What follows is the transcript of a chat the Routinely Average bloggers had about Jurassic Park, a movie we both love.
Some quick facts.
- Directed by Steven Spielberg
- Made in 1993
- Won 3 Oscars
- Stars Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough, and Dinosaurs
Beware! Raw and only somewhat-edited emotion follows! Also some spoilers if you've never seen the movie.
Adam: First things first. I love Sam Neil as Dr. Alan Grant. I know everybody prefers Malcolm but Dr. Grant is the shit.
Ben: Grant is great. I don't know who I prefer between Grant and Malcolm, but Grant is a great protagonist. I like his calm demeanor.
Adam: He kind of keeps the film sane. He brings a sense of wonder and science to the film. When Grant looks at the dinosaurs you feel his awe. I love that scene when they first see the dinos mostly because of Grant and Sattler's reaction.
Ben: I love his amazement that these things he's been studying for years are alive.
Adam: The whole film, even though Grant is being chased and almost killed and eaten, he never loses that amazement. When Grant watches the T-Rex munch on some other dino, he talks about how incredible the T-Rex is. Everyone else is either too scared (kids), conceited (Hammond), or uninterested (Malcolm, Muldoon) to ever recognize the dinosaurs for the wonder they create. I feel like that’s the thing that keeps this above a common monster movie – the dinosaurs aren’t demonized.
Ben: I especially like how movie ends with the whole "look at the dinosaurs ruling the island, isn't it beautiful?" which I think is great. It's such a good ending, and so much better than the book.
Adam: Perfect moment. Exactly what I am talking about.
Ben: Another thing that sets it apart is it that, as an action/thriller film, it performs flawlessly. It is just extremely well made. There is nothing extraneous, but they also make sure you care about everyone in the movie. The kids are actually good characters, and not too annoying. And yet the whole time you're almost rooting for the dinosaurs too.
Adam: I agree about all the characters being great, but the little boy kind of annoyed me actually. I disliked how scene with the electric fence was handled. I don't buy that a small boy could have 10,000 volts of electricity course through his body, and come out none the worse for wear. Everything about the movie is at least somewhat plausible and based in science except for that scene.
Ben: I disagree about that scene. I think it's pretty intense. Although there are some logical problems with how they go about the scene, it's very tense the whole way though. Usually a scene like that would annoy me too, but it's so entertaining that I don't care. If it's good enough I can ignore logical problems. I mean, there are dinosaurs walking around after all.
Adam: But each movie sets its own standard of reality. This one decided to abide by the laws of science (even if they took a couple of liberties). They have such a great explanation for the science behind the dinosaurs in both the book and the movie. I guess I'm nitpicking, but I love the science of this movie so much that to see it busted a little was frustrating.
Ben: How great is the scene outside the T-Rex paddock?
Adam: One of my all time favorite action scenes. That scene and the scene in the kitchen are just unbelievably exciting.
Ben: Yeah. Perfect set pieces. Or how about the scene in the Jeep with the T-Rex chasing them? It’s incredible.
Adam: "Objects in mirror..." I love that.
Ben: Spielberg is great at putting little jokes into his movies.
Adam: I like when Malcolm is sitting hurt in the jeep talking to himself and the impact tremors start. "I'm fairly alarmed here."
Ben: Yeah, that part is perfect.
Adam: Any thoughts on the science vs. nature aspect of the movie?
Ben: Well, I like the theme. It's very subtly done, which is nice. And I think it just lends something to think about other than the cool monster effects.
Adam: So do you think the real life version of JP could work... or are you a subscriber to chaos theory?
Ben: I don't think a real life JP would work. I don't think I'd even want to see it built. I don't mind scientists experimenting and trying to make our lives better, but I don't want tickets being sold over it.
Adam: Messing around under carefully controlled circumstances, I don't have too much of a problem with. Commercializing may be a mistake; I’ll grant you that.
Ben: Any closing thoughts?
Adam: This movie really introduced me to epic large scale films. I will always remember my childhood love of dinos and the awe on Dr. Grant's face in that scene mirrored my own the first time I saw it. Its smart, well acted, paced, and directed. One of my favorites. How about you?
Ben: Well, it was the first PG-13 film I ever saw, and it scared me for weeks afterwards. I loved dinosaurs as a kid too, but the raptors were too much for me.
Adam: The scene in the woods got to me too, but the T-Rex eating the lawyer scared me more than anything else actually.
Ben: Remember the big controversy about him taking a crap? I remember having those debates in school.
Adam: I do, vaguely.
Ben: No matter what you want to say about Spielberg's movies, technically they're always amazing. He really knows how to make a movie like nobody's business. But I've never really looked at JP technically because it was always such a big part of my childhood.
But I think as far as history goes, it'll always be a movie that studios will try to duplicate.
Adam: It spawned a generation of monster movies. A classic.
Tune in sometime next week for.... BLUG FEST! ... We need a better name for that.
26/30
Great stuff guys. Really enjoy both the movie and the book. I'm looking forward to Ben demolishing all of Adams arguments about JP3. Also, Blug Fest is weak.
