Cultural depictions of dinosaurs

When Dinosaurs Movies are referred to, in which dinosaurs or dinosaur -like creatures play a prominent role. Since the early days of film history dinosaurs were presented as a special attraction for the audience on the big screen again and again. In Mark F. Berry's book, The Dinosaur Filmography, which gave a complete overview of all previously published dinosaur films in 2005, all films were taken, " show one or more specimens of extinct reptiles " the. Dinosaur Similar representations were included if the intention of the filmmakers was to show real or fictional dinosaur. Movies about other extinct animals or mythological creatures were not included.

History

The first, dating from around 1905 films that took advantage of the new medium for the representation of these extinct creatures are lost. The first really successful and preserved until today dinosaur movies were those of the " wonderfully trained " Dinosaur Gertie lady, drawn by Winsor McCay and directed by David Wark Griffith film Brute Force, who had to make do with barely be animated dinosaur models.

Significant value takes the silent film The Lost World from 1925. Based on the popular novel The Lost World (1912 ) of the Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle, who moved into the fabric of his best seller from the Bone Wars of the United States and the subsequent findings of the " Dino Hunter ", he first does not represent the Dinosaur aggressive single monster is, but as animals that can live together in herds and innocent so long as it does not disturb the person. For the animations in stop-motion technique Willis O'Brien was in charge, who previously turned a decade Dinosaur short films for Thomas Alva Edison's Motion Picture Company and The Ghost of Slumber Mountain ( 1918) dinosaurs for the first time under the scientific advice of paleontologist Barnum Brown had created by the American Museum of Natural History. The Lost World inspired a series of remakes and dinosaurs representations of other films, such as King Kong and the white woman in 1933.

For film producers and directors, it was appealing to use trick film and animation for the dinosaurs, of which they knew only the bones to come alive again, at least on screen. Many monsters got in the film a look that was reminiscent of the scales, bone plates, horns, spines and teeth of the dinosaur fossils.

Improved animation techniques and, finally, the computer animation led since Steven Spielberg's productions in a Land Before Time (1988) and Jurassic Park (1993 ) to a veritable boom in dinosaur films. The popularity that got the extinct giants will through these films in the population, had also due to the research. Conversely could incorporate new knowledge about the habits of these reptiles in the Mesozoic in numerous documentaries and television productions. The success of the films provided impulses for the Paleo way, a form of art that strives to translate scientific findings of paleontology in works of fine art. In the film you can not do without the drafts of such artists and designers for storyboards and models. The exact appearance of the dinosaurs is not known. Especially the color and the movement sequences can be reconstructed only by comparisons with animals alive today. Intuition and imagination are crucial.

Content

The presentation of the dinosaurs in the movie influenced the popular image of the behavior and the way of life of these extinct giant lizards sustainable. From the beginning, the dinosaurs were almost always faced people today at the same time in these films. In fact, they were already extinct at the end of the Mesozoic era 65 million years ago, during the first ancestors of modern man until the late Cenozoic, the beginning of the Quaternary period about 2.5 million years ago, occurred. Various fantastic phenomena were constructed by writers and screenwriters as a reason for the coincidence of people and dinosaurs. In 1854 Jules Verne erschienenem, later often filmed novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, meet scientists in the Earth to the primeval beings. In Arthur Conan Doyle, the " Lost World " is a previously unexplored part of the South American jungle, could survive in the dinosaurs. Conan Doyle created with The Lost World a topos which is inseparably connected with adventurers and dinosaurs.

One made ​​it to DW Griffith in his 1914 released movie Brute Force. In order to make his feature film about the behavior of the Stone Age people more interesting, he showed scenes in which dinosaurs threaten people. Due to the overall story is clear that the Stone Age scenario takes place only in the imagination of a bored party guest in Griffiths 's own time. Nevertheless, the compilation of early man stayed with the extinct giant a regularly repeated in the movie cliché. In the animated series The Flintstones (1960-1966) is exploited in a humorous way. Another pattern commonly used in dinosaur films also goes back to Griffiths Brute Force: the animals are depicted as bloodthirsty monsters who reflexively attack anything that moves. It was only in the film The Lost World by Willis O'Brien from 1925 dinosaurs are shown not only as solitary predators, but also as a peace- living herd animals.