The technique that immediately comes to mind is the close-up on the victim's face, as they realize the power of the massive animal they will face. For Jaws, this shot is perfectly portrayed in this clip from 2:00-2:04. IN Jurassic Park, this can be observed when the children realize that a T-Rex is after them. This suspense-building technique accomplishes 2 things: it leaves the audience in suspense as they can't see the beast, and it allows the audience to sympathize with the victim through pathos. By showing them wide-eyed in a close-up, Spielberg effectively portrays them as weak and scared. They tremble and are nothing compared to the animal, yet the viewer cannot yet see this terrible creature. The character of 'Cautious Expert' is established by Hooper in Jaws, and is repeated through Alan Grant in Jurassic Park.
Jurassic Park conveys the fear of rapid development in technological and genetic fields at the time. The 90s is summarized by the .com boom, in which companies expanded and assaulted the public eye with almost-magical technologies. At the same time, people clashed over the role of human involvement in reproduction. 20 years after Roe v. Wade, abortion was still a very heated debate. To add to this, advancements in science and technology allowed modification of genetics to an unimaginable degree. Only a year later, genetically-modified food was introduced to the public. Jurassic Park presents the reality of technology going wrong. Ironically, it was human selfishness that caused the chaos of the film– both the selfishness of Hammond in creating the park, and the selfishness of the embryo thief.
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