Guest: Roman LC Martinez, Filmmaker and Founder of Film Reframed (filmreframed.com)
Plot Summary: John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is the owner of Jurassic Park, a dinosaur wildlife theme park located on Isla Nublar. After an incident with a velociraptor, Hammond brings in three specialists to sign off on the park to calm investors. The specialists, paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are surprised to see the island park's main attraction are living, breathing dinosaurs, created with a mixture of fossilized DNA and genetic cross-breeding/cloning. When lead programmer Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) turns off the park's power to sneak out with samples of the dinosaur embryos to sell to a corporate rival, the dinosaurs break free, and the survivors must find a way to turn the power back on and make it out alive.
Cast:
Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant
Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler
Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm
Richard Attenborough as John Hammond
Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon
Joseph Mazzello as Tim Murphy
Ariana Richards as Lex Murphy
Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold
Wayne Knight as Dennis Nedry
Martin Ferrero as Donald Gennaro
B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu
*Recognition:
Won Oscars for Best Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects
Since its release, Jurassic Park has frequently been cited by film critics and industry professionals as one of the greatest movies of the action and thriller genres. The movie is also an example of a Technothriller.
It was the highest grossing movie of all-time until beaten by Titanic a few years later.
The American Film Institute named Jurassic Park the 35th-most thrilling film of all time on June 13, 2001.
On Empire magazine's 15th anniversary in 2004, it judged Jurassic Park the sixth-most influential film in the magazine's lifetime. Empire called the first encounter with a Brachiosaurus the 28th-most magical moment in cinema.
On Film Review's 55th anniversary in 2005, it declared the film to be one of the five most important in the magazine's lifetime. In 2006, IGN ranked Jurassic Park as the 19th-greatest film franchise ever.
In a 2010 poll, the readers of Entertainment Weekly rated it the greatest summer movie of the previous 20 years.
The popularity of the movie led the management of the NBA expansion franchise founded in Toronto in 1995 to adopt the nickname Raptors. In addition, during the team's playoff games, fans watch the game on a large television in a fan area outside the arena, which has been nicknamed Jurassic Park.
The film is seen as giving rise to the "Jurassic Park" generation, to young people inspired to become paleontologists and to a surge in discoveries about dinosaurs in real life.
In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Did You Know:
The T. Rex occasionally malfunctioned, due to the rain. Producer Kathleen Kennedy recalls, "The T. Rex went into the heebie-jeebies sometimes. Scared the crap out of us. We'd be, like, eating lunch, and all of a sudden a T. Rex would come alive. At first we didn't know what was happening, and then we realized it was the rain. You'd hear people start screaming."
We may never have had the chance to see Jeff Goldblum's renowned portrayal of Dr Ian Malcolm – or get that famous open-shirt scene – if Spielberg had opted for casting director Janet Hirshenon's other choice for the role. Jim Carrey was, in fact, frontrunner for the part after he had performed well during the audition phase, but Hirshenon eventually pushed for Goldblum – a decision that gave us his "life finds a way".
Ian Malcolm and John Hammond wore opposite-coloured clothes during the film's two-hour runtime – Malcolm dressed all in black and Hammond dressed in white. The story goes that Spielberg and Crichton saw the duo as representations of themselves, with Spielberg's positive and idealistic approach resembling Hammond – hence the white garments – and Crichton's cynical and scientific side defined by Malcolm and his dress code.
Spielberg earned a whopping $250m thanks to a back-end deal that saw him scoop up a sizeable portion of cash from profits and total gross of merchandise sales.
The Tyrannosaurus roars were a combination of dog, penguin, tiger, alligator, and elephant sounds.
When Hurricane Iniki hit, the cast and crew were all required to move into the ballroom of the hotel in which they were staying. Sir Richard Attenborough, however, stayed in his hotel room and slept through the entire event. When asked how he could possibly have done this, Attenborough replied, "My dear boy, I survived the blitz!"
The guests' encounter with the sick Triceratops ends without any clear explanation as to why the animal is sick. Michael Crichton's original novel and the screenplay, however, include an explanation: the Stegosaurus/Triceratops lacked suitable teeth for grinding food, and so, like birds, would swallow rocks and use them as gizzard stones. In the digestive tract, these rocks would grind the food to aid in digestion. After six weeks, the rocks would become too smooth to be useful, and the animal would regurgitate them. When finding and eating new rocks to use, the animal would also swallow West Indian Lilac berries. The fact that the berries and stones are regurgitated explains why Ellie never finds traces of them in the animal's excrement.
In 2005, paleontologist Dr. Mary Schweitzer discovered red blood cells and soft tissue in the fossilized bones of a T. Rex, meaning dinosaur cloning may someday become a reality.
