Life Finds a Way: Happy 25th Anniversary Jurassic Park!
By Devin Shea
After 25 years, Jurassic Park still stands as a crowning achievement in film and one of icon Steven Spielberg’s best film. Happy Primal Anniversary.
Before I begin, can we all collectively say that dinosaurs are f*&$%@^# awesome? Agreed? Okay then let’s continue. Let’s all take a deep breath and wish a huge, honkin’ happy 25th anniversary to the very first day Jurassic Park opened in the theaters. While I can’t remember the very first time I ever saw this movie, I can say that I feel the exact same way every time I watch it and I’m not the only one.
Image courtesy of Amblin Entertainment/Universal
Jurassic Park was released on June 11,1993 and it was like NOTHING we have ever seen or seen since. It follows a paleontologist and paleobotanist, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, respectively, who are invited to an island by a wacky, old and very rich man named John Hammond who has gathered a scientific team to recreate dinosaurs by collected DNA. How did they collect it you ask? By probing mosquitoes solidified in hardened tree sap, or amber.
And miraculously, Hammond was successful and now he’s bringing scientists, a mathematician, a chaos theorist (played by the wildly handsome and talented Jeff Goldblum) and a lawyer to prove the park is safe to open for the public and he brings along his grandchildren (grandpa of the year here, guys).
Image courtesy of Amblin Entertainment/Universal
It all goes downhill when Hawaiian-shirted ass, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) steals dino embryos and turns off the security system, releasing all of them and getting his dumb ass eaten in the process.
I love Jurassic Park so much. Is it the beautiful island, the practical effects and the horror stories that come along with them, the action, or is it Jeff Goldblum? Maybe it’s all of the above (it’s definitely Jeff Goldblum) but every time I watch this movie I feel like a kid again (except in regards to Mr. Goldblum…hey, Jeff). Every time I watch this movie I have the same wide-eyed wonder as I did when I watched it over twenty years ago.
I think that is why they keep making these movies, trying to capture that feeling again but it was fleeting and used up on the first one. That’s why there will never be another one like it. Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton might have met a crossroads demon to make a movie like this, we may never know for sure.
But one thing IS sure, this movie is so special. It is special to the people in their 30’s who got to have this as a childhood movie and to their children who get to share that feeling too. It’s scary, it’s funny, it’s moderately educational and it is believable. So, let’s continue to give love to the movie that can’t be beat, imitated or recreated, Jurassic Park.
Next: Halloween: Each film in the series ranked from worst to best
Fan of Jurassic Park? Celebrating it’s 25th anniversary? Let the other demented dinosaurs know what you think in the comment section below.