‘Jurassic Park’ was a hit in 1993 with a formula other films may evoke
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Twenty-five years ago this month, Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel “Jurassic Park” opened. The film was many things at once: a cultural touchstone, a technological groundbreaker and cracking entertainment. And with each passing year, it becomes clearer that it was also lighting in a bottle ? its magic has proved especially difficult to recapture, with sequels ranging from forgettable to terrible. (The latest, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” falls squarely into the “terrible” category.)
So where does a “Jurassic” fan look to find the original film’s unique blend of high-spirited adventure, jaw-dropping effects, honest-to-goodness emotion and thoughtful subtext? Here are a few suggestions to stream or buy.
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THE LOST WORLD
No, this isn’t the unfortunate “Jurassic Park” sequel from 1997, although that sequel’s title was a tribute to the Arthur Conan Doyle novel this film was based on ? one of the first pieces of fiction to bring prehistoric creatures into the modern world, as an expedition of scientists and journalists explores a South American basin where dinosaurs roam free. This 1960 film adaptation from the disaster movie titan Irwin Allen (“The Towering Inferno”) is a hearty slab of cheesy fun; the effects are primitive but spirited, the set pieces are entertaining, and the peerless character actor Claude Rains (of “The Invisible Man,” “Casablanca,” “Notorious” and many more) has a great time hamming it up the anthropologist leading the journey.
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KING KONG
“What have they got in there, King Kong?” muses Dr. Ian Malcolm, as the gates open in “Jurassic Park.” And that’s not all Spielberg’s film has in common with this 1933 classic, in which a team of outsiders ventures into the jungles of a forgotten island and discover a massive ape (and various other terrifying creatures). It’s also easy to see how its conclusion, with Kong on the rampage in a major metropolis, influenced the closing stretch of “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (not to mention countless other movies). And there’s a reason it was so influential: The directors Merian C Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack smoothly balance the film’s sense of awe and terror, the stop-motion animation is still impressive, and the actress Fay Wray creates a relationship with her simian co-star that somehow is both horrifying and heartbreaking
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THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME
Another jungle adventure from Cooper and Schoedsack: This one was shot simultaneously with “Kong”, in fact, and on the same locations with some of the same actors. For this film, they’re adapting short story by Richard Connell, in which the survivor of a shipwreck finds himself trapped on a remote island where a wealthy eccentric (a fiendishly memorable Leslie Banks) leads hunts of “the most dangerous game”: humanity itself. And he’s looking for more trophies. Taut and suspenseful, “Game” vividly illustrates the notion that there’s no scarier beast in the wild jungle than a human being with a gun.
THE VALLEY OF THE GWANGI
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Willis O’Brien, the special-effect wizard who brought King Kong to life, was originally engaged to create the dinosaur creatures for his 1969 adventure, but he died before its production ? so the job fell to his heir apparent, ray Harryhausen, the stop-motion master behind such classic as “Jason and the Argonauts” and “The 7th Voyage of Sindbad.” “Gwangi” is an ingenious mash-up, combining elements of “The Lost World,” “King Kong” and westerns, as several members of an old-time Wild West show venture into a forgotten valley in serach of additions to their company. They get more than they bargained for. It’s a deliriously entertaining movie ? expertly crafted and suspenseful, without taking itself too seriously.
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THE TIME MACHINE
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The similarly renowned sci-fi innovator George Pal was behind this 1960 film adaptation of the influential H.G. Wells novel about a Victorian-era inventor who travels into the distant future. The film broke technological ground for its time-lapse effects (which won an Academy Award), but this isn’t merely a showcase for snazzy technology: True to the source material, Pal’s film (whichstars Rod Taylor) digs deep into logisitic of this sciencefic wizardry, and the philosophical implications of its implementation.
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GODZILLA
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One of the most potent themes of “Jurassic Park” is that the real enemy is not the dinosaurs but the hubris of mankind for bringing them back to life (a theme that has, notably, eluded the sequels). The idea was a midcentury staple of Cold War and B-movie horror, but none topped this 1954 classic from Ishiro Honda, one of the most important and beloved of all monster movies. The original “Godzilla” (also known as “Gojira”) launched the Japanese kaiju (giant monster) movie craze, telling the story of a 164-foot-tall dino-like creature that makes landfall in Tokyo and tears the city to smithereens. But that’s not just for kicks ? Godzilla is a byproduct of underwater nuclear teasting, which gives this goofy creature feature an unexpected kick of social commentary.
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THE HOST
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The South Korean master Bong Joon Ho (“Okja,” “Snowpiercer”) gleefully picks up where “Godzilla” left off with this delightfully subversive 2006 riff on urban monster-movie conventions (with generous doses of environmental activism and familial melodrama thrown in for good measure). His mutant sea creature is created by the carelessness of the local government and the American military, another sharp inquiry into who the real monsters are. Bong also takes a keen interest in the human dynamics at play, and how the dysfunctional family at the story’s center comes together for a common cause.
THE FLY
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Jeff Goldblum, one of the most frequently seen faces in the “Jurassic” franchise (his cameo in “Fallen Kingdom” is his third appearance in the films), made the transition from quirky ensemble player to leading man with this 1986 hit from the director David Cronenberg. In adapting the 1958 monster flick of the same name, Cronenberg cuts out the cheese and piles on the body horror, while also embracing the rich psychological subtext of the story; like Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond in “Jurassic Park,” Goldblum’s Seth Brundle is a man undone by his own ambition and ego, his journey of self-destruction is both riveting and tragic.
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TREMORS
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This 1990 cult favorite from the director Ron Underwood (“City Slickers”) is a modern-day creature feature with a throwback sense of humor. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward star as two Nevada handymen who find themselves battling a giant wormlike creature that burrows its tentacles under the desert and wreaks havoc wherever it goes. The genius of “Tremors” is its approach ? it’s like the mutated offspring of a spaghetti western and a ’50s B-movies. The acting is appropriately playful, as Bacon and Ward convey an awareness of the picture’s silliness without winking at the audience or condescending to the material. Whatever its makers did, it worked; the film spawned several direct-to-video sequels and a television adaptation.
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JAWS
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When “Jurassic Park” hit theaters in 1993, no one missed the opportunity to note its connection to this, Spielberg’s first megahit, from 1975. In adapting the best-selling novel from Peter Benchley, Spielberg tossed the trashy subplots and focused on the elemental conflict: man vs. nature, mined for maximum tension and scares. (He also does his best, in both film, to see how much terror he can create while showing us nothing ? see the way John Williams’s score announces the shark’s presence in “Jaws,” and also the image of the trembling water glass in “Jurassic Park.”) But “Jaws” is about more than craft; Spielberg is arguably more interested in the humanity of his characters, who battle one another between bouts with the great white shark. Both “Jaws” and “Jurassic” were gargantuan hits, the kind of blazingly well-crafted summer entertainment that simply takes over popular culture.
