Mutiny on the Bounty

They're known and remembered as bitter mortal enemies -- the cruel-hearted ship's captain and the daringly brave second-in-command who rose up against him. But the truth of Captain William Bligh and master's mate Fletcher Christian is more complicated than pop culture retellings have led us to believe.

William Bligh's career as a naval officer was always a certainty. His path into the navy was one of the hardest; rather than the nepotism of becoming a "captain's servant," or the "intellectualism" of the Naval Academy, Bligh spent five years working his way up from the lower decks (without the usual patronage of a rich relative to assist him).

Fletcher Christian had a similar longing for a naval career, and made his way up the ranks with surprising speed. Still, he was desperate to prove himself and knew that serving under William Bligh would provide him with invaluable experience. Determined to win over Bligh, Christian wrote personally to Captain William Bligh, asking the man directly for the opportunity to sail with him. Bligh promptly brought him on board his ship, the Britannia.

The two man came to be good friends as the Britannia made two voyages to the West Indies. Bligh was ten years Christian's senior, and Bligh took it upon himself to form a sort of mentor-student relationship with the younger man. The two men were constantly seen in conversation or dining together, and other sailors noted that Bligh seemed to give Christian plenty of slack in regard to his duties. When Bligh was given the Bethia (shortly renamed the Bounty) to take on a journey through the West Indies to deliver naval supplies, it was natural for Bligh to choose his friend and protege Fletcher Christian as his second-in-command.

4:00 a.m., April 28, 1789. The last few weeks had been a trying time for master's mate Fletcher Christian. Things had been stressful throughout the voyage, but ever since the crew had left the island of Tahiti several weeks previously, Christian had reached his breaking point. As the Bounty's second-in-command, Christian was the go-between between the captain and the crew, and it was up to him to keep the peace between them. The job put Christian first in line to receive the worst of the captain's temper, and the growing strain had proven intolerable.

Christian's original plan had been escape, and to that end he had spent the previous night lashing together some loose planks into a raft. Facing off against the Pacific Ocean was a plan that was suicidal at best -- but it was all Christian, in his panicked state, could come up with. Until a crewman approached him to implore him to change his mind. He was insistent that there was a better way: mutiny.

Before dawn had begun to appear on the horizon's edge, Christian had decided to abandon his original plan. All accounts suggest it was a move brought about by pure desperation, more than anything else. Christian's first move was to slice through the line holding one of the sounding leads in place and drape the length of rope around his neck. Should the mutiny fail, the heavy weight would provide him with a quicker end than he'd have if he was left to flounder above the waves with the sharks.

The grim precaution was ultimately an unnecessary one. Moving from crewman to crewman, Christian quickly amassed a small group of mutineers. By great good fortune, one of the men, Joseph Coleman, happened to have been given the keys to the arms chest that night, which allowed Christian and his followers to arm themselves to the teeth.

Within an hour, nearly a dozen men had joined the cause. Incredibly, no one uninvolved with the mutiny had yet to realize what was happening. It wasn't until Christian and his men began charging towards the captain's cabin that those unconnected to the mutiny realized, and by then it was far too late.

Captain William Bligh was yanked from his bunk by five of the mutineers (there wasn't room in his cabin for the whole lot). His capture set the ship into a kind of chaos. Men were shouting, running, dashing back and forth to deliver curses and news of the mutiny to one another. Many seemed to be waiting to see which way the mutiny seemed to be swinging before choosing a side. And, much to Christian's surprise, at least twenty members of the crew were not only refusing to join the mutiny -- they were, in fact, insisting on remaining at the captain's side.

It was decided that Bligh and his loyalists would be set at sea in the Bounty's launch (the largest boat on board). The launch was lowered and the loyalists made their way down the gangplank, arguing with the mutineers that they should be given supplies and tools to increase their chances of survival. Before leaving for the launch, Bligh made a last attempt to reclaim his ship and change the mind of his former friend. "Consider what you are about, Mr. Christian," he said. "I'll give my bond never to think of it again if you'll desist. I have a wife and four children in England, and you have danced my children on your knee." Replied Christian, "It is too late."

