cynic whose monologues tend to focus on the character's specialty- chaos theory- but grow more pointed and situation-specific as things go wrong. Most of the supporting cast, including a pre-PULP FICTION Samuel L. Jackson, is workmanlike without standing out. The glaring exceptions are Wayne Knight, whose Nedry is a fat buffoon who becomes a too-easy human villain for the film, and Richard Attenborough, whose twinkly-eyed performance as Hammond eventually grates on the nerves.

But nobody really comes to JURASSIC PARK for the people, right? The dinosaurs were the spectacle when the movie first hit theatres, and with only a few exceptions they're still effective. I had a realization while watching the film that while in many of today's blockbusters the effects look cheap and unconvincing, JURASSIC PARK's effects still look pretty darn impressive. I think much of this can be attributed to the time and effort that Dennis Muren and his ILM cronies put into the film, carefully crafting the effects, "sparing no expense" (as Dr. Hammond would put it) to give audiences their money's worth. A few effects in the film look dated, such as some of the shots in the scene where the gallimimus flock is chased by the T. Rex, as well as one or two of the raptor animatronic moments, but by and large the dinosaurs were still awesome. That many of the scenes take place in daylight, making it more difficult to fudge shoddy effects, make the end result all the more impressive.

Of course, one of the most famous effects sequences in the film takes place at night in the rain, but it's such a well-done scene that it hardly matters. I refer, of course, to the T. Rex's first attack scene. In this sequence Spielberg, who has become somewhat notorious for leaning heavily on John Williams' scores throughout his career, forgoes music altogether, focusing attention on the action of the dinosaur and the characters he's menacing. As he paces around the trucks containing Dr. Grant, Dr. Malcolm and Hammond's grandchildren, Spielberg creates a memorably tense scene, dictated by the specific personalities of the characters onscreen, since while Grant and Malcolm know that it's best to keep still, the kids (in the other truck) can't help but panic, which gets them into danger.

After the T. Rex escapes his pen the film, which had previously seemed to be aiming to be an examination behind the ethics of cloning (taken to an extreme measure, of course), is mostly content to be a first-rate entertainment. Sure, there are the requisite Spielberg scenes involving daddy issues (here, Dr. Grant's paternal nature emerges when he protects the kids), but the second half of the movie is above all a cat and mouse game, as the unleashed dinosaurs pursue the humans. The final reel of the film is particularly effective in this respect, as one supporting character after another is picked off by the beasts and the principals have to struggle to stay alive and get out of danger. This stretch ranks up there with Spielberg's nerviest (along with such classics as the snake pit in RAIDERS, the spiders in MINORITY REPORT, and the head popping out of the boat in JAWS) largely because of how thoroughly he has thought out the possibility of the velociraptors as predators. When the raptors click their claws on the tile floor as they stalk the children through the kitchen, it still sends chills up my spine.

In the years since JURASSIC PARK was released, my love and appreciation for cinema has grown immensely. My tastes have diversified, and depending on your point of view I've either grown more discerning or more snobbish. Yet inside the heart of every film nerd beats the heart of a movie-loving kid, hoping to see something exciting and new in the dark confines of a theatre, whether it's in a Serious Work of Art or something more crowd-pleasing. So many Hollywood films today are lacking in any thrills whatsoever, but it's comforting to see that JURASSIC PARK can still deliver.

Recommended:
Yes