Jurassic Park- A Spielberg Trademark

Jurassic Park is a 1993 science fiction adventure film turned franchise. The first installment was directed by Steven Spielberg.

It was the highest ever grossing film at the time garnering over $900 million worldwide in theaters.

The film stars Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern,  Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, and Joseph Mazzello.

In the film paleontologists Dr. Alan Grant (Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Dern, daughter of Bruce Dern [Tom Buchcanan of Gatsby '74) are invited by John Hammond (Attenborough, The Great Escape and director of Ghandi), the founder and CEO of InGen and creator of the theme park Jurassic Park. They were called in by the parks investors to verify its safety after the unfortunate death of a park worker at the hands, or should I say claw and teeth of a velociraptor.

Also invited to inspect the safety of the park is Ian Malcolm (Goldblum, The Fly and Law & Order: Criminal Intent) a mathematician, invited by the lawyer representing the parks investors. The three of the invitees as well as the lawyer go on a tour of the park. Also on the tour are Hammond’s grandchildren Tim and Lex Murphy.

This film being the first in its installment, to me, brought up a lot of questions about science and as humans how sometimes we mess with things we may not have the best understanding of. In this film, clearly they were in too deep, messing with nature and things they didn’t quite understand, and it put themselves and others in a dangerous position.

I think for this reason nature is not to be messed with. Period. I understand that this is a science fiction film, but there are government labs out there and science experiments occurring and one day, they just might take it too far. Alright, enough of my paranoia.

Aside from those aspects, I think the editing and the thrill of this film was done quite flawlessly for it’s time, and may still be considered one of the best films regarding the editing and animation used to bring the dinosaurs to life. Spielberg is a force to be reckoned with and a legend in Hollywood. His films have a certain “je na se qua” that make them stand out.

I think anyone can recognize a Spielberg film by his technique and signature flare/style when it comes to directing. That and the fact that he has a habit of taking on films with theme of abandonment, such as in War Horse or E.T.; this film is no different.

In this film it was the children who were abandoned. They were abandoned by their father, and in the film they ended up developing a closer relationship with Grant even though he didn’t initially like children.

Their abandonment follows Spielberg's trademark theme of abandonment in the films he directs.