Earlier this year, the great Sam Neill passed away at the age of 78 leaving behind an eclectic decades-long filmography. He could play many different kinds of characters with ease whether they were supporting roles, villains, or the lead. I’ve previously recommended what I think are his best horror movies (In the Mouth of Madness and Possession), so this year my Sam Neill Memorial recommendation is his most famous movie: Jurassic Park
Is Jurassic Park a horror movie? Well, No, not really. Is it a monster movie? Spielberg says, no. He purposefully did not want to make a monster a movie and was determined to make something more than a "genre" picture [horror movie]. Jurassic Park is certainly something special, but I might argue that it is secretly a monster movie. Is it a nature run amok movie? Absolutely. Is it scary? Yes. Certain scenes are as frightening as anything from the best horror movies. Is it a Shocktober movie? Yes, most definitely.
Neill plays Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist who is invited, along with his girlfriend, Dr. Ellie Sadler (Laura Dern), a paleobotanist, by entrepreneur Mr. Hammond (David Attenbough) to tour, and hopefully endorse, his new “biological preserve.” The animals on the island preserve turn out to be dinosaurs, to the astonishment and wonder of the characters and audiences alike, but, unfortunately, the park is sabotaged during a tropical storm, and dino mayhem ensues.
Even with a cast that includes Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, and Samuel L. Jackson, the real stars are the dinosaurs. It might be hard to explain to younger viewers just how groundbreaking and awe-inspiring the dinosaur effects were, but then again, maybe not because the CGI effects in today’s mega budget blockbusters does not come close to looking as good as even Jurassic Park's test demo footage from 1993. Jurassic Park may be one of the few movies where the reactions from the characters truly mirror that of the audience, whether they are wonderstruck or frightened.
Even though the movie has two kid characters, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), the excitement and childlike wonder and joy of seeing living dinosaurs is conveyed most effectively through Sam Neill. The moment of him fumbling to get his sunglasses off is the perfect set up for the first time we see a dinosaur, a brachiosaurus eating from tree tops. In the shot of him lying on the belly of a sick triceratops feeling and listening to it breathe, Neill shows such genuine joy that of course the modern internet turned it into a meme. Even after the T-Rex attack and everything with the park goes wrong, Grant is still fascinated by the dinosaurs; by brachiosaur that surprises them in a treetop (“Just think of it as a big cow,” he tells Lex, who has had enough of being around dinosaurs); by the dinosaur eggs that prove life does indeed find a way; by the galimimuses that move like a flock of birds. Yet, Grant is also the main source of skepticism about a dinosaur theme park. His reaction to the very idea of velociraptors at the park tells us how dangerous, and clever, they are.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex attack is terrifying. It seems to go on and on the way that real moments of terror feel like they will never end. The scene of Nedry (Wayne Knight), the park’s traitorous computer programmer, and the dilophosaurus in the rainy wilderness is a lot scarier than any scene of a teenager coming across a slasher in the woods. The scene of the raptors stalking Lex and Tim through the park’s large industrial kitchen really is like something out of a horror movie, specifically The Shining where axe wielding Jack stalks Danny through the Overlook Hotel’s large industrial kitchen. I think the scariest scene is the opening prologue where park workers load a new velociraptor into the raptor pen only for it to attack one of the workers. It is done very simply and we see very little, but it is very intense nonetheless.
Even with two direct sequels and a multi-movie reboot franchise, the original is not diminished; it does not feel quaint by comparison. If anything, it holds up better than the sequels and reboots. Jurassic Park still holds wonder and adventure and thrills.
Jurassic Park is currently available to stream on Starz, rent on Prime Video and other sources. It's also available on DVD/Blu-ray/4K and probably at your local library.
Trader Horn is an old-fashioned adventure film
about men surviving, persevering, and adventuring in a strange, untamed land.
Until recently Trader Horn was a rare film but now it is readily available on DVD from Warner Archive. It stars Harry Carey as Aloysius “Trader” Horn, a veteran white trader touring
through Africa by river with his sidekick Peru (Duncan Renaldo), who wears a
comically large pith helmet. The film is based on a book written by the real
Aloysius Horn. Their adventures are mostly episodic until they encounter a
missionary widow who is searching for her long-lost daughter that was kidnapped
as a baby many years ago. After the missionary dies, Horn and Peru take up the
search.
It’s safe
to assume that Trader Horn’s
nomination for Outstanding Production was meant to recognize and acknowledge
its epic production. It received no other nominations. This was the first
non-documentary film to be shot on location in Africa, which would have been a
big deal at a time when nearly every scene of every movie made by every studio
was shot on soundstages and backlots. The reason for keeping productions close to
studio headquarters was to have control over the production and cut down on
problems that might cause costly delays. The production of Trader Horn photographed authentic African landscapes and wildlife
but suffered many troubles, some of them tragic. Several crew members were
stricken with malaria, including director W.S. Van Dyke and co-star Edwina Booth. It would take Booth six years to recover from her case of malaria. She
retired from acting, sued MGM, and settled out of court. Two crew members were
killed during filming, both native Africans. One fell off a boat and was eaten
by a crocodile. The other was killed by a stampeding rhinoceros. His death was
caught on film and used in the movie. It’s a quick shot and not graphic at
all—you would never guess it wasn’t just a visual effect—but knowing that the
death is real makes it a most disturbing moment to watch.
