Spielberg once said in an interview: "I don't know how to do anything, I only make movies." This is not a false statement. Steven, 47, played with an 8cm camera at the age of 13, and shot his first 16cm short film "Firelight" at the age of 16. When he graduated from high school, he wanted to apply to the Film Department of the University of California, but because of poor homework, he could not pass the exam, so he had to study English and anthropology at California State University Long Beach. During his school years, he continued to shoot 16 cm short films, and pretended to be a young director of the Universal Studios and went to the studio to hang out with the staff for several months. Because Steven really wanted to work in the film industry, he found someone to invest in the first 35cm short film "Amblin'." Sure enough, the film was appreciated by the director of Universal Company Schneider Scheinberg, and Steven was awarded a seven-year director contract. At that time, he was only 21 years old. In other words, Spielberg's first job was to make movies, and apart from that, he really didn't do anything else.
It is precisely because Spielberg has studied film expression since he was a child, so his mastery of film skills can be said to have reached the level of being overwhelmed. At the same time, Spielberg spends most of his time seeing the world through the lens of a movie, which allows him to maintain a rich fantasy and a heart of innocence for a long time. This feature makes him particularly comfortable when dealing with films with "non-human" protagonists. Spielberg’s best-selling works such as "Jaws" (1975), "Third Kind of Contact" (1977), "Aliens" (1982) and this "Jurassic Park" can all belong to The category is "adult fairy tales", not only children love to watch it, but adults love it even more. Therefore, Spielberg has the broadest mass base, and film sales can also repeatedly hit new highs.
After "Alien" maintained its throne at the box office for 11 years, Spielberg himself defeated it with "Jurassic Park", setting a box office number of US$337 million in North America within a year, and even more overseas box office revenue. Up to 500 million U.S. dollars, with a total sales of 868 million U.S. dollars, which is an incredible astronomical figure!
Movies based on dinosaurs are not new, and have at least 60 years of history in the United States and Japan. Therefore, "Jurassic Park" adapted from the best-selling novel is not a movie that wins with fresh themes. In addition, the story of humans abusing DNA genetic genes to replicate organisms and causing catastrophes, Spielberg has been involved in the "Little Monsters Sequel" (also translated "Elf Sequel") (1990), which he served as the producer. Therefore, "Dwarf "Luo Ji Park" is not the first to use this biological science principle to make a movie. As for the performance of the film’s director’s professional skills, it is obviously not the most outstanding of all Spielberg’s works. The aforementioned three films with non-human protagonists are not inferior to "Jurassic Park". So, what are the factors that make this film stand out and come out on top? If you understand the truth, you may be able to understand the commercial mystery of Hollywood movies.
The appearance of a super blockbuster movie often reflects the psychology and social atmosphere of the audience at that time. 1993 was a year in which major economic powers such as the United States, Japan and even Europe fell into a severe recession. The economic recovery was indefinitely in sight, the unemployment rate remained high, and the general public feared the future. The dinosaur that launched a fatal attack on humans in "Jurassic Park" is a symbol of the big monster "economic downturn." When the audience sees the protagonist on the screen being devastated by dinosaurs in every possible way, but finally can break through with wit and courage to recover his life, they will have an indescribable sense of catharsis, as if they can lift their heads up after walking out of the theater. , Face life. This empathy for the monster movie once prompted the "King Kong" released in 1933 to set a brilliant sales record. Because in the early 1930s, the United States was on the verge of a major economic collapse, and the audience hoped that there would be an object on the screen that would make them vent their dissatisfaction with reality. The gorilla that turned New York City upside down satisfies people's desires, and the film is rewarded at the box office. Sixty years later, the psychological background of "Jurassic Park" popular with audiences is exactly the same as "King Kong".
