The Lost World (1925)

Imagine yourself in a time when dinosaurs where even more mysterious creatures then today. The only places you would see any kind of imagery of these ancient creatures were in small illustrations in the some few books or magazines you could find in the study of the mysteries of a time long lost. One could be lucky enough to see perhaps a collection of fossilized bones, or even a fairly well constructed skeleton of these monstrous lizards. To go to a theater and view a motion picture where humans were put on screen next to these living, breathing creatures that no man has ever seen in their lives would have blown there minds. The cinematic adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel was a dazzling masterpiece that wowed audiences with effects never seen before and lives as a forefather of all special effect movies that would follow.

The story follows an expedition in search of fabled lost world in deep South America where it is believed that there may be ancient beasts long thought extinct still living. The expedition consists of a professor, a newspaper writer, a sportsman, the daughter the man who disappeared in search of this land years before, as well as two servants that would serve as a kind of comic relief. As they travel deep into the jungles of South America they discover the mysterious "plateau" they have been searching for, home of the lost world. There they come face to face with a wide range of dinosaurs as well a troublesome ape-man that on a number of occasion causes troubles for our heroes. After first hand witnessing numerous attacks by several of these prehistoric creatures the expedition try to leave, but not before finding a brontosaurus stuck in mud and deciding to bring it back to civilization for display. Once back in London the dinosaur escapes and causes havoc until the Tower Bridge collapes and the dinosaur swims away down the Thames River leaving the collectors of this creature in shock.

Above all things this movie was all about the special effects. This is the granddaddy of them all. Never has the use of stop motion photography been used on such a scale. Willis O'Brien's stop motion animation was top notch for its time, and with the improvements in film processing O'Brien's creatures were able to be spliced with live actors, giving the understanding of scale for these monsters to the main characters. The effects were so life-like and seamless that test footage was shown of the movie before it was released and people were in shock and though that perhaps it was real and not movie footage. (Think of it as the YouTube video of its time.) Though this was a ground breaking film, it would only be a warm up for O'Brien's future masterpiece when King Kong would be released.

Other small things to note about this picture include issues of racism. There is a side character, one of the servants, that is played by a white man in black-face and the title cards of his speech shows improper English as to show poor eduction. This was a not to uncommon act in that day of age to have black-faced characters, but it is a sensitive subject to look back on as the character is made to look and act so unintelligent. It was a different time and it is important to understand that as we have come far since then as a society.

Little do people know that they have seen parts of this film before at one point or another as remnants of this film can be seen to this day and it is not uncommon to see short snippets of this picture play on television spliced in with compilation of other shots about dinosaurs. This manifests just how much of an iconic impact this film made in movie history. Obviously it is the forerunner of all special effect films to come, especial with the direct connection with King Kong which we will see years later. You can see the similarities with other action/adventure films produced later. Even with Jurassic Park: The Lost World we see how Steven Spielberg was directly effected by this classic movie as many of its plot points line up.

All special effect movies owe a debt of gratitude to this movie of prehistoric proportions. It is ever important to remember where film has come from and even though this movie has aged, it is still a fun adventure to enjoy today.