Isn’t it fantastic to watch a perfect film with a perfect audience in a perfect theater with the perfect trailers and the perfect atmosphere?
It’s funny... I’ve seen this film maybe as many times as 35. When RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK came to Austin in 1981 my sister was just a week or two old. It was the first film she went to. She probably doesn’t know that factoid. I do though. It was at the ol FOX theater... a grand two screen treasure trove of filmic plunder. In addition to Raiders, it is the location of the first memories of ROCKY III, BLADE RUNNER, JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING, EXCALIBUR and many others... but.. the film I remember and mark the territory by is RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
God, what I would give to see it in that theater again... but now... well... now the theater is a Mercedes-Benz dealership... kinda fitting, what with the Mercedes in RAIDERS.
I wasn’t going to see RAIDERS tonight, I went and saw ELIZABETH at a sneak here in Austin. I was tired after the film. It did not in the least invigorate or charge me. The film is fine. Beautiful art direction, Geoffery Rush is fantastic, Cate Blanchett is wonderful, but... It wasn’t the film I was in the mood for after watching 52 continuous hours of the EPISODE ONE trailer.
I came away criticizing minuscule unimportant nuances. I was griping about hiding the sets in shadows. My father would argue that, “That’s the way it was!” I would respond with, “I don’t care if they took a damn time machine back and shot it with the actual real lighting, I’m tired of not being able to see my set. In THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, they sure as hell made it look like I thought it could be torch lit.....” I continued for thirty minutes to an hour.
I sat in my room and began thinking about how I wish they made films like CAPTAIN BLOOD, SEA HAWKS, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX... Then I thought... “RAIDERS is at the ALAMO!!!!”
That is what I need to see... this very instant, this second. That is the film to see after 52 hours of continual bombardment of the Prequel trailer.
Sooooooo....
I call everyone I know, they are all asleep, the lazy bums, so dammit, I ain’t a waiting for em, so Dad and I load up into the Tick (our bloodsucking van covered with bird droppings) and putt putt our way downtown to the Alamo Drafthouse to watch Indy do his thing.
We arrive to behold crowds... and of course Quint. Yup... Quint is there. You see, he has never before seen RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK on the big screen. For him... well this will be a religious experience.
The crowd is mainly twenties to early thirties. They are jabbering throughout the groups. Noone staying to their individual click. As the theater doors open up, and the crowd floods in... well we grab our seats.
Instead of having nothing to watch while we wait the twenty some-odd minutes till the trailer... well Tim decides to show us the Original very very first STAR WARS trailer, the one... without John Williams music.
STAR WARS TRAILER ONE:
I owned a 16mm copy that I traded two dozen prime gumcards from the MARVEL SUPERHERO sticker set. Cool stuff like the “Peter Parker picked a peck of pickled peppers.” I got it at the San Diego convention well well before the film ever came out. I have seen it.. countless times. As a young kid, I’d make my parents, thread it up, rewind, play, rewind, play, rewind. All the things my local computer does for me.
What was very funny for me was the fact that the audience (packed house) reacted the same way as the audience in California did to the Prequel trailer. As soon as it began, Whoops and hollers, then silence. The ‘thum thum thum thum...” droning on while that voice promises you glory beyond your wildest dreams. After the final explosion.... CHEEERS!!!
Next came the weirdest damn thing I’ve ever seen. A video that had stuff like the Drill Sgt dialogue from FULL METAL JACKET sync-ed in over Vader’s dialogue from Star Wars. Really really cool and funny.
Then TROOPS. The greatest fan creation I’ve ever seen.
Next came Tim, the owner and P. T. Barnum of the Drafthouse, out to tell us about Quentin Tarantino and Jack Hill bringing a group of Jack Hill films to show us, possibly in December or January. Currently it may be SPIDER BABY, COFFY and THE BIG BIRD HOUSE. He then said we might be getting GOONIES shown in January or February, he’s working up his next schedule.
Then he said he had more Spielberg and Lucas trailers before showing us... RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. The crowd went nuts.
First trailer....
STAR WARS EPISODE ONE: THE PHANTOM MENACE.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! !
Dad hadn’t seen it with an audience yet. About two thirds of this crowd was completely unprepared for the trailer. Even though I’ve seen the trailer over and over and over... well... it gets me. When and how soon? Well, I know this will sound unreasonable, but it’s that first shot of you know what coming out of the mist. Why? Because... well, let’s just say for now, that the scene will lead into something so incredibly cool and powerful that... well, I couldn’t begin to describe it. And this isn’t the place to do it.
The audience was screaming, throwing fists in the air, pumping them like in Arsenio’s ol Dog Pound. As soon as the trailer blinked out of existence. A universal scream of joy. From people that mostly didn’t have a clue they were going to be seeing that, or knowing of it’s existence. About two minutes passed before the next trailer. The audience was buzzing, friends and neighbors talking about their favorite moments, the things that bugged, delighted them. High fives were witnessed.
SIXTEEN CANDLES
Coooooooooooooool. I love this film, and have no memory of the trailer at all. It was nice to see. Man, I so love Molly Ringwald. She just instantly brings back that... “Wow, that’s a girl” thing that used to go off in my head when I saw her in the great Hughes films before he... decided to not make cool movies anymore.
