that can be revisited only on the pan&scan cassette—for ex­ ample, the continuous facial expressions of the sick Tricer- atops, which are matted out in the letterboxed version as the “trike” is upstaged by Laura Dern’s conversation. The pan&- scan cassette is preceded by a legend explaining that the film has been modified to fit televi­ sion screens, but this legend does not appear on the letter­ boxed version, where it would be equally, if not even more, appropriate. Buy the pan&scan tape and you’ll miss the sheer, majestic length of the Tyranno­ saurus as he darts diagonally across the screen toward Jeff Goldblum’s flare; buy the letter­ boxed disc and you’ll see more of the T-Rex, but it will be sig­ nificantly smaller. (And in some key shots where a life-size ar­ ticulated head was used—the carnivore’s gigantic eye and contracting pupil outside the car window, for instance—you will also see less.) The one area in which MCA’s
THX laserdiscs have it all over the merely digital cassettes (aside from the obvious 60% sharper image enhancement) is audio. On tape, JURASSIC PARK is exciting fun, but it is not a particularly visceral expe­ rience. On disc, John Williams’ score penetrates the viewers’ emotions with a spectrum of sensations: glory, amazement, achievement, danger, tension and full-blown terror. When we are given our first glimpse of a living dinosaur, it is Williams’ music that brings the effect completely to life; he under­ plays the encounter with stir­ ring, sweet nostalgia, which reaches down into us and tells us that this is not merely a spec­ tacle, but the fulfillment of a deep-seated wish in all human­ kind, to see these long-extinct
MCA 's le t te rb o x e d d is c is m o s t fa i th fu l d u r in g the Com p u te r a n im a te d d in o s a u r s cen es , w h ic h were f ilm e d in th e 1.85:1 ra t io . Here, an o v e r la p p e d p a n & s c a n in s e r t s h ow s th e s ig n i f ic a n t p e r ip h e ra l g a in o f the le t te rb o x e d v e rs io n .
creatures move, breathe and interact with their own and other species. The aural range of the disc presentation also adds im­ measurably to the presence of the dinosaurs. On tape, as the approach of the T-Rex is felt, we see the impact tremors in the water glass without really feel­ ing them; on disc, the sound is deep and ominous, the initial thump of impact followed by clearly discernible, and very impressive, outward rings of resonance. The disc reminds us that the T-Rex sequence, which represents a quantum leap in dinosaur special effects tech­ nology, primarily intimidates through sound, and though the image is smaller on letterboxed disc, the sound compensates by being as towering and force­ ful as it ever was in any theatre. JURASSIC PARK may be the best-sounding disc ever, but vi­ sually, it counts, at best, as a compromise.
The live action scenes o f JURASSIC PARK—which constitute the majority o f its
footage—suffer most in MC A s letterboxed transfer:
A: Letterboxed version: the film ’s first closeup (Chapter 1/1:44) depicts an anonymous worker.
B: Pan&scan version: The added headroom reveals a Jurassic Park logo on his helmet!
C: By insetting the pan&scan frame over the amplified (zoomboxed) widescreen image, we can determine that 1/3 more visual information could have been included!
D: By placing the letterboxed frame over the pan&scan version, we can see how much top and bottom information was matted out!
The remaining photos show a comparison view o f two shots from the Cantina sequence. Can you tell what’s missing? Which version shows more?
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