Logan Stafford
Johnny Bragg
Interpersonal Communication
7 October 2013
We're Going To Need a Bigger Park

For this paper, I chose Steven Spielberg, and chose the movies; Jurassic Park, and Jaws. The movies are very different, but they are very similar in their own way. Both movies result in the deaths of five people by a(n) animal(s), I found that kind of interesting. Both Jaws and Jurassic Park use the element of surprise and suspension, because you don't always see the creatures, but you know that they are there. Both movies were huge successes and the special effects were revolutionary for their times. For the characters, I'm not comparing their personalities, just the roles they played in their movie. Martin Brody, the main character in Jaws, and Dr. Ian Malcolm, from Jurassic Park, are both characters that warn what is going to happen in the film, but are ignored and eventually proven right. John Hammond, the man behind the cloning of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and Larry Vaughn, the mayor in Jaws, both represent characters that fail to listen. Dr. Alan Grant, the main paleontologist character from Jurassic Park, and Hooper, the marine biologist character in Jaws, both play characters that are experts on the animals, but only know a lot from books (or in Alan's case, fossils) and have never really gotten a chance to experience the behavior of those animals in person. Captain Quint, the shark hunter in Jaws, and Robert Muldoon, the game warden in Jurassic Park, both play characters that have seen what the animals can do and believe that they should all be killed. Both Quint and Muldoon are eventually eaten by the animals they fear the most.
Both are the films are iconic. Jaws, more or less, put the entire nation in fear of getting in the ocean, as if children urine wasn't frightening enough, everyone had a vision of a 25 foot shark in their mind. Jaws has made a lasting impression though. Nine times out of ten; when you hear someone talk about sharks, there is at least one Jaws reference thrown in there, at some point or another. Of course there are some memorable quotes from Jaws, with “we're going to need a bigger boat”, being the most legendary quote of them all. Jurassic Park has it's share of memorable moments and quotes as well. The quote that really set the movie for me was, “welcome to Jurassic Park”, by John Hammond while they are in the field with the brachiosaurus' just feet away from them. The characters are just in a state of shock, and of course the “blood sucking lawyer”, drops the “we're going to make a fortune with this place”, which really solidifies his character.
For me, I really can't pick a favorite out of the two. It's comparing apples to oranges. Both are great in their own way. Jaws may be the better overall movie, but Jurassic Park is a more entertaining movie, in my eyes. That may be just because of the mystery we have of dinosaurs. We have seen a great white, not 25 feet long, but a great white nonetheless. However, unless I've just been sheltered my entire life, nobody has seen a living, breathing dinosaur, unless Joan Rivers counts. Overall, I did enjoy both of them, and they are both classics, no doubt about it.