Jurassic park (1993) analysis: Gender roles and female as monster

Jurassic park is a brilliant film and a childhood favourite of mine. It is a great scifi and action adventure blockbuster, but it has really interesting themes. Ethical dilemmas and issues of gender and sexism.

Traditionally female characters have been divided into the trifecta of evil: mother, monster and whore. In Jurassic Park the focus is on monster and mother. All the dinosaurs in the park are cloned "bred" to be female. This is discussed as a Checkov's gun in the early part of the film, but Alan discovers later in the film that the dinosaurs have in fact been breeding, due to (suspend your disbelief) amphibian DNA changing the sex from female to male. (see pictures below).

However there is a strong female character in the film in Ellie. She shows strength in the face of the dinosaurs, but becomes the hysterical woman when the raptors are chasing her. (See below). This is after the overt discussion and Checkov's gun where Hammond states it should be him going not her, because he implies that he's a man and she's a woman. To which Ellie replies: "we can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back". (see below).

Ellie has become the hyseterical woman after being chased by the raptors (fair enough!)

Hammond is sexist

In the scene where Muldoon is hunting the raptors, when in actual fact they are hunting him in a trap, there is a lot of phallic imagery. There are a number of close ups of his gun and then the line "clever girl" when he sees that she is about to kill him (See below). It is a reversal of the traditional gender roles of the man "hunting" a woman, instead the female "beast" i.e. the raptor as "monster" attacks him and kills him. Then we see a short sequence of a snake slithering alongside a raptor's face (see below). Imagery that speaks both to sexual gender roles as well as linking it to the obvious Adam and Eve symbols that perforate the film. 

"Clever girl"

Adam and Eve reference with the raptor murder scene. 

 While the film follows the horror/ thriller genre tropes, it really follows the themes of family and mother and father. At the start of the film Ellie and Alan have a conversation about him not wanting children, he says they "smell" and "they're expensive". From the beginning section at the park Ellie tries to get Alan to spend time with the kids and he ends up becoming the protector and father figure "hero" for them for the rest of the film.

The framing a shots of the end sequence with the T-Rex center them as a family unit. Through the film Alan's character has become "hero" and "father" figure. (see below). While the T-Rex has in fact become saviour and mother figure by killing the raptors and saving the family. (See below). In addition the female characters have a role to play in saving the "family" from the female monsters. Ellie says to Alan that he cannot hold the door alone when the raptors are attacking it and she helps them. Then Lex who has mostly been afraid and hysterical throughout the film, becomes "hero" by using her hacking skills to put the computer systems back on line (hilarous computer graphics by the way! Way worse than the dinosaurs which actually stand the test of time).

So the film ends with Alan become the father figure in the traditional sense through his experience and Hammond is the reverse he leaves his creations. I haven't delved into the religious themes of the film, but there is a lot! He acts like God and his creations escape his control. A frequent theme in science fiction and horror films and stories that acting like God will kill you or you will be punished. This film indicates that cloning is against God and thus punished. But interesting I feel the end of the film is melancholic, but freeing because the dinosaurs are set free of human interference (despite all the fences and locks back on line) and can live in a "natural" ecosystem, returning the film to the repeated theme "life finds a way" as Malcolm states early in the film.