Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981)
Oh, excuse me: that's Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, as the DVD is now being marketed. Which really distorts matters, because it implies that Jones himself is not among the titular raiders, when in fact of course he is. The good news is that you can buy just the single film now; until the recent rerelease, you couldn't buy this one without the first two sequels, and why would you want to own those?Last time I saw this, a few years ago at a late-night downtown screening of a pretty ragged print, I left the theater saddened that the magic seemed to have disappeared. Well, it's back. What's more, if I ever teach a film school course about how to make an action/adventure flick, I'm going to show the first 34 minutes of this frame by frame: I sincerely doubt that there is a 15-second stretch in that half-hour-plus that does not establish something thematic or plot related that will pay off later in the film, yet there is never a moment when we say, "oooh, ex-po-sition." Damn fine filmmaking; too bad they couldn't have gotten the same people for the recent sequel. Oh, wait . . . never mind.
2 comments:
just saw a really distasteful, wrongheaded french film, "love me if you dare" ("jeux d'enfants). No snakes but creepy. jew see?
Indeed I have, and my reaction was not unlike yours. See http://cheeseblab.blogspot.com/2004/12/june-2004.html
Post a Comment