After Bligh had made his way into the launch, he was followed a moment later by one of the mutineers, who had come to hand Bligh and his loyalist crew a sextant and nautical tables -- tools they would need had they any hope of reaching land. The tools were Christian's own. "There, Captain Bligh," Christian shouted down to him. "This is sufficient for every purpose. You know the sextant to be a good one." It was a charitable act to the captain from his second-in-command, even then.

It took the launch weeks to make its way to land. But Captain Bligh ultimately survived, making his way back to England to report the mutiny. Of the mutineers, only three were ever caught, tried, and executed. Fletcher Christian and many of his fellow mutineers made their way to Pitcairn Island (in the South Pacific), and his ultimate fate is debated to this day. 

The theories on what drove William Bligh to his bouts of fury at his crew -- and what drove Fletcher Christian to mutiny -- are unending, precisely because a sure answer will never be known. What is certain is that the black-and-white portrayals of the mutiny on the Bounty that have become so popular in mainstream fiction, while entertaining, can't be taken as the whole truth. It is, however, precisely those literary and filmed adaptations that have ensured that that night on the Bounty will be regarded, in the words of author Richard Hough, as "the most celebrated mutiny of all time."

Mutiny on the Bounty in Pop Culture:

-- The 1932 novel, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

-- The 1935 film, starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable

-- The 1962 film, starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard 

-- The 1984 film, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson

More about the real Bounty:

-- The Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty by William Bligh

From the captain of the Bounty.

-- After the Bounty: A Sailor's Account of the Mutiny and Life in the South Seas by James Morrison

An account from one of the Bounty's mutineers.

-- Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian: The Men and the Mutiny by Richard Hough

Presents a new theory on the motives behind the mutiny.

-- The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander

An attempt to separate the myth from the reality of the infamous mutiny.

-- Post by Ms. B

Murder She Wrote

I have been a reader of mysteries about as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, while everyone else was reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, I was reading Encyclopedia Brown. Then I moved on to Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple. When those ran out, I had to find other authors.

One of those authors is Sue Grafton, creator of the Alphabet series. (Grafton was born April 24, 1940.) Readers were introduced to Kinsey Millhone, Grafton's heroine, in A is for Alibi in 1982. Kinsey is a spunky and quick-witted former police officer who is now a private investigator in fictional Santa Theresa, CA.

When Grafton first started with this series, there really wasn't another character like Kinsey. There had been female characters who starred in mysteries, but none of them had been of the hard-boiled detective vein. (Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski also debuted in 1982, and I will discuss her later).

Grafton started writing while in college, where she majored in English.  She published her first book, Keziah Dane, in 1967, followed by The Lolly-Madonna War in 1969. While neither was a huge success, the rights to The Lolly-Madonna War were bought by MGM. Grafton co-wrote the screenplay. Although this led to other screenwriting opportunities, she found the process of group-writing too crazy for her.

And good thing for us that it did, because Grafton began pursuing her desire to write mysteries. If not for that, we wouldn't have Kinsey Millhone, who happens to be one of my favorite literary characters.

Here are some other female investigators written by a female authors. Enjoy!

-- V.I. Warshawski

Sara Paretsky introduced her series within a few months of Grafton's, so V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Millhone have a bit in common. Vic, as she is known to her friends, became a private detective after a short stint as a public defender. She is a tough, fierce, and independent woman who usually takes on cases involving someone she knows. The stories are set in Chicago and reflect some of the rough history that the city has had. The first book in the series is Indemnity Only.

-- Tess Monaghan

Tess Monaghan is the star of Laura Lippman's series. Tess is a former journalist turned detective who investigates crimes in Baltimore. This series offers witty dialogue, along with complex characters. They are fast-paced and use the neighborhoods of Baltimore as another character. Start with Baltimore Blues.

-- Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs, from author Jacqueline Winspear, is a bit of a departure to the others on this list. The series is set in post-World War I England. Maisie, who started out working as a servant but found her way to Cambridge, has started her own private detective agency. This series is a bit more of a "cozy" mystery, but there are still plenty of darker elements, which are revealed in flashbacks to Maisie's time as a battlefield nurse. The first book in the series is Maisie Dobbs.

-- Sharon McCone

This series, started in 1977, follows the investigative life of Sharon McCone. Written by Marcia Muller,  this series is popular, although not as well-known as the others. Sharon, another independent and intelligent female private detective, works in San Francisco. While these may not be as fast-paced as other mysteries, the complex plots and fascinating secondary characters make up for that. Start with Edwin of the Iron Shoes.

-- Post by Tracy

All the World's a Stage

The Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare. 

(Or not of William Shakespeare. There's some debate. Sort of a lot, actually.)

He's the most famous author in English literature, and yet we know almost nothing about him. We don't know what order he wrote his plays in. We don't know how he actually spelled his name: in the half a dozen signatures he left behind, he never spelled his name the same way twice (and, point of fact, he never actually spelled it "Shakespeare"). We don't know who his friends were, where he traveled (did he ever leave England?), what he was doing when he shot to fame as a highly successful playwright. He left behind almost a million written words, but only fourteen of them are written in his own handwriting. 

April 23 is, by tradition, agreed to be both the day of William Shakespeare's birth (in 1564), and the day of his death (in 1616). While some of that may not be completely accurate -- we're not so sure about that birthday (we just know he was baptized on April 26) -- it has left April 23 as the day to recognize Shakespeare. 

So in honor of the Bard, let's take a look at a few different ways you can experience the stories of William Shakespeare for yourself.

The Droeshout engraving:

 Another portrait of William Shakespeare. Probably. Unless it's not.

Five Ways to Experience William Shakespeare

1. On the Page

Most Shakespeare fans will inform you that Shakespeare is meant to be seen, not read. While that's technically true (plays are written to be performed, after all), there's something to be said for reading the plays on your own -- at your own pace, with your own interpretations. 

Of course, if, like me, you haven't read any Shakespeare since college, the idea of reading and getting some sense out of such dialogue as, "If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall ... Enough; no more: 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before." -- well, it's a bit intimidating, is what I'm saying.

Enter Simply Shakespeare and Shakespeare Made Easy. These series take the entire, original text of various Shakespeare plays and provide a line-by-line translation into "modern" English. The Shakespeare text is presented on the left-hand pages; the modern version sits across on the right side. It affords you the chance to read the original text -- but, when a particular passage or turn of phrase leaves you baffled, you can look across to the page opposite for a helping hand. (Turns out the above passage -- from Twelfth Night's Duke Orsino -- has the lovesick Duke begging his musicians first to play on, then to stop the music, seeing as he finds music, like love, to change its tune.)

-- Request a Simply Shakespeare title.

-- Request a Shakespeare Made Easy title. 

2. With Your iPod

Prefer to experience the Bard through performance?  You might consider trying one of the plays as an audiobook.

Shakespeare's works are all available as audio plays, with your choice of dozens of different full-cast productions for each play. Highly recommended are the Archangel Shakespeare productions, starring A-list Shakespeare actors. Or try Essential Shakespeare Live Encore: The Royal Shakespeare Company in Performance, a "Shakespeare sampler" with key scenes and monologues from various plays, which includes performances by such actors as Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Jonathan Pryce, Patrick Stewart, and David Tennant.

All these and more are available on cassette tape, CD, and even Playaway. It's the perfect way to experience a Shakespeare play on the go.

-- Browse and request Shakespeare performances on cassette tape.

-- Browse and request Shakespeare performances on CD.

-- Browse and request Shakespeare performances on Playaway.