What is this movie is about?/Elevator Pitch: Horror-thriller survival monster movie about being trapped on an island with dinosaurs looking to eat you, but also a meta-commentary on going too far with science without considering the consequences. (Covid-19 anyone?)
Best Performance: Sam Neill (Dr. Grant)/Animatronic T-Rex/Steven Spielberg (Director)
Best Secondary Performance: John Williams (Composer)/Wayne Knight (Nedry)/Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Malcolm)
Most Charismatic Award: T-Rex/Laura Dern (Dr. Sattler)/The Kids - Joseph Mazzello (Tim) Murphy, Ariana Richards (Lex)
Best Scene:
Raptors in the Visitor Center
Nedry Dies
Welcome to Jurassic Park
Mr. DNA
The T-Rexes Get Out
Philosophy Debate
Dr. Grant Explains Velociraptors
The Maintenance Shed
The Brachiosauruses
Escaping the Tree
Favorite Scene: The T-Rex Fights the Raptors/Welcome to Jurassic Park
Most Indelible Moment: Raptors in the Visitor Center/T-Rex Eats the Lawyer/Chaos Theory Explained
In Memorium:
Miriam Laserson, 102, American actress (My Father's House)
Robert Downey, Sr., the father of Iron Man star Robert Downey, Jr., and a celebrated filmmaker in his own right, has died. He was 85 years old. Downey is best known as the director behind Putney Swope, a celebrated, anti-establishment satire on the advertising world of Madison Avenue. He worked as an actor and director regularly from the early '50s until 2011, when he appeared in his final film, Tower Heist. In addition to directing film, he worked on some notable TV, including three episodes of The Twilight Zone. For the last decade, Downey has been living in New York with his wife, Rosemary Rogers.
Richard Donner, 91, American film director and producer (The Goonies, Superman: The Movie, Lethal Weapon franchise, the Omen, and Scrooged)
Suzzanne Douglas, best known for starring in the WB sitcom “The Parent ‘Hood” and in the 1989 dance drama “Tap,” died on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. She was 64.
Dilip Kumar, the acting icon who was credited with bringing the method style into Indian cinema and was widely known as the “Tragedy King,” has died. He was 98.
Best Lines/Funniest Lines:
Lex: What's gonna happen to the goat?
John Hammond: All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!
Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.
John Hammond: I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before...
Ian Malcolm: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: There. Look at this. See? See? I'm right again. Nobody could've predicted that Dr. Grant would suddenly, suddenly jump out of a moving vehicle.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Alan? Alan!
Dr. Ian Malcolm: There's, another example. See, here I'm now by myself, uh, er, talking to myself. That's, that's chaos theory.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: You will remember to wash your hands before you eat anything?
Dennis Nedry: [on computer] Uh uh uh! You didn't say the magic word!
Ian Malcolm: Don't you see the danger, John, inherent in what you're doing here? 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.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Remind me to thank John for a lovely weekend.
Ian Malcolm: [looking at a huge mound of dinosaur feces] That is one big pile of shit.
Dr. Alan Grant: Well where does he think he's going?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: When you gotta go, you gotta go.
Ian Malcolm: But again, how do you know they're all female? Does somebody go out into the park and pull up the dinosaurs' skirts?
Ian Malcolm: I'm always on the lookout for the future ex-Mrs. Malcolm.
Tim: What do you call a blind dinosaur?
Dr. Alan Grant: I don't know.
Tim: A Do-you-think-he-saurus.
Dr. Alan Grant: Ha ha. Good one.
Tim: What do you call a blind dinosaur's dog?
Dr. Alan Grant: You got me.
Tim: A Do-you-think-he-saurus Rex.
Ian Malcolm: [as they pass through the gigantic park gates] What have they got in there, King Kong?
Ray Arnold: Hold on to your butts.
Alan Grant: Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by sixty-five million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?
John Hammond: I don't believe it! You were meant to come down here and defend me against these characters, and the only one I've got on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer!
Donald Gennaro: Thank you.
John Hammond: How can we sit in the light of discovery and not act?
Ian Malcolm: Oh 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.
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 9.67
Impact/Significance: 9.83
Novelty: 9.17
Classic-ness: 8.16
Rewatchability: 6.67
Audience Score: 9.15 (92% Google, 91% RT)
Total: 52.65
Remaining Questions:
Is being eaten while on the toilet the worst possible way to go?
What happens to all the dinosaurs after they have left the island?
Isn't it great that Hammond has a lot of independent wealth to pay for all of the therapy his grandchildren are going to need?