Scary Dinosaurs (and Super Scores)

Exploring the music of the JURASSIC PARK franchise...

Welcome to Jurassic Park. Few lines immediately evoke a musical memory such as those four words and I imagine your head is instinctively recalling Richard Attenborough's gentle brogue, the image of a gigantic Brachiosaur stampeding across fields, and John Williams' reverential theme calling out in emotional celebration. It's the closest thing any of us have ever come to seeing a real-life dinosaur and that moment sticks in our mind, not least because of the music. So as today is the thirtieth anniversary of the original film, it's the perfect time to take a look back at the cacophony of the Cretaceous. Hold on to your butts.

“Jurassic Park” was hardly the first score to tackle dinosaurs, indeed Max Steiner's “King Kong” - considered to be the grandfather of traditional film scores - had dinos aplenty. The dinosaurs in “Kong” were antagonists, first to the sailors on the island but also to the character of Kong himself. Given big lumbering and threatening tones, this set the musical template for when Hollywood used them as the heavies for films from “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” to “The Valley of Gwangi.” But while Spielberg's picture certainly identified them as vicious and terrifying creatures, they were also a source of wonder, giving the audience an emotional connection to them that showed that while they were to be feared, they were also to be respected. The true villains in “Jurassic Park” are Dennis Nedry and John Hammond; the dinosaurs are just caught up in human greed and the morality of science.

Of course, it's all sunshine and lollipops at first. The moment when our protagonists first catch sight of the dinosaurs is treated like the beginning of a new religion, and Williams scores it as so, accompanying that gentle main theme with a shimmering choir that initially sits in the background until Sam Neill’s Alan Grant sees the long-necked brachiosaurs moving in herds. As that happens, the score soars and transforms into something not only glorious and beautiful and reverent but also seductive. Dinosaurs are back!

That said, the velociraptors are positioned as actively aggressive, as opposed to the T-Rex which is much more of an animal breaking loose and doing what it does with all the subtlety of a Michael Bay film. And as such Williams scores the raptors with real menace, using a versatile and short four-note “carnivore” motif that sets them apart from the genteel respect for the rest of them. And it’s terrifying, especially when used as an ostinato that makes you feel like not only are the characters done for, but they’re also going to break out of the screen and eat you.

It’s really delicately balanced, with the terror of the raptors and the humans trying to escape while being surrounded by animals that they only ever dreamed they would encounter, making this another Spielberg fairytale. As such, material such as 'My Friend The Brachiosaur,' with that gorgeous melancholic melody, and ‘A Tree For My Bed,’ which presents the main theme in delicate Celesta, posits the lizards as harmless animals that can have a relationship with humans that doesn't result in one of the opposing sides dying.

But “Jurassic Park” is also a thrill ride and this is demonstrated through the Island theme, which is absolutely exhilarating. Introduced in 'Journey To The Island,' there's a true air of adventure to the theme and even a hint of swashbuckle. The brass gets a serious workout with the main body of the theme, and it has a sense of majesty that Williams always seems to bring to his work in a scarily effortless way, with it being reprised in the end credit suite in an exhilarating way. But the credits - and the score - end with an ominous reprise of the four-note carnivore motif, a warning to those who might wish to play dinosaur God in the future.

“Jurassic Park” was released on CD and cassette on June 23rd, 1993 on MCA Records. A special edition picture disc CD was also made available, while the score was released on vinyl in Germany (as a picture disc) and Brazil. Running just over seventy minutes, the album contains a great deal of the score; however, the end credit suite created for the film appears twice, which has always been a source of controversy amongst fans. This was alleviated by the 20th-anniversary release. which contained four new bonus tracks, however, the album was only released digitally. The score was issued again on LP by Mondo in 2014, who provided three colourways - black, amber, and "dilophosaur" (which was green, yellow and red) - and two different covers. It should be noted that the liner notes erroneously stated that the bonus tracks from the 20th-anniversary edition were included as the first physical release of that edition, however, this is not the case. Thankfully, in 2016 La-La Land Records released a four-CD set called The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection, which included a remastered and expanded edition of the score. That set is now out of print, but the “Jurassic Park” discs were further reissued on their own in 2022.