3. On the Screen

Of course, it's still a fantastic experience to see a Shakespeare play being performed before your eyes. And the on-screen variations of Shakespeare's plays could take up a blog entry in their own right. Recordings of live performances, modern adaptations and reworkings, movie-star-studded casts, made-for-TV efforts ... the list goes on and on. 

Want Shakespeare adapted for modern times?  Try this loose adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. Or how about a modernized setting with the original dialogue still in place?  Go with this Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet. Looking for a more traditional presentation?  There's Kenneth Branagh's esteemed production of As You Like It. And, if you'd like to see as "authentic" a version as you can get, try one of the live productions recorded on set at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

(And, if you'd like to get the full movie-theater experience, check out the Joss Whedon-directed production of Much Ado About Nothing, due out in theaters June 7.)

-- Browse and request Shakespeare performances on VHS

-- Browse and request Shakespeare performances on DVD

-- Browse and request Shakespeare performances on Blu-ray

4. In the Park 

From 2011's The Merry Wives of Windsor

Of course, for the truly ultimate "Shakespeare experience," a live performance is the way to go. And, while we may be a long way from the Globe Theatre in London, Pittsburgh has their very own Shakespearean venue: Shakespeare in the Parks.

Started in 2005, Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks got their start performing As You Like It in Frick Park, as directed by the group's founder, Jennifer Tober. The company of cast and crew grew alongside the performances' popularity, and the group has been offering free performances of Shakespeare plays in Frick, Mellon, and Kennard parks every autumn ever since.

This September, performances of Romeo and Juliet will be running every weekend afternoon. Keep updated on their progress and announcements by checking out their website or following them on Facebook.

5. In Space

We're big fans around here of Doctor Who, the long-running British sci-fi series about the alien Doctor, his human Companions, and his little blue-box spaceship that travels the galaxies through space and time. As a time traveler, the Doctor's met more than his fair share of historical celebrities. And in the third season of the newly-returned show, the Doctor takes his pal Martha for a night out at the theater ... the original Globe Theater, that is, for the premiere performance of Love's Labour’s Lost. Being Doctor Who, it's only a matter of time before the Doctor and Martha end up meeting the Bard himself -- not to mention battling alien witches and encountering Queen Elizabeth I, all while making some truly clever references to Harry Potter.

It's basically the best episode of Doctor Who ever.

Doctor Who isn't the only sci-fi series to make use of Shakespeare references. After hiring esteemed Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart to play the part of ship's captain, it was probably inevitable that Star Trek: The Next Generation would make good use of quoting the Bard whenever possible. Captain Picard (Stewart) is an avowed Shakespeare fan who keeps a battered copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare in his ready room, and monologues and plot threads aplenty from the Shakespeare canon have found their way into the series.

Captain Picard's Shakespeare book

From preserved folios to modern adaptions to futuristic references -- it seems that Shakespeare is, indeed, truly timeless. And maybe the reason for Shakespeare's enduring popularity is as much a mystery as the man himself.

Then again, surely it must have something to do with the Bard's unparalleled ability to reveal the timeless truths of what it is to be human. As the Doctor put it: 

"Genius. [Shakespeare]’s a genius -- THE genius. The most human Human that’s ever been."

For more on the life of William Shakespeare, check out Bill Bryson's awesome book 

Shakespeare: The World as Stage.

-- Post by Ms. B

A Professional Pirate

The irreplaceable, irrepressible Tim Curry

I've been a fan of Tim Curry for years. An actor, singer, and voice actor, he's appeared on stage and screen in a huge variety of shows, plays, and films. He first came to my attention in such kid-friendly fare as the film adaptation of the hit Broadway show Annie, and as the deliciously villainous Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers. As I got older, I discovered how far his range truly stretched with such iconic roles as Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Pennywise the Clown in the Stephen King miniseries It. (And, of course, one of my favorite Curry roles is his appearance as the Moriarty-inspired character of Dale Biederbeck in the TV series Monk.)

