Dinosaur 13 Review
One of the most shocking documentaries I have watched since Black Fish, Dinosaur 13 is one of those stories where truth is stranger than fiction. Seriously, I don't think even a novelist would put what happened here in a fictional world.
The first time I heard about this documentary was actually when I was at Sundance. I remember hearing lots of applause for it, but after seeing it now I'm kicking myself for not checking it out then. Dinosaur 13 paints a wonderfully, insane, story about a group of paleontologists who discover the most completed T-Rex fossil, and the aftermath it entails as the United States government intervenes, and the paleontologists take them to court to get their fossil back.
One of the obstacles documentaries have to get over is their format. Many documentaries are just heads of people talking with maybe a reenactment. Dinosaur 13 does have this, but it also has so much more. Not only did they have actual footage of the paleontologists discovering and digging up the T-Rex, Sue, while also have well placed reenactments, but for the time they did have talking heads they weren't just stating the facts. The first half hour really shows you what this dinosaur means to these people, and you can see the passion in their eyes as their reliving their discovery. You see their pain when the government comes in, their confusion, and passion that makes the viewer just engrossed in this crazy story.
As the film progresses you'll be yelling at the screen saying "What?" or "That happened?" and it's a real testament to a film, especially a documentary, to evoke these emotions in a viewer. If you don't know what happened, then this film will have so many twists that you'd be pulling your hair with how far the government, and other people, fought for this T-Rex.
Dinosaur 13 is a spectacular documentary that everyone should watch. People who don't like documentaries can be engrossed in this, the mix of actual footage, to the passion of the interviews, and the clever reenactments are what makes this documentary superior to many others before it.
A-
