Dinosaurs in Film
By Galvasean

The public has always been fascinated by dinosaurs, the mighty beasts that once ruled the earth. Ever since the early 1900s, shortly after the discovery of the “tyrant lizard king” Tyrannosaurus rex, film makers have attempted to bring these monstrous beasts to life. As they attempted to communicate their vision of the dinosaurs to the general populace, these early film makers could hardly imagine the phenomenon they had created. From the seemingly “primitive” techniques used in yesteryear to the latest CGI epics their visions of prehistoric beasts have been cast upon cinema audiences with little sign of dissipating interest. Wherever people are hungry to see dinosaurs film makers will always provide their ideas to be judged by the paying public, basing them on current scientific fact or taking up “creative license” and their own imagination to “improve” upon these creatures.

On our journey of discovery we will track the progress or evolution if you will, of how dinosaurs have been portrayed in film from their now seemingly humble origins in early stop motion capture epics such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and the original King Kong through to children’s animated features such as The Land Before Time to the “scientifically accurate” and up to date Jurassic Park movies of the 1990s right up to and including those terrible dinosaur B-movies that plague the shelves of video stores today.

Our story begins in 1914 when cinema audiences were shocked, amazed and terrified when maverick director D.W. Griffiths’ Brute Force became the first film featuring dinosaurs to reach the mainstream audiences. Despite the film only being a 33 minute long black and white drama about white superiority what really captivated the viewers was the appearance of the menacing dinosaur Ceratosaurus. And why wouldn’t it? Griffiths brought the world something fresh and new. Although people knew dinosaurs existed, never before had one been brought to life with such vivid imagination and detail. Griffiths introduced them to a massive three horned beast with large sharp fangs that tormented cave people in the movie and haunted cinema goers nightmares for years to come. Although the special effects were somewhat primitive it was realise that Griffiths had struck a nerve. The potential for these creatures to scare people out of their money was too good an opportunity to be missed by other directors.

In 1985 Harry O. Hoyt brought forth to the world his own interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary classic The Lost World. Rather than relying on cheap thrills or tricks, he went out of his way to consult the greatest scientific minds of his time in order to make his dinosaur experience the most authentic dinosaur epic ever to be created. And it was! The Lost World featured the most scientifically accurate dinosaurs of any film as its dinosaurs conformed exactly to scientific thinking of the time. It was this fine attention to detail that made Hoyt’s work an instant hit. He managed to enthral audiences with his honest portrayal of living dinosaur behaviour with the pinnacle of his efforts being the now famous Tricerotops verses T . rex battle. He successfully managed to communicate the concept of dinosaurs as living breathing animals across to an audience with increasingly high standards.

By 1933 the public craved even more from their movies. Scientific accuracy was no longer paramount. Pure high octane entertainment was all that was required to make a good movie. Merian C. cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack were happy to oblige by bringing an iconic talisman to the big screen. King Kong was born. Of coarse as everyone knows King Kong himself was not a dinosaur, but a giant gorilla that happened to live on a long forgotten island full of dinosaurs. King Kong’s quintessential scene featured the great ape battling it out with a mighty Tyrannosaurus rex on Skull Island with victory ensuing for Kong. Of coarse science has since proven that a T. rex had the strongest bite force of any known animal. Therefore when King Kong pried open the great jaws of the T. rex he was really lifting the combined pressure of the weight of twelve full grown blue whales (which incidentally weigh around a hundred tones each), which is ludicrous! So perhaps the directors exaggerated Kong’s strength somewhat. This is a case of directors’ creative license taking front seat as opposed to scientific accuracy. Audiences will agree that sometimes being fun is more important than being clever. Realising this, the directors decided to change the normally gentle giant plant easting long necked brontosaurs into savage flesh eating behemoths. Nonetheless, the public loved them for it and their somewhat flawed portrayal of dinosaurs has earned a special place in cinema history.

