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Sunday, June 04, 2006
The Opener: Historic First Use of Snake on a Plane
My thoughts after seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time. I saw it at the glorious Castro Theatre.
1. You can write a textbook on how Spielberg frames so many of these shots. He took what Orson Welles and Gregg Toland did on Citizen Kane and applied to action/adventure serials he probably watched on Saturday-mornings. Some of my favorites were when Indy, his boss and the Army Intelligence men all look at Indy's book about the Arc at once, Karen Allen declaring "I'm your goddamn partner!" where Spielberg makes her look 18-feet-tall and the scene between Indy and Belloq in the Cairo bar where Harrison Ford's face is an arch over Paul Freeman's.
2. I believe that the scene where Indy shoots the enthusiastic swordsman, which got great applause from the audience last night, is the birth of Joss Wheadon's writing career. Every episode of Firefly had at least three instances where some action film cliche was being set-up only to have one of the quip-ready characters deflate it. The Serenity film has the most blatant example: Operative: "...I am unarmed." Mal: "Good." (shoots him)
3. Pauline Kael wrote that this film represents a turning point in films. Whereas older action films would take a while to set-up the action (note all the pomp in the Irwin Allen films like The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure) almost every scene in this film had some action in it. A great example is the action scene with the grounded plane and the German strongman, where all these set-ups, the lighter fluid running and the deadly propellers spinning, were set-up quickly in the scene and then drawn out ever so carefully until they paid off, such as the death of the German strongman. It is episodic filmmaking in the best sense. I wonder if you actually could chop this film up into a serial and play fifteen minute chunks over the period of a few weeks.
4. It's odd seeing a film you've never seen before where so many aspects of have already been absorbed into popular culture. I was already familiar with the line "Again we see there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away" for some reason and had no idea this is where it originated.
5. How did Marion not die when the truck exploded? Did they switch baskets at one point? How did Indy get through choppy waters so fast that he gets to the German sub? Why in the beginning did he bring along Alfred Molina and the other guy? They both betray him and Molina just seems like a burden in the secret passage with the idol. I suppose they are his guides but Indy seems to know way more than both of them.
6. I saw the film with The Brothers Gorenfeld and John did make sense of the "close your eyes to avoid facemelting" scene. Because Indy and Marion proved they did not have the pride and hubris to witness the opening of the covenant they were spared. I guess that makes sense.
7. Did audiences go crazy when the saw the "facemelted Nazis" ending? They mustn't have expected that in a non-horror film.
8. The film's at The Castro until the 8th. I'm seriously thinking of seeing it again. That is broad, over-the-top and exciting moviemaking that got pretty much everything right. Hell, even the plot holes and cheats can be seen as a tribute to Republic Serials, which were rife with them.
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