Despite having such a wide range -- from comedic roles to the dramatic, from period pieces to horror, from voice acting to musicals -- one of the things that Curry brings to every role is precisely why I think he has so many fans: his sense of fun. Curry is clearly an actor who loves what he does, and in every role, no matter what it is, that enjoyment and high good humor is shining through. There are many actors who I'm a fan of, but Tim Curry might be the one who's the most consistently fun.

So in honor of his upcoming birthday (April 19), let's take a look at five of his most memorable roles:

-- The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Starting life in 1973 as a London musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was quickly adapted into a film that was released two years later. The movie musical was Curry's first major film role -- appropriate, since he'd originated the role in London during the play's premiere.

A musical send-up of the science fiction and horror B movies of the 50s and 60s, this cult classic features Curry in the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter. This nearly-indescribable musical focuses on a newly-engaged couple who leave their broken-down car and walk down the road to a castle owned by Dr. Frank N. Furter, only to get caught up in all manner of increasingly bizarre and wild hijinks. The best way to describe it, I think, is simply to say: you gotta watch it for yourself.

Strangeness aside, this cult classic nonetheless features one of Curry's most iconic roles. And the film's effects on pop culture are decidedly far-reaching: the movie has remained in theaters to this day. Don't forget to check out the soundtrack!

-- Clue

You wouldn't expect a movie based on a boardgame to become a cult classic in its own right -- until you've seen Clue, anyway. This murder mystery story is very much a spoof of the mystery genre, and a comedy in its own right, starring such actors as Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and Tim Curry as the butler, Wadsworth.

Borrowing heavily from Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None, the film draws together six strangers who are invited to a secluded mansion. They're promptly given code names by the butler (of the "Professor Plum" and "Colonel Mustard" variety, natch), before the reason for their invitation becomes clear: all six of them are being blackmailed by their host, Mr. Boddy. (Get it?)  When Mr. Boddy turns up murdered, the culprit has to be one of the guests -- but who?  Antics ensue as the guests (with Wadsworth's help) try to figure out the guilty party.

Since "the butler did it" is such a staple of murder mysteries, you might expect Curry's dry, droll Wadsworth to be the culprit -- but, well, it actually depends. There are three different solutions to the mystery, and, when the movie was first released to theaters, how you saw the ending was determined by what theater you happened to see the film in. (The DVD release features all three versions.)

-- Muppet Treasure Island 

Tim Curry as a pirate in a movie starring the Muppets?  Yes, please!  This Muppet-ified version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island stars Tim Curry in the role of the peg-legged sea cook Long John Silver -- alongside Kermit the Frog as Captain Smollett, Fozzie Bear as Squire Trelawney, and Miss Piggy as Benjamina Gunn.

This family-friendly musical manages to be both a delightful Muppets spoof and also a fairly faithful adaptation of the original novel (well, more or less). Like most Muppets movies, the film's a fun romp for kids while also having plenty of humor for the adults in the audience (Gonzo and Rizzo find a copy of Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy in Billy Bones's sea chest).

The cartoony, off-beat humor and fun make this classic Muppets fare. But the story's also got heart, in the paternal friendship that forms between Long John Silver and the orphaned Jim Hawkins (played by  Kevin Bishop). 

-- Spamalot

We've talked about Spamalot before -- the Eric Idle-penned musical adapted from the Monty Python cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When the show premiered on Broadway in 2005, the production starred Curry in the role of King Arthur.

I got to see Spamalot when it toured to Pittsburgh several years ago, but, alas, Curry was no longer playing the role of Arthur. Luckily for all of us who missed out, the original Broadway cast recording is available on CD. Curry shines as the devoted, often slightly-exasperated King of Camelot who just wants to find the Grail and get back to Camelot -- but who can't seem to help but get involved in all sorts of weirdness along the way.

-- A Series of Unfortunate Events 

As a major animation buff, one of the reasons I'm such a Curry fan is because of the vast amount of voice acting he's done. He's famous among animation fans for the wide variety of cartoon characters he's voiced -- and also the ones he hasn't. Bruce Timm, the showrunner of the popular 90s show Batman: The Animated Series, confessed that he originally hired Curry to provide the voice of the Joker in the show. Unfortunately, the producers had to let Curry go after he'd recorded the dialogue for only a few episodes. Curry was doing such a good job the producers were afraid his performance would traumatize the show's youngest viewers!

