Adaptations Book to Film: Example Four - Jurassic Park: POV's and Case Study of: The Significance of Tim Murphy's POV

For this blog post, I am going to concentrate on the POV's in both the book and the film, AND the significance of the POV of Tim Murphy in Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton, 1990).



Writing Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton wrote the Screenplay, then Book, then the final Screenplay. Before he had finished writing the book, it had already been thought about as being made into a film by Spielberg, a friend of Crichton.

Jurassic Park Book's POV:

The story is written in the third person and follows a few POV's when the story gets going:

• Dr Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill in the film)

• Tim Murphy (played by Joseph Mazzella in the film)

• Muldoon - POV up until he is killed by raptors (played by Bob Peck in the film)

In the film, for the most part, we follow the POV of Alan Grant. Although, Timmy's POV in the book is my favourite, in the film I think following Grant was a great way to present the story.

CASE STUDY: The Significance of Timmy's POV

The link below is a video from YouTube of the Kitchen Scene in the film.

The Velociraptors in the Kitchen Scene in Jurassic Park (1993)

(if this link doesn't work above, this is another link for the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnRxQ3dcaQk)

In this video, we think that Tim and his older sister Lex are finally okay after sitting down to eat some well-deserved food. However, this peace is interrupted when the velociraptors find the kids and try to kill them. 

This scene is iconic because of its:

• Lighting
• Music
• Cinematography
• Editing

building the tension and suspense. 

Tim Murphy's POV in the books is so important because it helps to drive the suspense of the film and Crichton uses his perspective to scare the readers more. Dinosaurs are scary enough, but telling it from the POV of a child is where the trick works, as it seems even scarier.

Tim's character traits are some of what creates a fine perspective due to:

• his insanely vast knowledge and interest in Dinosaurs
• the fact he thinks quickly on his feet
• his high level of maturity for a child his age
• his intelligence

I think that Tim is used to show how Richard Hammond and the scientists at iGen are irresponsible. Tim knows all the names of the dinosaurs and what they can do, it doesn't seem like the scientists do.

Just as a side note: in my opinion, the best quote in the book and best recreation in the film by Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern:

The link below is the clip:

God Creates Dinos