Next was...
E.T.
Oh man, tears just started flowing. This was the rerelease trailer. I remember this trailer brainwashing my infant sister into falling for that little alien dude with the nightlight fingertip and the craving for peanut butter and chocolate. The row of girls behind me started making “aaaaaawwwwwwwww” sounds and sniffles.
JAWS
Wow, what a great run of trailers. I still can’t believe the MPAA let Spielberg get away with a full frontal nudity shot in his TV and Theatrical Trailer spots. They’d never be that cool in today’s Jack Valenti days. Quint was... well lip-syncing to the trailer. His eyes beaming. This is his trailer.
JURASSIC PARK
The amber trailer, the teaser. This, my friends, is a teaser trailer. It created such anticipation in me. I soooo wanted to see this film, I was foaming at the mouth. Dinosaurs dinosaurs dinosaurs... Yeah yeah yeah....
Man, I was fired up to see this film. I don’t think anyone could get me so ready to see a movie I’ve seen well over 100 times between theaters and video.
There was about two minutes of dark while Tim got everything just right. During that two minutes the audience began singing John Williams’ music out loud. It began with five girls sitting behind us, and spread. Then that mountain broke the chorus and we were all in our own geek chapel beholding a masterpiece.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
I believe there are a whole bunch of us that were just raised with this film on the tips of our tongues. Hell, everytime my family went on a hike, my sister would scream out, “IT’S INDIANA JONES TIME!!!!”
That was just her point of reference for not walking on a sidewalk or mowed grass. If there were branches... then... Indiana Jones was there.
This film cemented Lucas and Spielberg as the guys the world could not begin to compete with. Problem is... well for me, this and Empire Strikes Back have both yet to be topped by both.
Why? Well... I personally feel that in both films there is not one single wasted frame of film. Tight little monsters of a film. I’ll just chime in a bit on each of my fave characters.
Marcus Brody--- Here... well in this film he is not a bumbling fool. To me... well he seems like an ex-adventurer much like Indy himself. The line, “If I were ten years younger I’d join you myself,” or something like that. (don’t have the script handy)... well for me, that line felt like he longed for the ol days of high adventure. When he had his own theme. And his warning to Indy, was that instinctual or learned. The point is, while a tad mother hen-ish, he isn’t the “got lost in his own museum” or “does anyone speak English or even ancient Greek” Brody of LAST CRUSADE. And during the briefing with the ‘Army’ guys... well, he does a great job of filling in the holes that Indy has and viceversa. He’s just a great supporting character.
SALLAH --- Perfection. Not since Alan Hale Sr. has there been a greater sidekick. Not so much a ‘skipper’ to ‘gilligan’ as much as a Little John to Robin Hood. My favorite thing is that he is a family man. A respected man. A man that gets things done, and pulls his friend out of danger when need be. He’s loyal, he’s a good friend. Not a buffoon.
MARION --- There was bad blood between Indy and Marion. But there was also a heartbreaking love story that we haven’t seen. All you have to do is look into Jones’ eyes as he drinks alone. Or look into Marion’s eyes when Indy falls asleep with her tender kiss. I love the fire in her eyes, the indomitable spirit of hers, I love the breathing her character lends the film. It’s got a lot of soul because of Ms Ravenwood.
The Nazis --- While being the most loathsome of screen villians, that ultimately are shown to be wiped clean from the very sight of man by God, him/her/it’s self. They are... simply... Nazis. They do what it is that Nazis in an action film would do. For the dimensional villian you have to go to...
Rene Belloq --- A great character. The monologue he gives Indy when he’s drunk and down on his look. “It would take only a nudge to push you out of the light and into the shadows with me” (once again butchering a classic line, but hell it’s 5:22am and the very fact I’m concious is in tribute to the greatness of this film.) I love the idea of ‘grades’ of bad guys. There are some bad guys that will just... kill and sacrifice everyone. While others... well, for example Belloq doesn’t want Marion dead, he wants to take care of her. He wants to share the excitement of the Ark with Indy. For him, the Nazis are mearly a means to reach his ends. Literally.
Then you have INDIANA JONES.
Possibly the most iconoclasticly cool character in the last 20 some odd years. Like DIRTY HARRY and the Duke... he’s just a filmic deity. Here he's as rough as they come. He's shot in the arm, thrown through a windshield, rides atop a U-boat, chases down a convoy by horseback... He's just the sort of action god every little boy, grown adult has ever wanted to be. Imagine living this life. The journeys, the discoveries, the moments of history. Imagine having him as your grandfather. Toooo cool.
God I hope to see Lucas and Spielberg at this level again. I hope that Lucas is headed to surpass it with his next film. It has that kind of potential.
The score, the editing, the cinematography, the stunts, the adrenaline rush... all of it is sheer perfection. I was talking to a director friend of mine not too long ago, and we were discussing the concept of what Spielberg could do on a budget. He then told me that Spielberg made Raiders for $22.8 million. Even when factoring in inflation... that’s a cheap film today.
I came out of the theater on a high, reminded exactly why I dream of greatness when names like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and John Williams float about. It’s because their kind... well they have woven the tales we live with.
As we were driving home, the thoughts of the trailer, of the film started dancing. I should begin bottling the drool now...
