Jurassic Park

The second film that I watched for session 4 of my class was Jurassic Park which was released in 1993. I remember when I was young loving this movie when it came out. In high school band we played the famous musical score from the film. This movie was directed by Steven Spielberg and the score was composed by John Williams. While I watched the movie I payed close attention the the sound effects and the musical score. Throughout the movie the music followed the action and scenes. The music reminded me of adventure. When I have adventurous movies in the past such as Star Trek and Indiana Jones they had a similar feel to the music. During some research I discovered that Steven Spielberg and John Williams have worked on over 12 films together and that may be the reason for the similar feel to the music. In Jurassic Park the composer used an orchestra and band to fill the composition. I feel that any other type of music would not have filled the largeness of the film. Scientifically speaking the film is lacking and somewhat unrealistic but the idea of it was amazing. The musical score fit this perfectly and was catchy enough to become well known. Even if someone had never seen the movie they would recognize the score. My favorite instrument which is used extensively to obtain the large sound is the french horn. I may be partial to it being I played the instrument for 5 years but the clear cut and large sound fill any room and musical work. During more grandiose scenes this was used along with other wind instruments while more minor moments needed a subtle touch with using string instruments and the piano.

While watching the movie from a critics views I realized how much work went into every little detail. Some of the sounds that were added in are jungle sounds for when in jungle scenes, sand and dirt blowing over bones to create a hollowish sound when a helicopter approached a dig site, flapping of clothes in the wind when the helicopter approached, a cork on a bottle popping, chickens clucking and roosters crowing at a South American restaurant. The think that stunned me the most was that many of these sounds lasted less than one second and were almost insignificant moments in the film. Without these small sounds however the movie would lack in realism. I wondered what was used and why the sound directors chose certain sounds for the dinosaurs. We have never come into contact with real dinosaurs and the sound directors had to fabricate what they thought would sound like a dinosaur.

Special effects obviously were a big part of this movie. Things blowing up in other action movies was not the challenge for this movie but rather robotics and electronics. I remember in 1993 watching this movie and thinking that it looked so real and know today with the more advanced software and robotics the dinosaurs looked less real. It didn't bother me to much though because they really did a good job in making them look as realistic as possible.

I love this movie. I have seen it many many times and I will most likely see it again at some point. The music, adventure, and idea keep bringing me back to it. It is a beautiful film no matter how scientifically flawed it may be.