Harry Carey
is believable as the experienced adventurer that knows his way around the wilds
of Africa and the other main actors give good performances, though the
characters are thin. An adventure film like this does not require overly
complex characters or plot—though those could only help the movie—but underdeveloped
characters and a simple plot mean that the action scenes and exotic locations
are what is left to engage the audience. A typical scene in Trader Horn will have Horn and Peru in a
boat or on a trail, then cut to the wild animals or vistas. For long stretches
of the film the characters watch animals graze and hunt. Horn and Peru stroll
through the savanna at one point and come across nearly every kind of African
animal you’d hope to see if you were on safari. Horn points out and names all
of the different animals to Peru like a zoo tour guide and the movie cuts to
shots of these animals and the cuts don’t always match well.
I think
what would have been most appealing to audiences about Trader Horn at the time of its release are the scenes of African
animals, people, and the promise of thrilling adventure. There is some
excitement to be found in Trader Horn,
but not as much as you’d hope to find in an adventure picture. I must admit
that I did feel a flourish of excitement when Horn and his native guide swung
on vines like Tarzan over a pit of crocodiles (the first sound Tarzan film
would be made a year later in 1932, starring Johnny Weissmuller). The scene in
which Horn and Peru are about to be sacrificed by a native tribe by being
crucified upside down is also suspenseful. However, the preceding scene of Horn
and Peru in a hut listening to the tribal drums beat faster and faster goes on
for far too long, well past the point of building suspense. There are a few
other sequences that go on longer than needed dramatically but show off the
footage shot in Africa. The most notable these scenes happens early in the film
when Horn and Peru arrive in a native village to trade. Shots of the native villagers
and their version of daily hustle and bustle goes on and on but shows quasi-documentary
footage of an exotic, far away people that audiences normally would not have
seen. Trader Horn, being a Pre-Code
film, even gets away showing topless native women; something I did not expect
to see in film made in 1931.
Trader Horn was directed by W.S. Van Dyke, who
had worked on films shot in exotic locations before, but also had the nickname
“One Take Woody” for shooting scenes as quickly and efficiently as possible. I
can understand why MGM would hire “One Take Woody” to helm an expensive
production shot in a faraway land where safety is not guaranteed, get the shots
required to make an exciting adventure movie, and get out quickly and
inexpensively. The result, however, is underwhelming. All of the scenes of
African wildlife and landscape are shot from a still, motionless camera. There
are some shots that are impressive because of what they show (like a raging
waterfall), but many feel dull.
There are
many aspects of Trader Horn that are
dated by today’s standards and that modern audiences would find offensive.
Horn’s native gun bearer, Rencharo (Mutia Omoolu) is a mostly mute and faithful
sidekick who would be an interesting character if the film had thought to portray him as such. A rhinoceros is shot and killed, along with other exotic, now
endangered, animals, and the close-up shot of the dying rhino’s face is incredibly
depressing.Big game
hunting was viewed differently in the 1930s, as exciting and manly, and the
rights of animals on screen did not exist. According to the IMDB and Wikipedia
pages for Trader Horn, many of the
scenes of animals attacking other animals were shot in Mexico by a second unit.
The reason for this is because in Mexico at the time laws regarding the treatment
of animals were lax. The big cats were starved in order to ensure vicious
attacks on other animals.
The most curious thing in Trader Horn is the White Goddess character (Nina, the missionary’s long-lost
daughter played by Edwina Booth) that rules a native tribe. Peru implores her
to help him and Horn when they’ve been captured by her tribe because she is
white like them and white people should help each other. Booth herself is as
good as she can be playing an over-the-top character that does not speak any
English—none of her dialogue, or any native dialogue is subtitled. The trailer
for the film advertises “See the cruelest woman in all Africa rule pagan
tribes.” I’m not sure how to feel about this character, but I am sure this
would not happen in an adventure film made today.
I couldn’t
help but think of Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, nominated for Unique and Artistic Picture at the 1st
Academy Awards, which managed to make an exciting, entertaining film that
treated native people respectfully, made them the stars of the movie, and
worked with animals far better than in Trader
Horn, even though both involved killing real animals. The most
objectionable treatment of animals in Chang
was the kidnapping of a baby elephant to get its mother to stampede and tear
apart a hut, but the mother frees her baby and both return to the jungle.
Leopards and tigers were killed in Chang
and it is a sad thing to see, but these animals had been menacing the native
Lao people and, as a result, death by big cats decreased in the following years. Trader Horn is MGM’s attempt to capture
the thrill and excitement of exotic animals and locations, the danger and
adventure of a quasi-documentary like Chang,
and couch it in the more broadly appealing framework of a mainstream narrative.
The result is a blend of fictional narrative and real nature documentary that
has only some of the excitement it was it was aiming to capture.
Nominee: MGM
Producer: Irving
Thalberg
Director:
W.S. Van Dyke
Screenplay:
Richard Schayer, adaptation by Dale Van Every and John T. Neville, dialogue by
Cyril Hume, based on the book by Alfred Aloysius Horn
Cast: Harry
Carey, Edwina Booth, Duncan Renaldo
Release
Date: May 23rd, 1931
Total
Nominations: 1, including Outstanding Production Wins: N/A