But you don't have to be an animation enthusiast to experience Curry's amazing vocal repertoire. Try, instead, his performance as the audiobook reader on Lemony Snicket's well-known children's series A Series of Unfortunate Events. This thirteen-book series features the misadventures of the Baudelaire orphans -- Violet, Klaus, and Sunny -- as they struggle to escape from the clutches of their new guardian, Count Olaf. Olaf is after the fortune that the Baudelaire parents left for their children.

Promising from the first page to be a book "with no happy ending," Unfortunate Events still manages to be a darkly humorous series, making it a match made in heaven to Curry's voice acting skills. He finds distinctive voices for the huge cast of characters, and his wry reading (matching Snicket's wry writing) makes this series primed to be enjoyed by listeners of all ages.

-- Post by Ms. B

Women and the Golden Age of Hollywood

The Golden Age of Hollywood was a magical time for film. Many of my favorite films come from this time (1930s - 1950s). It was the height of the studio system, and the studios were cranking out films left and right. Writers and actors were tied to one studio for very long periods of time. Those studios (Warner Brothers, Paramount, 20th Century Fox) were run by powerful and visionary men.

Some of the cinemas' most memorable actors came from this system. And while the average woman of the time didn't have enough power to have a career in other than traditionally female jobs, there were an incredible number of women who were box office successes.

Here are a few films from some of the most successful actresses of their time.


-- It Happened One Night (1934)

This Frank Capra-directed film is one of the best romantic comedies ever filmed. Spoiled rich girl Ellie (Claudette Colbert) has just married a man her father does not approve of. While her father is getting the marriage annulled, Ellie sets out on a bus trip to be reunited with her love. The story is all over the news, and journalist Peter Warne (Clark Gable) can't believe his luck when he ends up on the same bus as Ellie. She is forced to accept his help to reach her "husband" when her purse is stolen. Of course, hijinks ensue and the two find themselves falling in love.


-- The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Days before socialite Tracy Lord's marriage, her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, shows up with two tabloid reporters prepared to cover the wedding. Tracy (Katherine Hepburn) is not happy to see her former husband (Cary Grant). Tracy is trying to move on after their disastrous marriage, but keeps finding herself drawn back towards Haven and one of the reporters (Jimmy Stewart). Moments before the ceremony, Tracy realizes who she should really be marrying.


-- To Have and Have Not (1944)

Against his better judgment, boat owner Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) agrees to transport members of the French resistance during the early days of World War II. While this is going on, he meets a young pickpocket (Lauren Bacall) who falls in love with him. While this is not Bacall's biggest role (it was her first, actually), the chemistry between her and Bogart is electrifying. Their budding romance led to her role in the film being increased.


-- The Thin Man (1934)

Newly married, the former private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) returns to New York with his wife, Nora (Myrna Loy). They are rich and bored, so when an acquaintance asks Nick for his help in clearing her father's name in a murder investigation, Nick accepts. Nora is thrilled, because she wants to experience the excitement of solving a case. This was the first in a series of five films starring Powell and Loy.


-- Now, Voyager (1942)

Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is a spinster aunt and the only daughter of a very old and influential Boston family. Her tyrannical and overbearing mother tries to control every aspect of Charlotte's life, which leads Charlotte to a nervous breakdown. After several weeks recuperating at a sanatorium, she departs on a cruise to South America that will change her life forever. She falls in love with a married man (Paul Henreid) who she knows she can never be with, but his love for her transforms her. She eventually ends up taking care of his youngest daughter, who is also emotionally damaged, which gives her a sort of happiness that she never expected to have.

