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Dinosaurs Take of the Summer of '93
- Jill Brashear
- Oct 1
- 2 min read
Besides great source material from Michael Crichton, one of the main reasons Jurassic Park became a monster hit was that audiences had never seen computer-generated imagery like this before. For the first time in cinema history, we got to witness full-blown, living, breathing, roaring creatures who scared the popcorn out of us.
But special effects alone weren’t the only reason the movie raked in the big bucks. Jurassic Park also had universal appeal. Kids love dinosaurs, and adults love an action-packed thriller. It was a movie the entire family could enjoy. Tension and conflict combined with a fast-paced plot made the experience more thrilling than a roller-coaster ride.
The summer release, plus a marketing campaign that launched not just a movie but an empire, also contributed to its massive success. Toys, video games, fast-food tie-ins—in the summer of ’93, Jurassic Park was everywhere.
The mix of genres—sci-fi, adventure, thriller, and family film—gave the movie a wide audience. Quippy one-liners (“At least we’re not in the tree anymore”) and comedic touches, like the greedy lawyer who dies on a toilet, provided levity that made audiences laugh even as they clung to the edges of their seats.
Compared to the fascinating dinosaurs, the human characters were somewhat clichéd and one-dimensional. The Indiana Jones–style hero with a heart of gold, the bad-boy nerd, the kindly dreamer park owner, the two adorable kids didn’t exactly break new ground.
And Ellie Sattler's character was the perfect Build-A-Girlfriend. She was smart, beautiful, brave, funny, and she wanted kids. Who could ask for anything more?
When I first saw it in the theaters, I thought Ian Malcolm was cool. Upon rewatching, I found him insufferable. And the kids weren't much better. It took a lot of suspension of disbelief to think those two escaped a terrifying team of raptors.
Although the movie relied more on action than deep storytelling, it’s still a tale that sticks with us through the generations. To this day, if I saw water trembling in a glass, I’d think I was about to be a midnight snack for a hungry T Rex.
Ha! I hadn't thought about the greedy lawyer getting eaten on the toilet, but yes that juxtaposition is exactly why it's funny. That actor was a bumbling narc in Miami Vice, and seeing him as a sanitized lawyer also makes the character more ridiculous.
I think Ian Malcolm comes across as insufferable is because, at the time, uber rich and "genius" weren't paired together like they are now. He's just a walking cliche of an unknown with all the cringe that goes along with it. Let's make him kinda sexy, kinda stalker-y, kinda insensitive...but he's RIGHT about what's going on from the very beginning and it's hidden behind this mask of "ick". Now, in the era of Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg, Malcolm is pretty benign, imho.
Actually, I'd argue that Ellie Sattler's character is more than a build-a-girlfriend trope. She's a paleobotanist who is hands on when it comes to archeology, dressing accordingly and without makeup- not afraid to look her age compared to beauty standards of the time. Spielberg takes her simple character and transforms her into a mature, active survivalist. She calls bullshit on Hammond when he tries to reason with himself for creating Jurassic Park and reminds him that he has toxic, invasive plants on the island for aesthetics, even though they're dangerous to the animals. Ellie is also not afraid to put herself in danger if it means restarting security, hence the solitary bunker scene with the Raptors. Yes, she wants children…
I'm a little morbidly fascinated with how much marketing and fan replication Jurassic park received when gratuitous marketing tactics are one of the critical themes in the movie. It must have been a little weird to eat a happy meal with a vilociraptor on the box, then to to the movie and see Sattler be put off her fillet 'o fish after witnessing how easily those dinosaurs would dispatch her if they could. Wouldn't that association risk putting you off future Jurassic Park themed meals in the future? Surely Spielberg and co. knew what they were doing when they took that shot of the park's gift shop eerily still in the darkness, heck, it might as well been set up…