CHAPTER 20: HOMAGE, PARODY, AND RIP-OFFS
Scott Mantz: Just like Star Wars inspired a long list of wannabes and rip-offs, so did Raiders, ranging from Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold to the Mummy movies that starred Brendan Fraser.
Steven Awalt: Once Raiders proved to be such a popular film with audiences and the box office, other filmmakers, lesser filmmakers as it goes, rushed to try and copy the formula that George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Larry Kasdan had so winningly concocted.
William Kallay: The big TV show in the fall of 1982, or so ABC thought, was Tales of the Gold Monkey. I remember the previews looking promising and I attempted to get through the season, but this was no Raiders of the Lost Ark by a long shot. Stephen Collins simply did not look like a rough and tumble action guy. On CBS, I believe that same fall, Bring ’Em Back Alive was their answer to Raiders. That show starred both Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan, fresh off making Tron. I do not remember much about it and, like Tales of the Gold Monkey, it only lasted one season.
Eric Zala: [I wanted to make Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation because] I loved that world of adventure that I got to be in, for those two hours in the dark. That alchemy of story, casting, music, acting, characters was lighting-in-a-bottle magic. While I knew that such world was fictional, the closest possible to be in it…was to trace the footsteps of Spielberg: Recreate it, for ourselves, for fun. Like George “I just really want to see this movie.” I had to see ours, finished.
Mike Matessino: I did have fun with the first two Brendan Fraser Mummy movies, and also the National Treasure movies, which I would put into the category [of homages or Raiders-inspired], and I think even the Dan Brown stories as well. And, of course, Tomb Raider.
William Kallay: In early 1983, my uncle Andy took me to see High Road to China starring Tom Selleck at the Cinedome in Orange. I am not sure if Selleck was trying to make up for not being able to play Indiana Jones. All I know is in watching him as an adventurer in this film made me believe that Harrison Ford was the ideal Indy.
Mike Matessino: I have little memory of High Road to China. I do remember the Cannon King Solomon’s Mines was expectedly clunky.
Steven Awalt: Despite the weak imitations both Spielberg and Lucas's work unintentionally wrought, Raiders will always stand apart from the copies, because Spielberg and Lucas understood the many ingredients and moving parts you need to make films that capture audiences' attention and imaginations. Others sought to copy Raiders, but they either took themselves too seriously, not seriously enough, or they didn't have the chops to walk the very fine line between two-fisted action film and endearing character work.
Mike Matessino: It’s been pointed out [on the Internet, on The Big Bang Theory, etc.] that Indiana Jones doesn’t really influence the plot in any way, and while that might be an arguable point, what it leaves us with is a realization that it’s all about the journey and about watching the character’s reactions to all the situations in which he finds himself. We subconsciously know it’s all going to turn out all right in the end, so the experience is all about the obstacles and the character’s responses to them, emotionally as well as physically.
Zaki Hasan: We in the audience care more that Indy and Marion survive, and it’s the culmination of their journey that makes the story rewarding, not finding Chaos Theory-style chains-of-causation that render it less meaningful.
Neil S. Bulk: Wasn’t it Robert Zemeckis who pointed out Indy prevents the Nazis from delivering the Ark to Hitler? I guess they didn’t want to revise history the way Quentin Tarantino did in Inglourious Basterds, but it would have been satisfying to see Hitler’s face melt and/or explode.
William Kallay: The one stand-out “rip-off” of Raiders was Romancing the Stone. That was a good action, comedy and romantic movie that put its own attitude and twist on the character of a hero in Michael Douglas. And we should not forget Kathleen Turner’s excellent role as Joan Wilder. Robert Zemeckis deserves kudos for imitating Raiders but without trying to copy his mentor, Steven Spielberg.
CHAPTER 21: THE LEGACY
Van Ling: Raiders was the joyful cinematic thrill ride that helped inspire a lot of folks, including me, to pursue filmmaking as a career, because you could really feel that the folks making it were having as much fun as those of us watching it.
William Kallay: When people ask me what my favorite film is, I say without hesitation, Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is still the ultimate Saturday night, popcorn chomping, audience pleasing film.
