Originally, John Hammond a hero — a mistake that changed the ensuing franchise from being a about an irresponsible and arrogant philanthropist into a celebration of his legacy. This pivotal change wouldn’t have happened, however, if the Jurassic Park’s movie didn’t also shortchange one of the book’s more heroic ing characters.
Donald Gennaro, the sleazy lawyer who works for Hammond in the adaptation of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novel, is never made out to be a heroic figure. At best he is ambivalent, although many of his comments about potential litigation and profits — along with his distaste for hanging out with Hammond’s grandchildren — mark him out as a bad guy. Gennaro might not be a major antagonist in Jurassic Park, but by the time he becomes one of the first human characters to fall victim to the T-rex, the audience is certainly not meant to feel too bad for the guy.
However, when Jurassic Park made the mistake of turning the self-centered scientist of the original novel into the movie’s hero, the adaptation stripped Gennaro of almost all of his likable qualities. Instead of being killed on the toilet by a T-rex, as in the movie adaptation, the lawyer not only survives the Jurassic Park novel and is a more heroic figure throughout its story, but he even helps the main characters out near its climax. The change is an important one that had lasting after-effects on the franchise, which has since valorized John Hammond as a hero and forgotten all about his portayal in the novel.
Jurassic Park’s Donald Gennaro Explained
In the Jurassic Park novel, Donald Gennaro is still an attorney for the eccentric millionaire John Hammond. Like Hammond’s other Jurassic Park employee Dennis Nedry, Gennaro's book counterpart is a lot more humanized and sympathetic than his movie iteration. His part in the creation of Jurassic Park is theoretically to ensure that the attraction can be legally viable and, in the novel, he’s a cowardly but largely decent guy who is devastated to miss his daughter’s birthday thanks to the fateful island visit. He ends up not only advising Hammond to never open the park to the public due to safety concerns, but he also plays a pivotal role in helping the heroes escape. When Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant need to make it to the raptor nest, it is Gennaro who helps them pull off the mission, and he makes it out of the Jurassic Park novel alive by escaping the island with them via helicopter at the end.
How (& Why) Jurassic Park’s Movie Adaptation Changed Gennaro
Not only is Gennaro dead by the end of Jurassic Park's movie adaptation, but he has also been turned into the sort of character whose death audiences are encouraged to cheer on. On screen, he is a stock shady lawyer character with little development. He’s given a lot of lines about how to avoid litigation and how much money the park will make, but little in the way of humanizing traits. He’s even uncomfortable around children, a sure sign that he’s destined to die — which he does, on the toilet, early in proceedings. This is a striking change, as the novel’s Gennaro is heartbroken to miss his child’s birthday whereas his movie equivalent can’t stand being left in charge of kids.
The One Weird Gennaro Detail That Jurassic Park’s Novel Sequel Kept
For what it’s worth, the Jurassic Park novel series did bring back one element of the movie canon, in a way. Crichton’s Jurassic Park sequel, The Lost World mentions that the heroic Donald Gennaro died offscreen of dysentery, meaning he still suffered a surprisingly similar fate to his movie counterpart, albeit in different circumstances. The book version of Gennaro still died on the toilet, it was just via a painful disease contracted on a business trip rather than by being eaten by a T-rex. Whether Crichton added the death as a nod to Gennaro’s movie death is unclear, although it is a surprisingly abrupt and grotesque offscreen end for a well-liked ing star from his original Jurassic Park novel.
Why Jurassic Park’s Gennaro Changes Matter
Although Donald Gennaro’s changes are more extreme than most, all of Jurassic Park’s novel characters underwent some minor alterations during the movie’s journey from page to screen. Alan Grant’s character arc isn’t exactly the same in both the Crichton novel and Spielberg's adaptation, so it may seem reasonable to say that Gennaro was simply the victim of the necessary means to keep the plot fresh. However, this analysis ignores the impact of Gennaro’s character changes. Specifically, turning the lawyer into a sleazier, profit-motivated character allowed Jurassic Park’s movie adaptation to make the dangerously deluded John Hammond of the source novel into a well-meaning hero. It is a change that short-changed Gennaro for Hammond’s sake, making the ing character an antagonist to make the more central figure seem forgivable.
There is no real need for Gennaro to be a villainous figure in Jurassic Park’s movie adaptation. Viewers are less likely to be saddened by his death this way, but that didn’t stop the movie’s sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park from killing off its most sympathetic character, Eddie, in an even more brutal fashion. Rather, the reasoning behind making Gennaro a villain has little to do with the plot and everything to do with justifying Hammond’s actions. As the man who decided to revive dinosaurs in the first place, then short-changed his employees and ignored his legal advisers, Hammond is the villain responsible for the deaths seen in Jurassic Park. However, in the movie adaptation, he’s a kindly old grandfather played by the beloved Richard Attenborough. This results in characters like Dennis Nedry and Donald Gennaro getting the short shrift as Jurassic Park had to rewrite its ing cast characters to make its villain into a misguided hero.
