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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...
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