Most people would probably suggest that the most influential cinematic element about Jurassic Park is its great leap forward in the evolution (pardon the pun) of movie special effects. Let’s be honest, shall we: Spielberg’s actual hands-on, creative part in the exponential progression of computer-generated effects is likely only slightly less minimal than John Hammond’s actual involvement in the developing the cloning process essential to creating his own Jurassic Park. While it is a combination of incredible and slightly sad that the state of the art of CGI creature animation more than two decades later has still not progressed to the point that the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park look dated or even any less impressive than ever, one day that will change. What will never change, however, is how Spielberg used his directorial skills to do something to Michael Crichton’s book that could only be done with cinema.
Jurassic Park is about the leisure industry and the simulation of reality. As a novelist working in prose, there is only so much Crichton can do to connect the reading experience to that essential influence. Recognizing how vital this connection is and using his supremely gift mind for the power of visual imagery, Spielberg’s choice on how to stress the significance of amusement parks and simulated reality (based on a theme) and all the inherent tension and conflict therein is nothing less than one of the highlights of his career.
Every member of the audience who has ever serpentine their way through a two-hour line to ride a priority attraction at a high-end theme park will instantly recognize just how perfectly Spielberg nailed this peculiar genre of video entertainment. The animated and live action segments of the introductory video manage to strike every note just right as a replica of many real-life counterparts at theme parks--as opposed to mere amusement parks--like Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando. The video is silly enough to entertain little kids while also being Informative enough to entertain adult while layered with a patina of postmodern self-awareness just goofy enough for disaffected teens to pretend they are enjoying it ironically. Everything about the video that informs visitors to "Jurassic Park" about the science that went into creating the thrilling adventure they are about to embark upon cannot help but instill a profound sense of familiarity to the bulk of the audience watching Jurassic Park. The video duplicates all the effects intended by these essential props of the carefully constructed reality of the more sophisticated and expensive theme parks. It is incredibly disarming, ingratiating, comforting and entertaining enough to help pass the time you spend waiting for the thrills to come. In fact, there is only one thing about it that is off…and that is the entire point of it.
Don’t let the number of trucks filled money produced by box office ticket sales for the film mislead you. That little video is propaganda, plain and simple. Not just propaganda, but incredibly effective propaganda because of the really quite spectacular thing it accomplishes: hyping two diametrically opposed ideological messages simultaneously with equal efficiency and then, capping it off, making it look so much unlike propaganda that hardly anyone notices they are being influenced by it.
That cute, disarming dina-SOUR cartoon that will greet visitors to Jurassic Park is introduced by the park’s owner, John Hammond. He quite literally seems to be investing his own blood into the creation of the park when he pricks his finger and produces that cartoon sample of DNA who will take over as the star and narrator. And just like that every excited park visitor has been conditioned to conflate Hammond with his park as if he is the primary person responsible for everything they see. That is the propaganda being transmitted to “Jurassic Park” viewers.
The message being delivered to the Jurassic Park audience is substantially different and one that speaks to the authoritarian sense of control that is the dirt behind the simulated daydream reality of theme parks. The world of Jurassic Park contained within that video bears almost no relation to the reality of how it got there and how it would have worked. The video features animated figures digging through the surface of the earth in search of mosquitoes trapped in amber. Then there scenes with live action scientists to how the history and process of the cloning program which makes the park a possibility. And all but two are white.
The audience inside the theater watching the film knows this is not a representation of reality. It is not even simulated reality; it is close to pure fiction. We have seen people of Latin America ancestry, African ancestry and Asian ancestry. International workers of the world united all working in tandem together to achieve the same goal: building Jurassic Park. And yet they are hardly to be found in the video telling that history.
Those with an appreciation for history will get the reality that is being conveyed in this video almost immediately: It is one of white man arriving in Central American on a richer white man’s dime to exploit both natural and human resources for the benefit of a lot more white people far away. A tale as old as time. Or at least as old as 1492. Spielberg’s little video introduction for those about to embark upon the experience that is Jurassic Park belongs in another museum as well. A museum devoted to the history of European colonial exploitation New World natives. That the video feels equally well suit both for visitors to Hammond’s park and visitors to such a museum is nothing less than revelation of how influential a director can be when adapting a work of prose into film. Crichton could have written every day for as long as velociraptors roamed the planet and would still never have been able to replicate it.