Spielberg and Williams returned to the well in 1997 when we discovered there was a second island - Isla Sorna aka Site B - which was a bit like the dinosaur warehouse compared to Site A's showroom. “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” was met with middling reviews, although managed to make a tidy sum of $618M at the box office. Darker and more action-orientated, it's an underrated movie with some great setpieces and a jet-black sense of humour.

But whatever you say about the quality of the film, Williams brought his A-game to the score. Accompanying returning music from “Jurassic Park” is a new theme that represents the increased action setpieces in the film - it's a breathtaking piece dominated by pounding drums and a huge string melody, giving off a feel that wouldn't be out of place in “King Kong.” Williams also composed pieces for some of the new dinosaurs, such as the vicious but tiny compys, but his finest work came at the end of the film where the T-Rex finds its way to civilisation, as heard in the brilliant track 'Visitor In San Diego.' The montage of the animals to the Island theme that closes the film is spellbinding.

MCA again gave us a generous program of sixty-eight minutes for “The Lost World,” which made it to CD on May 7th, 1997. The CD again caused controversy, albeit of a different kind: this time it was the packaging. Instead of using a standard jewel case, MCA put the disc in a cardboard digipak that opened up to become a 3D diorama of the island with the inhabiting dinosaurs. This was disliked by many, although a jewel case version of the score was released in a special box set in 2000 when “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” were released on DVD. Eventually, an expanded edition would find its way out in the previously mentioned John Williams Jurassic Park Collection, allowing for a magnificent presentation of the thrilling score.

But while another journey to the island was guaranteed thanks to more gargantuan box office takings, Williams and Spielberg would not be aboard. Released in 2001, “Jurassic Park III” brought back Alan Grant to the franchise. Directed by Joe Johnston (“The Rocketeer,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”), it was a leaner movie than the previous two at ninety minutes but had a rocky road to production being plagued by script problems. This does show in the final film, which isn't fantastic but is schlocky enough to please. At the time John Williams was busy working on “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” but recommended composer Don Davis (“The Matrix”) to the production. Davis' work is pretty impressive and he does well in combining the existing Williams themes with his own, so it feels more like a new adventure instead of just tracking.

There are several scenes and subsequent cues that pay homage to the original film, such as 'The Dinosaur Flyby,' which uses the Island theme to score Alan Grant's impromptu dinosaur-spotting tour as they arrive at the island, and 'Brachiosaurs On The Bank,' which uses the main theme to great effect to recall the 'welcome to Jurassic Park' scene. But Davis' own score satisfyingly emulates Williams without feeling like temping, and it feels like it's part of the franchise. Davis has new animals to work with, such as the flying Pteranodons and the Spinosaurus, the latter featuring in the great 'Clash of Extinction', which is just a brilliant piece of brass scoring although it sadly went unused in the film.

“Jurassic Park III” was issued on CD by Decca Records on July 10th, 2011 with a fine program that ran at fifty-five minutes, with the score running over fifty minutes (the song 'Big Hat, No Cattle' by Randy Newman made up the rest). A promotional disc was also made the same year to send to Oscar votes to consider Davis' score for an award, this was a fair bit longer at just under eighty minutes. It’s been dug up on the secondary market occasionally, but as it is with these FYC promos, it’s fairly expensive.

Despite the varying quality of the films, the music for the “Jurassic Park” franchise is pretty great across the board. John Williams' themes are now thoroughly embedded in the pantheon of legendary film music, and composers such as Don Davis and Michael Giacchino have inherited that legacy and treated it with respect. And as long as man keeps making the same mistakes and bringing back dinosaurs who subsequently go on to escape and eat everyone, we'll be happy. At least musically.