Mike Matessino: Raiders is the movie against which all others in its genre are measured. One comes away from watching it feeling completely satisfied with the action, with the story, and with the inner journey of the characters and repeated viewings don’t diminish its impact. How many movies have truly done that to the degree Raiders does?
Jeff Bond: The magic of seeing those first few Spielberg/Lucas blockbusters (Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters, Empire and Raiders) will never be equaled because we had all grown up with one level of movie pacing and special effects and these were just a quantum leap beyond everything we’d seen. They were pure movie heroin!
John Scoleri: I consider myself fortunate to be part of the generation that first experienced so many of the major films of Lucas and Spielberg theatrically, as opposed to on home video. What’s even more important to me today, though, is watching the film with others. It’s particularly fun to see it with someone experiencing it for the first time. If ever a film was designed to be seen with an audience, it’s one like this where the hero is cheered, the villains are booed, and the moments of danger eliciting the combined gasp of the crowd.
Scott Higgins: The Indiana Jones films are important as an American answer to James Bond, which is probably the century’s most important action franchise. It is clear that Spielberg and Lucas were emulating Bond, replacing 007’s romantic and exotic Britishness with an equally romantic and exotic nostalgia for America during the good war. Jones substantially cleaned up Bond’s sexuality but kept his humor and physical cleverness.
John Cork: Just as the success of Star Wars set the Bond filmmakers off to make Moonraker, the success of Raiders inspired the adventurism of Octopussy. The Bond inspiration led Spielberg and Lucas to offer a few hat tips to 007: They dressed Indiana Jones in a white tux with a red carnation like Bond in the opening of Goldfinger in Temple of Doom, and they hired Sean Connery to play Indiana Jones’s father in Last Crusade.
Eric Lichtenfeld: Raiders gave us a pop-culture icon. It gave us The Raiders March. It cemented the movie-star status of one of the great movie stars of his time, if not of all time. And it helped ensure that the 1980s would be the decade of the blockbuster. It also took an entire tradition of mostly forgettable filmmaking and gave legitimacy to its underlying spirit. That’s a lot for one movie to do. But I hope that as people visit and revisit Raiders, they’ll see it not just as the beginning of something even bigger, but also as something all its own, and on its own merits. Because it’s one of those movies where everything matters: every sound, every cut, every movement, every composition. And if by some freak occurrence, none of the rest had happened—no sequels, no theme park attractions, no iconic status for Harrison Ford or for John Williams’ music, no influence on the film business or the cultural zeitgeist—that would still be more of a legacy than most movies leave behind.
Sheldon Hall: I’ve continued to enjoy Raiders on half a dozen or more subsequent occasions, both on the big screen—including in 70mm—and on TV. Yet my appreciation of the film has dimmed somewhat, and that of the sequels even more so, as I rue the pattern it set for future action adventures: all action set-pieces, with very little else in between and even less of substance beneath. I recall a contemporaneous British television interview with the late New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, in which she remarked that Raiders was made by two of the most talented and powerful filmmakers in Hollywood, who could have made anything they wanted, yet this was what they chose to do with their talent and power. Even if you think it’s a blockbuster classic—personally, I prefer Jaws—it’s surely possible to see her point.
Steve Lee: After having an almost 25-year career in film sound myself, I have channeled all the knowledge and wisdom I’ve collected studying film sound history into the creation of The Hollywood Sound Museum…and you can be sure that Raiders of the Lost Ark will be properly represented there.
Mark O’Connell: The very fact that Ford is returning right now to the role is a (New) testament to the pride and loyalty he has to the series and its world. He never gets enough credit for the covert steering and behind the scenes investment he puts into his work and Raiders is arguably his greatest film and the strongest crack of the whip of the whole franchise. He cared about the look of the costume, how the hat sat on his head and always, always brings great dignity, warmth and grace to those films. It is certainly Spielberg's most efficient, most romantic, most airtight, most genre-building work.