In many ways, this is somewhat of a traditional romance, but I really enjoy watching Charlotte learn to be the person she was meant to be, and all from the love of one person. That it happens to be a romantic relationship makes it more interesting. But is shows that if Charlotte would have received even a small amount of love and attention from her mother, she most likely would have had an easier road to self-discovery.

-- Post by Tracy

Life Finds a Way

At movie theaters today, most hit films make a third of their total gross on their opening weekend. Films rarely stay in theaters for more than two months -- and even then, only the biggest blockbusters make it that long. But twenty years ago, a movie came along that not only broke the opening weekend records ($50 million in three days, unheard of in 1993), it nearly doubled that opening the following weekend. And after that record two-week showing, the movie stayed in theaters for over a year. (It was still being shown on 100 movie screens in October 1994, when the film was released on VHS.) It was one of the last movies to ever gain that much play in theaters for so sustained a period.

And what's more, it did it without a single big-name star and without an already-established franchise.

I've gotten some raised eyebrows when I've referred to Jurassic Park as the "Star Wars" of my generation. In a world where Star Wars fans will line up for days ahead of time for movie tickets and write down "Jedi" on census forms as their official religion -- can Jurassic Park fans really compare?

Allow me to make my case.

Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist (a scientist who studies pre-historic life). He and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are on a dig in the Badlands of Montana, thrilled with their fresh findings but concerned about the future of their research once their funding runs out. Enter eccentric billionaire John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough), who mysteriously promises to fund a three-year dig if Grant and Sattler accompany Hammond to his new theme park and offer their opinions on attractions "so astounding, they'll drive kids out of their minds."

It's a crazy offer, but Grant and Sattler aren't about to refuse. Joined by mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), and fussy lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), the group travels to a small island off the coast of Costa Rica to see Hammond's flashy new attractions.

The attractions, as it turns out, are genetically engineered dinosaurs, created by scientists who have extracted dino DNA from ancient preserved mosquitos. (No, this would never actually work -- but c'mon, it's a movie.) A previous accident that had occurred with one such "attraction" led Hammond to track down a handful of experts to experience the island for themselves and vouch for the park's safety.

But electrified fences and tranquilizer darts only go so far, and it's not long before disgruntled-employee sabotage leads to the dinosaurs escaping their cages and wrecking havoc on the humans around them. Hammond, Malcolm, and Sattler must find a way to restore working computer systems to the park, while Dr. Grant promptly finds himself lost amidst a cadre of loose dinos -- with Hammond's two young grandkids at his side. (The lawyer winds up eaten.) The ensuing film is an action-adventure story like few others.

A Jurassic Park scientist extracts DNA from a preserved mosquito

To understand the impact that Jurassic Park had on the film industry, you have to delve deeper into what the franchise really accomplished. When it premiered in 1993, Jurassic Park broke new ground in the world of special effects. Although Terminator 2: Judgment Day had already used computer generated imagery (or "CGI") to great effect two years previously, Jurassic Park was held up as proof positive that a new era of movie-making had arrived. Here, now, was CGI being used to create the appearance of living, breathing dinosaurs. There was a bit of a meta effect going on with Jurassic Park: just as movie character John Hammond had found scientists capable of recreating 65 million year old animals from rebuilt DNA, so had director Steven Spielberg found artists capable of recreating those same animals -- but out of computer programs and pixels. The result of the latter was a new world of visuals that was like nothing that the movie-going public had ever seen before.

To say it succeeded audience expectations is to put it far too mildly. These days, movie trailers cram in shots of the film's most impressive special effect sequences, in an effort to entice audiences into the theaters. But the trailers for Jurassic Park had not made fully apparent what audiences could expect to see, saving all of the best effects shots for the movie itself. The resulting anticipation to see what the movie had to offer was a huge reason why so many people -- myself included -- went to see the film ... and our anticipation was definitely rewarded.

