The classic that’s still the best
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Raiders of the Lost Ark holds a special place in the history of cinema. In recent years (and especially during the pandemic) it’s become popular to fan-source shot-forshot remakes of blockbusters. A quick Google turns up versions of Back to the Future, Jaws, Robocop, Shrek and Star Wars, made by and for fans.
But the fan-made movie known as Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation started production in the summer of 1982, when its makers were just 12 years old, and the film was back in theatres the summer after its original release. Without even a VHS copy of the film for reference, three budding filmmakers scoured magazine articles and photographs, and lugged a battery-powered tape recorder into a screening to make a bootleg audio recording.
Such is the power of Steven Spielberg’s action-adventure tale — and let’s put to rest any accusation that Raiders is better shelved under “adventure” than “action.” Recall that iconic opening scene, in which intrepid archeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) infiltrates a booby-trapped Peruvian temple to recover a golden idol.
After encountering spiders, a lethal horizontal portcullis, poison darts and a wide chasm (crossing requires a bit of whip-crackery), Indy is almost done in by a giant boulder that threatens to roll over him. Then a chase through a jungle, a vine-swing into a river, and a daring escape perched on the wing of a biplane. That’s enough action for a whole movie, right there.
And Raiders is not just the grandfather of fan-made remakes; it’s also one of the original action movies, at least as we’ve come to define them. Look up any list of the greatest in the genre and you’ll find the usual suspects — Die Hard, Aliens, Predator, The Matrix, First Blood, Lethal Weapon, The Raid, The Fast and the Furious, John Wick, and any number of superhero movies.
One thing all these titles have in common is that they came out after Raiders of the Lost Ark, which had its debut on June 12, 1981 — 40 years ago this summer. If it weren’t such a perennially good film, you could argue that it belongs in a museum.
But one of the factors that makes Raiders such a rewatchable treat is that very patina of age. Even when it was brand-new it felt old, in a wonderful, nostalgic way that hearkened back to Saturday matinee serials of the first half of the 20th century. (But with much better production values!)
Though released in 1981, the movie is set in 1936. The villains are Nazis, plus an unscrupulous archeologist (Paul Freeman) who doesn’t mind throwing in his lot with them. The Macguffin — that thing they need to get because it’s the thing they need to get — is a mystical, Biblical object of immense but unspecified power. Even the title recalls such serials as 1944’s Raiders of Ghost City or the following year’s Jungle Raiders.
The pacing is pretty near perfect. After that opening, establishing Indy’s action bona fides, we return to his day job as a professor at Marshall College, where it’s hinted that the mostly female student body is there more for the teacher than the subject. A little travel-bymap montage takes him to Morocco and ex-girlfriend Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who just happens to have a medallion he needs to continue his search.
Later, he finds a friend and ally in an Egyptian excavator played by John Rhys-davies. But the Nazis, led by the giggling Gestapo Agent Toht, are never far behind. (Toht’s comeuppance is one of the film’s many memorable, masterful moments.)
The classic status of the movie means that a wealth of lore has grown up around it. Most people know the story of how Ford was sick with dysentery while shooting a famous fight scene, and how the solution to ending the day early — by having Indy quickly shoot his knife-wielding opponent — became one of the most iconic moments in movies.
But I’ve always enjoyed some of the more arcane behind-the-scenes trivia, like the theory that Spielberg inadvertently introduced the Egg Mcmuffin to Britain, by explaining to an assistant how to make one while they were filming there. There were close to 100 Mcdonald’s in the U.K. at the time but they hadn’t yet added breakfast items to their menus.
Or the fact that the canyon near the end of the movie where the Lost Ark is being carried is the same location (in Tunisia) where R2-D2 was captured by Jawas a few years earlier, in Star Wars. (In another Star Wars homage, hieroglyphs in one scene include a tiny engraving of R2 and C-3PO.)
Then there’s the story of Ronald Lacey, the British actor who played Toht. Not classically handsome, Lacey had become disappointed with his career by the late 1970s and was thinking of becoming a talent agent when he got the role in Raiders. The notices he received kept him gainfully employed (albeit mostly as a villain) for the rest of his life.
But the defining characteristic of Raiders may be its longevity, and its evergreen enjoyability. It was 10 years ago that I introduced my eldest child, then six, to its wonders. He pronounced it “awesome” and still counts it among his favourite films. And my fear that Toht’s demise might scar the child was unfounded: “So that’s what a human head looks like when it melts,” he mused.
Last November, when I arranged to rent an entire Cineplex cinema for the bargain-basement pandemic price of $125 for a private family screening, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was the film I chose. (Note: Continued lockdown means this outing has yet to transpire.) And I remain cautiously optimistic for the July 2022 première of Indiana Jones Part V, hopeful that this will be one of those franchises where the odd-numbered entries are the best. (A reverse Star Trek if you will.)
As a great archeologist once said: It’s not the years, it’s the mileage. And Raiders still has a lot of mileage in it.
RAIDERS (IS) ONE OF THE ORIGINAL ACTION MOVIES, (AS) WE’VE COME TO DEFINE THEM . — CHRIS KNIGHT
A WEALTH OF LORE HAS GROWN UP AROUND IT.