Crichton, playing like a superbly polished final draft of a scenario that began twenty years ago with WESTWORLD (1973), which also portrayed a fabulous amusement park whose attrac­ tions start killing the patrons when its computer systems go on the blink. The screenplay of JURASSIC PARK, co-written by Crichton and David Koepp (DEATH BECOMES HER), may be a simplification of Crichton’s original—and more brutal— novel, but it is far from being artless or unadorned. On the contrary, the screenwriters have assembled an impressive weave of themes and viewpoints to support its primary concerns of extinction and resurrection. Perhaps the most obvious of
these is the film’s well-targeted portrait of the baby boomer generation’s self-conscious re­ luctance to boom. Our paleon­ tologist hero Alan Grant (Sam Neill) first captures our atten­ tion while cowing a child with a sadistic description of a veloci- raptor hunt, and first engages our hearts while arguing with his girlfriend, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), against having children. The wonders of Jurassic Park soon render Grant’s professional life extinct and prompt him to reassess his sense of purpose; first, he must defend his bond with Ellie against Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), a flirta­ tious chaos theoretician who ad­ mits to loving kids and having lots of them; and secondly, he must escort two defenseless chil­ dren from the heart of the park to safety, a responsibility which causes him to bond with his own species for the first time. If Grant the fossil-digger represents the rediscovery of life and the re­ sponsibility of extant species to perpetuate, Malcolm represents disorder and death; he expresses no love for his children, only a
narcissistic satisfaction in the way they reflect him. When he boasts of being “always on the lookout for the nextex-Mrs. Malcolm,” we are reminded that “ex-” is derived from “extinct.” In accordance with Mal­
colm’s chaos theory, Jurassic Park is a computerized, orches­ trated event that goes immedi­ ately awry: an explanatory interactive film hosted by park entrepreneur John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough, in a delightful tip of the hat to Winsor McCay’s interactive GERTIE THE DINOSAUR) unreels out of sync with his live counterpart; two park rides are unpredictably dis­ rupted when the scientists un­ fasten their harnesses and unboard for a closer look at various sights; and the meticu­ lous, no-expense-spared order of the park itself, reflected in the spotless white clothing Ham­ mond wears, is undermined by the chaotic human frailty be­ hind that pristine corporate front: filthy computer work sta­ tions overrun with soda cans, scattered papers, cigarette smoke and short tempers. It would be easy to continue to elaborate on the film’s seem­ ingly inexhaustible thematics, but suffice to say, this is no mere special effects movie. It is an extremely rich, thoughtful and terrifying slice of popular entertainment. MCA’s pan&scan and letter-
boxed transfers differ from one another in a surprising way that may prompt many collectors to acquire both versions. Simply put, the live action scenes of JURASSIC PARK were evidently filmed with the entire 1.33 frame exposed, with the intention of matting them to 1.85 in the­ aters. The computer animation effects, on the other hand, were transferred to film in a pre-mat- ted 1.85 ratio. The end result is
that MCA’s pan&scan cassette, during its live action scenes, exposes the entire bottom matte area, and a portion of the upper matte area, while forfeiting pe­ ripheral slivers of information on the left and right. The daz­ zling computer animation ef­ fects shots—which, of course, include maybe 85% of the dino­ saur sequences—are noticeably cropped on all four sides in com­ parison to the letterboxed disc. The tape also badly crops cer­ tain post-production visual ef­ fects, such as the POV shots through the night goggles in the T-Rex sequence, which are virtually intact on disc. It would seem, then, that the
letterboxed version would be the one to acquire, but it’s not an easy call. First of all, the pan&scan tape enlarges its cropped dino images to full­ screen proportions, and if ever there was one, this is a movie whose visceral impact is great­ est when the image is largest. Furthermore, the letter­
boxed version is shamelessly zoom-boxed. 1 use the word “shamelessly” because this “original theatrical screen ratio” transfer happens to include at least one naked instance of pan&scanning! It occurs at Chapter 6/12:42-44, as Atten­borough is standing beside the sink, making this the first pan&scan letterboxed disc I’ve seen since MGM/UA’s THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM— but that was a Cinerama film, and this is only a 1.85! This simple detail is enough to prove that the letter­ boxed matte is masking an am­ plified image, blown-up for video readability, and not the exact reproduction of the theatrical ratio promised in the sleeve’s fine print. There are also signifi­ cant details, which I well remem­ ber from the theatrical experience,
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