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1993-06-15
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Through The Magic Lantern
Copyright (c) 1993, Diamond & Shipp
All rights reserved
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WITH BRUCE DIAMOND AND RANDY SHIPP
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┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ JURASSIC PARK: Steven Spielberg, director. Michael │
│ Crichton and David Koepp, screenplay. Based on the │
│ novel by Michael Crichton. Stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, │
│ Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin │
│ Ferrero, B.D. Wong, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, │
│ Samuel L. Jackson and Wayne Knight. Universal Pictures. │
│ Rated PG-13. │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
BRUCE DIAMOND: Welcome to the first installment of THROUGH THE
MAGIC LANTERN, with Diamond and Shipp.
I'm Diamond.
RANDY SHIPP: And I'm Shipp.
DIAMOND: For this first installment, we'll be discussing Steven
Spielberg's new epic, JURASSIC PARK, taken from Michael
Crichton's best-selling novel. Billionaire John
Hammond (Richard Attenborough) creates a theme park on
an island off the coast of Costa Rica. His investors
are nervous about the park, so he invites two
scientists, paleontologist Allan Grant (Sam Neill) and
paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) to give the
park their "stamp of approval." As added insurance,
the investors' lawyer, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero)
brings along a brilliant mathematician, Dr. Ian Malcolm
(Jeff Goldblum), whose Choas-based theories foretell
the inevitable collapse of the park.
SHIPP: The visitors are astounded when they reach the park to
find that Hammond's team of geneticists have cloned
dinosaurs from DNA millions of years old. The group
quickly decides that perhaps Hammond's scientists have
acted too quickly, but are convinced by the jubilant
Hammond to withhold final judgement until after they have
had the grand tour of the park. But a tropical storm,
and the actions of a spy on Hammond's staff combine to
make for a less-than-pleasant tour. When Hammond's
dinosaurs are set free to roam the island, the visitors
are forced to survive against long-extinct predators.
DIAMOND: Well, Randy, I think you may have understated the case
when you say "less-than-pleasant tour."
SHIPP: You're right. I think that's one of the things that most
people, especially parents, may be interested in hearing.
JURASSIC PARK isn't exactly a kiddie movie. Steven
Spielberg's movie isn't gory, but it is suspenseful,
maybe too much for some younger kids.
DIAMOND: Suspenseful is, again, an understatement. JURASSIC is a
tense, scary movie, perhaps the best-made monster movie
ever. It will scare you. Bar none.
SHIPP: Maybe the fact that these monsters were once real makes
it even more scary.
DIAMOND: That's a good point. There's something primal about
dinosaurs -- practically every kid feels it at one
point or another. Maybe it's a racial memory that
keeps bringing us back to dinosaurs, even though
science tells us that humans and dinosaurs never
co-existed. Look at the popularity of Godzilla, for
example.
SHIPP: Right. There's been a real rush on dinosaur things
lately, and I think it's because they're the only
monsters we're allowed to believe in. Spielberg has
taken what may have been fascinating creatures for kids
and made them very believable and very scary. Of course,
it's worth noting that not all the dinos in JURASSIC are
killers.
DIAMOND: Too true. The brachiosaurs are one example of the
peaceful dinos in this film. The scene where Neill and
Dern first see a live brachiosaur is incredible. I
*felt* the awe they were feeling, and the computer
graphics are impeccable.
SHIPP: Yeah, in my opinion, I think the shots of peaceful animals
were more awesome than the dark, violent shots of T. Rex.
DIAMOND: A friend who accompanied me to the preview said he was
pulled in by the shot of the brachiosaurs in the lake,
mixed with smaller dinosaurs and birds. It was so
REAL.
SHIPP: Or the scene where the herd of small dinos flocked like
birds across a field. That's where JURASSIC PARK's
special effects people really succeeded: they managed to
really let you forget you weren't looking at models or
computer graphics. The effects, including the incredible
sound, convinced you for a while that all that was
possible.
DIAMOND: You know, I've already heard one critic complain that
the full-size animatronic puppets and the computer
graphics didn't blend together at all for him. He even
mentioned stop-motion animation, but the fact is that
while Industrial Light and Magic's "Go-Motion" team
(the same team responsible for the Landwalkers in THE
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and other such movies) worked on
the dinosaur's movements, absolutely NO stop-motion
animation was used in the movie.
SHIPP: I think it's a tribute to ILM that I couldn't tell how the
effects were done. And I'm a person who usually pays
close attention to special effects. I think it's great
that the effects in this movie didn't vie for your
attention quite like TERMINATOR 2.
DIAMOND: T2 seemed more of an effects-for-effects'-sake movie,
whereas in JURASSIC PARK, the thrill-ride terror is
more of the focus. That may be the major distinction
between James Cameron and Steven Spielberg as
directors. Cameron's great with action flicks, but
NOBODY can do atmosphere and white-knuckle scenes like
Spielberg.
