After the premier everybody was talking about dinosaurs and about the movie. Me? I was reading about dinosaurs, playing dinosaurs, playing with dinosaurs, dreaming with dinosaurs. Even drawing dinosaurs!
One store sell several stuff, from magazines to toys, from perfumes to books, and -you guessed it- video tapes! Since we had few stores with such variety it was usual for everybody to pass by to check for new stuff. One of those times I spotted this:
My eyes popped out from my orbits (just kidding, don't worry) and in my mind there was only these words: IT - MUST - BE - MINE! Then I looked the price tag and my jaw fell down! It was damn expensive, at least for regular VHS price. Living in a small island as many disadvantages one of them being everything is overpriced because the extra transportions you need to pay for the product reach the island. I was very sad because my family didn't have money just laying around to spend it in some video tape. The money was of course to be spent in useful things like food, transportation, cloths, education...you get the point. But this wasn't just 'some video tape'. It was Jurassic freaking Park. I had to get it. At least try it!
So I bugged dad to buy the tape, I bugged mom to convice dad to buy the tape, I bugged sister literally with insects (I would get some crickets from the yard and would run after her with them in my hands. She would run away screaming almost louder than Day9 playing Amnesia...LOL good times). I would almost everyday go the store to check if nobody bought it. Then a few weeks later I managed to convice my parents to buy it! WEEEE! I was the happiest kid in the world!! My mom gave me the money and I was off, straight to the store!! I remember that when I arrived there I tried to act as cool and chill as I could. I felt like jumping around screaming -- but I wasn't going to show it to anyone. Someone might understand the true value of the tape and buy it before me! Not in my watch:
Me - "Good afternoon. I would like to take -hmm- (looking around as if looking for something to buy)... that (points casually to the JP tape)."
As soon as I got he tape and paid the store owner, I dashed home. The TV was mine for a couple of hours! At home, before seen the movie, I take time to appreciate the tape's case: all black with the famous black, white, red and yellow Jurassic Park logo that I saw many time through the windows of the store. I take the tape out of the case, insert it in the VCR and push 'Play'.
I was caught imediately from the opening scene to the end of the credits ( even the credits are awesome just for the Jonh Williams soundtrack - incredible). I viewed it and reviewed it many times after that and I was always amazed by it. The T-Rex looked so real. IT WAS REAL. The movie punched all the right buttons for me. The humor, the suspense, the action. Everything. My parents didn't care much for the film but I would explain scenes to them anyway:
-"And the kids then run into the kitchen to hide, closing the door behind them. Then the raptor came and starts to look for them through the door's window because he can't enter. Then it cuts back to the bunker where the others are reunited. They think that there is only two raptors left. And the lady tells them that yes unless they learnt to open doors. Then it cuts back to the kitchen where the camera zooms the door handle. And then you start seeing it slowly rotate! The raptor is opening the door!!"
LOL It was just like that. ^^
But after a while the dinosaurs in my head started to slowly disapear. I was thinking about other things. Other stuff to worry about. And the tape was forgotten, just like the One Ring. Also the technology changed. The VHS turned obsolete (come right in Mister DVD player) and I left home (to the bigger island) to continue my studies. And 17 years passed.
Yesterday, for the first time in decades (more than one at least!) I got to see once more, Jurassic Park. In HD. With GOOD and LOUD sound. Everything I didn't have in the VHS era (not that it mattered at the time). I didn't know how I would react. Would it became boring? Unrealistic?
It was amazing. A true masterpiece. I had goosebumps for the entire movie! It was so surreal. I was seeing a movie that I had already see dozens of times so where's the surprise, right? But at the same time I was reviving feelings and emotions that I didn't know I still had. The viewing yesterday was just awesome as my first time!! Of course the movie has is flaws. And yesterday I noticed them for the first time too. But in the end it doesn't matter because for me Jurassic Park is pure magic.
I think that every kid has one movie that marks his life in such way that even after 50 years without seeing it, from the moment it starts to the end, you are a kid again.
Some have StarWars.
Some have E.T.
I have Jurassic Park.
What's yours?
+ Show Spoiler +
My favorite scene is of course when T-Rex gets out of her paddock. Coolest thing ever.