Of coarse dinosaurs could not only be used as villainous monsters to scare people. It was also noted that if they were portrayed in a different light they could be used as a means of more light hearted entertainment. Gertie the trained dinosaur was not only the first cartoon dinosaur, but also the first ever cartoon character. In her short black and white animated feature Gertie’s antics of running, jumping, swallowing stones and devouring entire trees, all to a lively piano tune delighted the people of her day. Director Winsor McCay realized he was on to something special, but the true marketing potential of dinosaurs was only beginning to be realized at this point. McCay had managed to bring forward a totally new form of entertainment with his original ideas and wonderful imagination which would one day provide the inspiration for what is in my opinion one of the greatest animated stories of our time…

In 1988 George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) teamed up with a talented up and coming film maker named Stephen Spielberg to produce a truly amazing animated film. The lovechild of Lucas and Spielberg would be called The Land before Time. In it a traveling group of juvenile dinosaurs must undertake a fantastic journey to be reunited with their respective families in a far off land known as the Great Valley where, in a dying world, vegetation is still in good supply. Although predominately aimed at young children with the use of talking baby dinosaurs the film makers managed to get across various social commentaries including racial issues. For example the quote, “Three-horns shouldn’t play with long-necks” may seem somewhat unimportant to a watching child, but there is a message just below the surface. Although children probably didn’t realize it at the time, the theme of dinosaurs [people] of different species [races or religions] needing to put their differences aside and work together for their greater good is predominant throughout the coarse of the film. Even today the undertones of this film provide food for thought for even the most serious of social scholars. It is this message contained within a seemingly unimportant piece of children’s entertainment that reveals the true power of film making. Who could have thought that dinosaurs could be used to tackle such an important matter?

By 1993 Spielberg was at it again. Clearly bitten by the dino bug he launched his latest blockbuster, a tale of genetics technology gone completely mad that would change the way people looked at dinosaurs forever. Jurassic Park featured the most realistic dinosaurs to date (although I can tell you a few scientific flaws have crept in for the sake of exciting story telling). It caused a sensation as dino fever gripped the world. Once again Spielberg had wrapped a message in his glossy dinosaur eye candy. Jurassic Park has its philosophical side. Through it Spielberg (and the original book’s author Michael Crichton also) attempts to give us all a warning. It is clearly stated in the film by Dr. Ian Malcolm (wonderfully portrayed by Geoff Goldblum) that “Life will find a way” and how mankind has allowed itself to be consumed by its own greed and blinded by its own self made illusions of grandeur and scientific supremacy. This is pretty intense stuff when you consider Universal Studios originally intended the film to cash in on wide eyed drooling children, but Spielberg’s wizardry somehow managed to captivate us wide eyed drooling adults as well!

In 1997 Stephen Spielberg returned with his army of super realistic dinosaurs for another bite (excuse the expression). The Lost World (based on Michael Crichton’s novel and not to be confused with the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book of the same name) once again brought us to an island ruled by dinosaurs. This time his message was clear. Rather than speaking of the dangers of scientifically jumping the gun if you will he waxed lyrical about mankind’s greed and how we must persevere not to interfere with nature. The most blatant evidence of this is when the villainous Ludlow insists that Jurassic Park’s cloned dinosaurs have no rights and belong to his company and are fit to be patented (a moral dilemma and debate which rages on in the real scientific world to this day with growing concern).

Of coarse not all films with dinosaurs in them manage to be so philosophical. For the third installment of the Jurassic Park saga Spielberg gave over the director’s reigns of the special effects laden vehicle to Joe “Jumangi” Johnston. The end result was a soulless “popcorn flick” which was about as deep as a murky puddle, relying on over the top action sequences and throwing scientific credibility out the window in favour of a quick and easy profit. Although Spielberg has admitted that Jurassic Park 3 was a mistake and intends to make sure the next installment is “done right” it is widely feared that JP3 was a crippling blow from which the Jurassic Park franchise (and indeed the dinosaur film industry in general) may never truly recover from.

As a result most new dinosaur films have been relegated to the dreaded B-movie list. Travesties such as Primal Species, Raptor and the Carnosaur trilogy gather dust on video shop shelves while others aren’t so lucky, with the likes of Raptor Island being Sci-Fi channel exclusives – the lowest common denominator of film making. Long gone are the days when film makers used dinosaur films to communicate innovative ideas, social commentary or philosophical meaning.

Perhaps all is not lost. Perhaps there is still some hope for the dinosaur film industry. Legendary film director Peter Jackson (made famous by his epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy book the Lord of the Rings) has taken up the challenge to remake the classic King Kong. Featuring many dinosaurs (as coinciding with tradition) and maybe, just maybe the right amount of heart and intelligence to bring the dinosaurs back from the brink of obscurity. There is a Spielbergian quality to Jackson’s work and hopefully it can do the majestic lineage of dinosaur films which started out so strongly back in the olden days of stop motion capture filming techniques the justice they deserve. Maybe the glory days will be renewed and dinosaurs will once again be seen as a medium to communicate ideas to the masses.

Dinosaurs ruled the earth 65 million years ago. Perhaps with a little help from our film making friends they can rule the cinema screens forever more!