SHIPP: And they abound in JURASSIC PARK. I'll tell you, I'm
tempted to declare this movie Spielberg's best for that
very reason. At no point did the tension stop building
in this movie until the very end, when it climaxed and
then dropped off very suddenly. I thought that perhaps
there might have been a bit more denouement or epilogue
to the story, but then the ending was a weakness in
Crichton's book, which may have been difficult to remedy
in the screen adaptation.
DIAMOND: Yes, but there was more of a sense of closure to the
novel. The film, unfortunately, just leaves you
hanging. Perhaps deliberately for a sequel, which
Spielberg has dropped hints about lately. Spielberg
changed several things from the book, some for the
better, some for the worse. I'm not sure I agree with
his softening of EVERY character. Hammond, for
example, is not nearly as obsessed as he is in the
book. Crichton's Ian Malcolm was much more acerbic,
and his kids were quite annoying.
SHIPP: You're right. I worried that the kids would come out
badly in the film, and in fact they did quite well.
DIAMOND: I agree. The girl (Ariana Richards) plays absolute
terror so *well* that I was afraid for her!
SHIPP: As for a sequel, I think they might have used the
minimal epilogue of the novel to set us up for a
JURASSIC PARK 2, but instead, Spielberg chose not even to
give us a hint that there could be more action. I think
part of that comes from the fact that he was forced to
edit the story heavily. A time and money constraint
certainly must have led him to cut back some scenes in
the book, some of which suggested in no uncertain terms
the possibility of a sequel. But I think that with the
incredible box office success this movie is likely to
see, a sequel may be so financially sound an investment
as to be inevitable.
DIAMOND: A time and money constraint? I don't know. Considering
Spielberg spent somewhere between 50 and 70 million
dollars and spent two months filming in Hawaii, it may
have been more of a *dramatic* purpose to cut back some
scenes from the book. The whole business of dinosaurs
(velociraptors, actually) escaping to the mainland was
dropped entirely, and I think it makes for a stronger
film.
SHIPP: A little more focused, maybe.
DIAMOND: Which, frankly, film needs to be. The medium dictates
it.
SHIPP: It's hard to fault Spielberg for not making a four hour
movie, which JURASSIC PARK surely would've been had every
scene been recreated...but it would've been fun to see
two more hours of incredible dinosaur effects and to hear
more of John Williams' outstanding score.
DIAMOND: Williams has outdone himself here. It's not often I can
still hear the score in my head after I leave a movie.
Right now, the theme from JURASSIC PARK is playing over
and over in my mind. While it may not be his absolute
best work (and I might have to say that for Spielberg,
as well), it's certainly better than some of his more
recent efforts.
SHIPP: Yep. This soundtrack will join STAR WARS in my CD
collection. I found myself several times thinking, "This
is just like STAR WARS. Williams has actually WATCHED
this movie." His music will bring back the story when
you listen to it later.
DIAMOND: Do you maintain that this is Spielberg's best movie,
even in the light of JAWS, E.T., and THE COLOR PURPLE?
While it's an excellent job, and easily the most
exciting movie so far this year, I'm a little hesitant
to call it his best.
SHIPP: It's tough to decide which of those medalists should get
the gold, isn't it? I just feel that maybe Spielberg has
found a style which he might even refine more. The
suspense was so taut in JURASSIC, you'd think it was the
only style Spielberg had ever worked in. Perhaps I was
hasty to suggest it was his best, but then I hope that we
haven't seen Steven Spielberg's best movie.
DIAMOND: I hope we haven't, either. God knows, it'll take a lot
to surpass JURASSIC PARK. I've been maintaining for
the last two weeks that this is Spielberg's medium. He
works best with topics that at least have some
grounding in reality. When he takes off on a flight of
fantasy (viz. HOOK), he loses his footing, despite the
youth-based themes that he resonates so well with.
SHIPP: I think that may be why, surprisingly to some people,
JAWS sticks out among the list of movies you mentioned
earlier. It had the same sort of building fear that
JURASSIC PARK has, and it also deals with real-life
monsters. In JAWS, though, he had a much easier time
building suspense, since the menace was hidden and struck
without warning. In JURASSIC, I think Spielberg had to
work harder to be scary, so maybe I'm a little more
impressed.
DIAMOND: Well, in the end, all the arguments and little flaws in
the movie can be swept away by just two words: "WHO
CARES?" JURASSIC PARK is one mother of an amusement
ride, and everything else can just fall by the wayside.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd have to give JURASSIC PARK a
10!
SHIPP: I'm with you, Bruce. This movie sparkled the way only a
high-budget, high-quality film can, and is the first
movie in a while which left me breathless even during the
ride home. JURASSIC PARK was a perfect 10!
DIAMOND: That's it for this month's installment of THROUGH THE
MAGIC LANTERN, with Diamond and Shipp. Be with us next
month when we discuss another summer blockbuster.
SHIPP: I'm Diamond and he's Shipp...nononono...He's Diamond and
I'm Shipp...and we'll meet YOU at the matinee. See you
next time.