ReplyDeleteYou're weak!
ReplyDeleteI am not exactly sure on the science of this, but I think the amps your body takes is more devastating than volts. It can be a crap-shoot whether you live or not from an electric shock. There are a ton of factors that go into it, if you are grounded, what you are wearing, and what part of your body takes the majority of the current. for instance people die from a 120V shock given from a household socket... i read about a kid that survived a 10,000V shock from wiring while climbing a tree. supposedly he suffered pretty bad burns on his skin but was ok after a hospital visit haha. i heard about a guy who had one of his toes blown off from a shock... crazy shit. I always wondered about that scene too, so i'm glad you guys brought it up. in the movie, the kids hands are all bloody, his shoes get messed up (i think), his hair is standing up, and he is unable to talk for a long time. i also remember he stops breathing and they have to revive him. so i suppose he would probably be slightly more messed up, but it is definitely possible that he lives from it. good article too!
ReplyDeleteI think Dan is right. Being grounded has a lot to do with it. If you're not touching anything other than the electricity, it will "just" course through your body. But if you're grounded, it does more damage to you.
ReplyDeleteI think.
i feel like we need garrett to get involved with this... i never have fully understood the concept of being "grounded", i know that you want some form of protection against electric current (rubber gloves/boots) that is not a conductive material. i tried looking stuff up and still run into the fact that amps are amount of electric charge passing a point per unit time and, from what i read, 100 to 200 milliamps can be enough to kill you.
ReplyDeletevolts on the other hand are a measure of energy per unit charge (whatever that means) and is equal to electric potential between 2 points... wikipedia says the body is capable of 50,000 volts... so yea that sign in the movie just says warning 10,000 volts... i suppose i wouldn't want to touch it regardless.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei'm just going to rattle things off. no guarantee of correctness here, but it's something nonetheless.
ReplyDeletethere's a difference between voltage and current (amps), and dan is right when he says current is what will kill you.
voltage is like potential energy. if you lift a glass of water above your head, it has potential but its not necessarily doing anything.
current is like the flow of water when you tip that glass. it's nature's way of trying to dissipate the potential you created when you lifted the glass above your head.
a resistor is something that is partially conductive. the higher the resistance an object has, the more voltage it takes to move current through that thing.
your body acts like a giant resistor. this means that when i apply a voltage source (like an electrified fence) to one side and ground on the other, some amount of current is induced in your body. if that current is high enough, and passes through the right places (ie your heart) you will be seriously injured or die. like dan said, it only takes a small amount of current (hundreds of milliamps) to cause injury/death.
i'm not sure of the exact numbers, but the resistance of your skin is probably pretty high and that's why they are saying it takes tens of thousands of volts to get those hundreds of mA flowing.
interestingly, if you were to prick your finger and apply a voltage source directly to your blood stream, even a small battery could kill you. this is because the resistance of your blood (or any other bodily fluid) is very small. so it will take a much smaller amount of voltage (i.e. 9V battery levels) to generate the same life-threatening current.
"grounding" is interesting. voltage is a relative measure, usually to ground. so when we say 10k volts we really mean: "10k volts between this fence and ground."
if you are "grounded," it means you are in physical contact with the ground. thus one end of you is touching the fence and the other is touching the ground, so there are 10k volts being applied to you and the stuff i talked about above will hold. if you are NOT touching the ground, then there could be some other amount of voltage across you (or maybe none at all) and its hard to say what that is unless you know what else you are touching.
also, when you're touching ground, you've allowed any charge/potential/voltage you've built up through everyday activity to "drain off" to ground. this is why it's a good idea to be "grounded" before touching the internal components of electronics. that way current won't flow from you, through them, and melt the small wires that weren't designed to handle large amounts of current. it will instead flow directly to ground.
wearing rubber gloves is a different story than being grounded. these will effectively "break" any circuit that could be made between a voltage source, you, and ground. they basically increase the resistance of your body to an EXTREMELY large value, meaning that it would take a LOT of voltage (like, gigavolts?) to get a current moving.
btw, JP's an awesome movie and i enjoyed the commentary! =)
i'm quite glad you saw this :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a gansta comment section. Ok Garrett, so I want to hear an opinion in there. The kids is 20 feet off the ground, so he is not grounded, holding on to a fence that releases 10,000 volts. He gets blown off the fence and is caught and must be resuscitated because his heart has stopped. Fact or Fiction... Go!
ReplyDeleteIt's so cool to see these comments take off like this.
ReplyDeleteyeah. On a related topic, anybody have a better name for Blug Fest? We will give you credit. I'm looking at you Marc.
ReplyDeletei can't say - i dont have enough experience with this sort of thing to know more that what i told you. i can definitely tell you that SOMETHING would have happened to him with that large of a change in potential. whether or not it was enough to kill him - i wouldnt know any better than you.
ReplyDeletewhat about...surprisingly awesome showdown? get it? routinely average....surprisingly awesome...man im good
Well... it bugged me. I mean, it seems to me like there is no way that kid just gets up and starts running around again. Maybe back to normal after a few weeks in a hospital bed. But I guess thats the magic of movies.
