As we watched Jurassic Park in class, it is impossible to not notice a few unique motifs in the story. In many terrifying sequences, the characters of the movie were often confronted by a carnivorous dinosaur, which almost always left them frozen and in fear. I think the idea of an otherworldly threat like a dinosaur just shows how helpless all of these characters are. As they said in the movie, humans and dinosaurs were separated by years and years of evolution, and were never meant to see each other.
Another motif I noticed was the general thought that all of these humans thought they were better and smarter than the dinosaurs, trapping them in cages and hoping to make money off of them repeatedly proved a horrible idea.
Finally, I see the theme of the movie is taking a look at scientific advancement in a much darker and bloodier light. Ian says, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should”. We see new sciences and studies come out all the time, but at what point does science violate the way things were supposed to be on Earth, “Dinosaurs had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction.”
The development of Jurassic Park goes like this:
- Journey: Jurassic Park, Back to Lodge, Home
- Search: For a way off the island
- Mystery: Why was the park failing?
Jurassic Park can be digested in a lot of different ways.
Referential Meaning: Two archaeologists travel to a dinosaur zoo which ultimately fails and dinosaurs begin to roam the park as the people on the island need to escape.
Explicit meaning: The writers of Jurassic Park want the viewer to see that this idea is a terrible one and that you shouldn’t try to manipulate the concepts of life, death, and extinction. Almost like everything happens for a reason, human involvement should be minimal.
Implicit Meaning: The writers clearly wanted to say that humans should leave well enough alone when it comes to the concepts of extinction, and that everything that has happened on Earth happened for a reason.
Symptomatic Meaning: At what point is human intervention too far? It is interesting to see how John Hammond is dedicated to his achievements regardless of the cost, it gives some of the main characters a selfish villainous vibe to them. It is interesting to have two of the characters as paleontologists because they are people who have been studying dead dinosaurs and why they died and that they are no longer around anymore.
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