In addition to the help of "time", "Jurassic Park" also has "place advantage" and "human harmony". Universal spent a budget of 60 million US dollars to shoot this film, and this huge sum of money was really spent on a knife-including a large number of dinosaur models and computer special effects. Before the film was launched, the director and a group of scientists, artists, and stunts had spent two years doing careful pre-production, and then after seven months of shooting and post-production with computer graphics, the eye-catching film was completed. Realistic special effects opened. In order to reduce personnel expenses, the protagonists in this film are not big stars with high salaries. Spielberg, who originally had a director fee of more than 10 million US dollars, also used the method of "remuneration investment and selling dividends" to pay. Therefore, A dinosaur park that has never been seen on the screen can be created with most of the production costs.
The dinosaur models in this film are all designed by Hollywood doll master Stan Winston. He was responsible for the production of models for sci-fi special effects films such as "Alien" and "Future Warrior", and is known for his ability to inject life and character into the models he created. In this film, Winston created various dinosaurs of different sizes, such as Brachiosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, and Heliosaurus, all with realistic appearance, vivid expressions and agile movements. The gigantic Tyrannosaurus was 20 feet tall, and used 3,000 pounds of clay as its body to increase its weight. It also used rubber as its skin and carefully painted it with a suitable skin tone. Its action is based on the principle of hydraulic power, and the controller uses a computer to remotely control it, just like the pilot of an airplane is looking at the screen to control the airplane. For the sake of realism, this film created the first 20-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus that is true to scale in movie history, and added computer animation to deal with the action scenes of Tyrannosaurus fighting two Athlons at the climax of the finale. The vigorous and fast-acting Athlon is under the rubber skin with a well-designed metal frame and wires, allowing every joint of it to move freely. Such special manufacturing makes almost every dinosaur appearing in the film fake. Some of the most talked about dinosaur stunts, such as the long-necked brachiosaurus relish chewing the leaves of the big tree in a field; the tiny Velociraptor hatched from the dinosaur eggs, allowing the audience to witness the birth of small lives The whole process; a large group of Velociraptors chasing after Dr. Gran and the two children in the wilderness. The level of realism is beyond belief. It can be regarded as another major breakthrough in the history of movie special effects, so it can successfully cause discussion among the audience. The effect of word-of-mouth has played a role of propaganda of "one pass ten, ten pass one hundred".
As for the storyline development of the film, it is actually quite simple. The director only introduced a background of time and space before allowing all kinds of dinosaurs to wreak havoc and create catastrophes. Spielberg’s cleverness is to use a lively way to explain scientific theories (for example, slides and animations are used to illustrate how scientists use the "mosquito blood" in amber fossils to replicate dinosaurs, turning advanced scientific theories into interesting The popular science and education film), and know how to make humorous jokes in a timely manner to balance the tension and excitement (such as the vegetarian brachiosaurus sneezing at Lax, spraying the little girl's face, so that the fearful atmosphere caused by the appearance of the dinosaurs is immediately alleviated ). In addition, although there are no lack of horror and horror scenes in the whole film, it rarely shows off blood, so children audiences can also enjoy it. In fact, in order to cater to young audiences, the director specially portrays Lax as a computer genius, and Tim is a biological genius. At the finale, he asked Lax to repair the computer system in the control center, saving everyone's lives. ; And Dr. Gran, who originally hated children, later became a child's savior. This kind of design is in line with the trend that Hollywood movies have highlighted the importance of child stars in recent years, and it also implements Spielberg's innocent heart.
Relatively speaking, this film is relatively ordinary in the characterization of adult characters, and it can only be regarded as a supporting role for the dinosaurs. The main theatrical role of several experts is to continuously explain the complex scientific content with dialogues, as if they were the tour guides of the dinosaur park. Among them, Malcolm, a tall mathematics expert, was quite shocked when he first appeared on the scene, but soon after the dinosaurs attacked, he quickly became unable to move, and quickly lost his original style, which is a pity.
The ending of the film is that many protagonists leave the thrilling Jurassic Park by helicopter, but the dinosaurs on the island are still alive, and the crisis has not been resolved. Obviously, they reserved foreshadowing for the sequel.
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