ReplyDeleteAnd Surprisingly Awesome Showdown will be taken under consideration
I think something along the lines of 'Adam vs Ben: Painful Elimination of the Day' or 'Adam and Ben's Painful Elimination of the Day'.
ReplyDeleteMXC style.
I hate to interrupt the shocking discussion above (although I enjoyed it), but your comment about Spielberg's style reminded me that I've always felt the scene in Saving Private Ryan, where they are waiting for the Germans to follow their "rabbit" and lure them into the town, is very reminiscent of Jurassic Park - you hear the terrifying sound of the German tanks creaking down the road in the distance, waiting for the as yet unseen enemy to arrive for the defining battle, very much like when you hear the sound of the dinos. Spielberg has a definite style.
ReplyDeleteThe epitome of the action film. Great post! The fence thing always bugged me too, but since I don't know enough about electrical currents to completely discount it, I shrugged it off. Besides, if little Tim had died, we wouldn't have had the kitchen scene: one of the most beautifully choreographed and edited suspense scenes ever!
ReplyDeleteAlso, though I love Grant for many of the same reasons as you guys outlined above, I gotta shout out to my boy Malcolm: he calls the whole inevitable disaster from the start but nobody listens to him because he's such a conceited egotist/ new age-y weirdo. He has that cynical smugness that makes great supporting characters (Han Solo was likewise many people's favorite from the Star Wars trilogy) and he also, through lines revealing his very extreme viewpoint on the matter, highlights more than any other character the polarized theme of the movie: is scientific discovery a worthy pursuit by its own virtue, or is it "the rape of the natural world"?
I just thought of something. EPICLY more frustrating than that kid surviving the fence is when the girl somehow MAGICALLY knows how to use the JP computer system. Seriously?
ReplyDeleteRequest: post on the abuse of the public's understanding of technology in movies (latest Die Hard comes to mind...)
True Michael, but Malcolm just always struck me as a pretty standard construct in that regard. Grant brought a new angle to things.
ReplyDeleteGarrett, thats a great idea for a post, but speaking for myself at least, I feel like I don't know enough about the inner workings of science to write that. Maybe Ben feels up to it?
Grant's practicality, intelligence, curmudgeonish manner, and perpetual sense of wonder at his life's work come to life are all things that make him a refreshing, rounded out character and a great principal one at that. Malcolm, while his function could easily have left him a cliché, throwaway character, is instead well-developed in his strong beliefs, subtly acted so as to make an over-the-top character still believable, and to top it off, given some of the most terrific lines ever - he's a master of both overstatement ("the rape of the natural world") and understatement ("I'm fairly alarmed here"). And thematically speaking, he's essential. Grant and Sattler lie pretty much in the center of the movie's scale of positions, almost mirroring the audience in our feelings of "Commercialism? Natural purity? Whatever man, I'm just psyched to be seeing real life dinosaurs!" Malcolm, on the other hand, is necessary as the yin to Hammond's yang.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying I think one is better than the other, I'm just saying Malcolm is not an insignificant part of why this movie is so great, and there are a lot of good reasons why people like him.
It's just a rare case of a movie getting the main character AND the main supporting character both right, and another reason JP is such a terrific film. In fact, it gets almost all of its characters right on the money.
ReplyDeleteOh and Adam, I gotta nitpick on one thing you said:
"Everyone else is either too scared (kids), conceited (Hammond), or uninterested (Malcolm, Muldoon) to ever recognize the dinosaurs for the wonder they create."
I disagree on the counts of Malcolm, Muldoon, and one of the kids. Malcolm is interested, he just thinks it's a terrible idea, both morally and in terms of safety. Muldoon is actually fascinated with the new species to study, particularly the raptors, just in a different way than Grant because he is a hunter, not a paleontologist. And although the kids are scared, Tim actually shares an equal, if not greater amount of wonder to Grant - who has to pull him away from watching the T-Rex devour its pray just yards away. Remembering how he's always reciting dinosaur names and facts, following Grant around?
OK, lots of stuff here. First of all, I like Malcolm. Never said I didn't, and I recognize his not insignificant contributions to the original, and his noble effort at making his sequel watchable. I just don't think he is in Grant's league.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the brief summary of each character's view on the dinosaurs was probably a bit to brief. Muldoon and Malcolm are uninterested in sharing in the wonder, because they recognize the danger they represent, more so than even the dino expert Grant, who is too awe struck to be scared. And as for Tim, he spends the vast majority of the movie screaming, but you are right in that he still appreciates the dinos. His character just doesn't communicate that sense to the audience anywhere near as well as the level headed Grant.
Very true- these characters are more interested in dinos for the threat they pose than how incredible they are.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, although I won't say it's my favorite scene in the movie because it is full of awesome dinosaurs and action and suspense, but in terms of character interaction the scene with the dinner shared by all the principal characters, just before everything goes to hell, is tops. I wanted to find a youtube video of it, but I couldn't so instead here is some cleverly written Grant and Malcolm banter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4fvYCFaa9I&feature=related