6) The Soundtrack
John Williams is sometimes criticized for being overly commercial in what he does – for simply producing easily recognizable soundtracks on a conveyor belt for any mainstream likely-popular film. But this is like criticizing Champagne for only making great sparkling wine. This is what it does best – it makes no sense to judge it for not suddenly branching out into making garden tools. Williams could write a soundtrack to a digital fireplace and everyone would remember it. He has worked with Spielberg on all but two of the director’s ’s thirty-two movies (among many others) – and one of his crowning glories is, undoubtedly, Jurassic Park.
The Jurassic Park theme is among the most famous of all time, alongside The A-Team, Jaws, Harry Potter and Star Wars (three of which, let’s not forget, were also written by Williams). But there is something very particular about the Jurassic Park soundtrack, compared to all the others. To explore what this is, it helps to go back for a moment to Spielberg and William’s very first collaboration – Jaws.
Jaws is – like most of the creatures in Jurassic Park – also a man eating beast of terrifying and apparently unstoppable proportions. But despite the shared concept, there is absolutely nothing alike between the two soundtracks. The Jaws theme is a hopelessly evocative work of genius, conveying tension and utter, unavoidable, impending horror with little more than just two notes. The Jurassic Park soundtrack on the other hand is, quite simply, delightful. And given that approximately 90% of the movie’s storyline involves various people being maimed, eaten, trampled on, spat on, chewed, electrocuted, blinded, poisoned, or otherwise damaged in some kind of wonderfully drastic way, the main themes of the soundtrack are decidedly cheerful.
But this proves exactly why the Jurassic Park soundtrack is so memorable. Despite the horror of what happened, Williams’ music captured the magnificence, the beauty and the imagination that John Hammond’s park was always hoped to offer. That is, Jurassic Park’s soundtrack was designed to reflect something of what many human beings feel towards dinosaurs, those feelings being what were to make the park (and the movie) successful – fascination and inspiration, and a certain bizarre degree of fondness for creatures many of which are hell bent on hunting you down and turning you inside out. Not many people, I am just speculating, are fond of the Great White Shark.
After John Williams wrote the soundtrack for The Lost World, the mantle was passed to Don Davis for Jurassic Park III. The main theme, however, survived – and it is wonderful to hear it again in the trailers to Jurassic World. Here, Michael Giancchino’s interpretation has just the single notes playing out on a piano, over a montage of carnage. The idea is clearly to invoke the memory of that very first trip to the park, when it still had all its splendour and hope, and when the full, glorious height of the orchestra was first reached as the brachiosaurus’ feet crashed back to the ground, shaking the camera itself. It is also to remind us that once again, despite the optimism, everything is going to go horribly, horribly, wrong.
It may be difficult, in many ways, for Jurassic World to fully recapture the awe of the first movie. But, whatever it has in store, and wherever it takes us, including the main themes of that original captivating soundtrack increases its chances considerably. It is, essentially, the franchises’ siren call: For as long as it plays, we will never be able to resist going back.