A computer-generated T-rex eating a Gallimimus (don't worry, the Gallimimus is CGI too)

The irony, of course, is that so many of Jurassic Park's greatest shots weren't CGI at all. Many of the most memorable sequences -- the T-rex attacking two stalled Jeeps (with passengers still inside them), or a pair of Velociraptors stalking the kids in the Visitor Center kitchen -- were achieved with real, physical models, not CGI effects. Most of the shots of the T-rex, for instance, were not computerized but were instead filmed with puppets and robot pieces designed by special/visual effects wizards Stan Winston and Phil Tippett. From building a full-size T-rex robot (weighing in at 9,000 pounds) to creating raptor suits for actors to wear, the practical effects gave the film a more "real," physical feel to it than CGI shots alone could have created.

One of the T-rex "robots"

But to be clear, it's not all about the special effects. One other reason that the Jurassic Park franchise has remained such a steadfast favorite for so many fans was the messages behind the movies. It was one of the first big-budget, visual effects bonanzas I ever saw that nonetheless had something to say. The movie had a strong, clear message -- coming through from Michael Crichton's original novel (Crichton also co-wrote the screenplay) -- about the importance of showing respect, care, and perhaps a little caution within the world of scientific advancements. "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could," snaps Ian Malcolm to an unrepentant John Hammond, "They didn't stop to think if they should." While the film is in no way anti-science, it does caution its audience against the temptation to misuse knowledge that's been untempered by humility or discipline.

It's hardly all doom-and-gloom, however. The film's other message -- and it's a strong one -- is the unstoppable force of life. Despite everyone's best attempts to keep the animals of Jurassic Park caged and controlled, the effort is a futile one. Even before the dinosaurs escape, they're forcing their way around the barriers the scientists try to impose: trying to hunt despite being fed, trying to escape despite the fences, and -- most surprising of all, since all the animals were genetically engineered to be female -- building nests and breeding. "Life cannot be contained," Ian Malcolm explains. "Life breaks free, expands to new territories -- painfully, maybe even dangerously. But ... life finds a way."

The movie makes clear that its lessons go beyond the boundaries of the story's fiction. Jurassic Park was released during a time when paleontology was making tremendous breakthroughs in the discipline's understanding of the ancient animals of some 100 million years ago. Originally viewed as sluggish, cold-blooded, and somewhat stupid ancestors of today's reptiles, fresh evidence led scientists to revise their theories. A new understanding was born: dinosaurs were much quicker and more limber than previously thought to be, and many of them had been quite intelligent. What's more, many dinosaurs -- with their particular bone structures and skeletal shape -- are actually closer relatives of today's birds than they are to reptiles.

The dinosaurs may have died out (precisely why is still unknown, although the most agreed-upon theory is a catastrophic meteorite), but their genes live on in their avian cousins. Life finds a way.

I was ten years old when Jurassic Park hit theaters, and I can still remember the twin thrills of fear and excitement that shot through me when I first saw the T-rex break through her fencing and start the adventure. The movie took care to set up its story before launching into the thrills, and it was approaching the first-hour mark when the fences went down and the action began. It was a roller-coaster ride of a movie, unlike anything my ten-year-old, dinosaur-loving self had ever seen before. It's the best time I've ever had at a theater.

I watched the movie over and over as a kid. (I can still quote plenty of the lines verbatim!) I eagerly awaited the arrival of the two sequels, and Michael Crichton's original novel (on which the film was based) was the first "grown-up novel" I ever read.

Last weekend saw the release of a new 3-D version of the movie, hitting theaters in celebration of Jurassic Park's 20th anniversary. The timing, for me, is strangely fitting: it's right around my thirtieth birthday. What better time to return to theaters and become a kid again?

[VIDEO: The Sound of Jurassic Park]

-- Request Jurassic Park on DVD
-- Request Jurassic Park on Blu-ray

-- Request The Lost World: Jurassic Park on DVD
-- Request The Lost World: Jurassic Park on Blu-ray

-- Request Jurassic Park III on DVD
-- Request Jurassic Park III on Blu-ray

-- Request the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
-- Request the novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton

-- Post by Ms. B