5. John Hammond Represents Visionary Directors
He may be a tad on the crazy side, but there's no denying John Hammond is a brilliant man. Finding the key to cloning dino DNA, he was able to make his wildest dreams become reality. Sparing no expense, he set out to give the people something truly extraordinary, no matter the cost. It's hard not to sympathize with him during the scene when he talks about the flea circus because he always meant well and had the best intentions. Hammond is basically a characterization of some of Spielberg's contemporaries like George Lucas and James Cameron. Like Hammond, Lucas and Cameron were once idealistic young men who had their unique visions limited by the technology they were forced to work with. Once that technology caught up with their ideas, Lucas and Cameron spared no expense
to dowhatevertheywantedto do,
no matter the cost. They got so obsessed with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should. There's no way Spielberg could have known about things like the
Star Wars prequels or
Avatar when he made this film, but I can't help but think Hammond is purposely modeled after other ambitious filmmakers to serve the cautionary tale element of the movie.
This could be you, Spielberg seems to be saying to his friends,
if you're not careful.