Jurassic Park
We watched Jurassic Park (again) yesterday. It brought back a lot of memories. I think JP was the first film which made me realise that the cinema could do anything with modern technology.
I have distinct memories of sitting in the theatre (the Odeon on Clerk Street in Edinburgh – a proper cinema, none of yer multiscreen shoeboxes) watching it. When Sam Neill is standing up in the jeep with his mouth gaping open at the Brachiosaurus, I was sitting with my mouth gaping open in disbelief.
When the T-Rex was chasing them in the jeep, I came to my senses with a start because I suddenly realised I’d been thinking “How did they get it to do that?” rather than “How did they do that?”
Course, with the advent of Lord of the Rings and all the over effects heavy movies that have come since, Jurassic Park’s dinos have lost a little of their impact, but nothing can quite compare to that T-Rex bellowing and munching through the top of the car. An added bonus is that the movie scriptwriter managed to get rid of almost all of Crichton’s preachiness, and added a few nice one liners for good measure.
A truly great movie, if only for reminiscences sake.