Caseen Gaines (author, We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy and [forthcoming] E.T. The Ultimate Visual History): Raiders of the Lost Ark didn't just give us the beginning of the Indiana Jones franchise; it marked a significant moment where the titans of the movie industry began to flex creative muscles in new and exciting ways. After missing the mark on the underwhelming comedy 1941, Steven Spielberg confidently reassured audiences that that film was a fluke and that he was a master storyteller who could keep an audience in the palm of his hand. Who better than George Lucas and Harrison Ford to join him on this adventure? And, perhaps the most lasting aspect of the Raiders legacy is that, while filming, Spielberg and Ford's then-girlfriend Melissa Mathison, who was accompanying the leading man throughout the shoot, began writing a screenplay that would soon become E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Bruce Scivally: I think they would love to keep raking in that Indiana Jones revenue, and will definitely try to find a way to keep it going after Harrison Ford hangs up his fedora for good. I expect that if they recast the role, there'll be the inevitable backlash from Indy fans, but if the film is exciting enough, and the performer charismatic enough, the joy of experiencing new adventures will outweigh the disappointment of losing the original actor—as happened with the 007 films.
Lee Pfeiffer: Indiana Jones stands as one of the most enduring and popular screen heroes of all time. If one excludes the legendary comic book superheroes, he can probably best be compared to James Bond. Both have endured for decades and have survived the fickle tastes of movie-goers. Both characters are not provincial but enjoy worldwide international appeal and both have sartorial or behavioral characteristics that are closely associated with them. In Bond’s case it is his penchant for state-of-the-art gadgets while Indy is instantly identifiable by his wardrobe and bullwhip. Another common factor between the two franchises is that the films come out with a gap of years between them, thus making each one a major event for fans. It’s a perfect example of the “less is more” marketing philosophy. As [we are doing this interview], production is starting on the new Indiana Jones film. There’s been some cynicism about Harrison Ford’s ability to play the role due to his age, but I don’t think the part of Indiana Jones is as easy to recast as Bond has been. Whereas, six actors have been successfully embraced by 007 fans, I think Ford owns the role of Indy. I have full confidence he will appear credible in the role even as a senior citizen. After all, the Rolling Stones are still performing.
Paul M. Sammon: Raiders was another box-office affirmation of what would become Steven Spielberg‘s dominance over pop-culture American filmmaking, an important historical footnote as the first Lucas/Spielberg collaboration, and an equally important step towards Harrison Ford‘s eventual acknowledgement as one of the most enduring, top-tier leading men of late 20th and early 21st-century cinema.
Steven Awalt: The true legacy of Raiders of the Lost Ark is why I think pictures of its ilk are chiefly made. Films like Raiders forever place audiences under a completely enchanting, exciting and emotional spell as it sweeps viewers up. Few films have ever done that as brilliantly as Raiders of the Lost Ark, and its reputation with audiences over the last forty years certainly bears this out.
Michael Klastorin: Would Raiders have been as popular if Tom Selleck had donned the fedora as originally planned? We’ll never know, but while it took the movie serials of the 40s and 50s weeks, months or years for their most popular characters (Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Batman, The Shadow and others), it took Spielberg and Harrison Ford one hour and 55 minutes of screen time to create an immediate and dedicated following of the man whose name became synonymous with adventure: Indiana Jones.
Joseph McBride: Raiders helped set a new standard for flashy, sophisticated, fast-paced visuals with cartoonish content. In so doing it followed the model established by George Lucas in Star Wars, which, when I first saw it, profoundly depressed me, because I realized I was witnessing the beginning of the end of cinema, or at least American cinema. Time has borne that out. Just about every Hollywood movie now resembles either Star Wars or Raiders, and that is not a compliment.
Steven Awalt: Raiders of the Lost Ark is a dream of a movie, and movies like Raiders are made to help us all dream.
John Cork: After the spectacular success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, there was virtually no way Spielberg could be brought in to direct a James Bond film. He has said, “Now they can’t afford me,” but the reality is that Spielberg can do anything he wants for any deal he wants to take. Once he proved he could make a film like Bond, he outgrew the desire to make a Bond movie.
Paul M. Sammon: Indiana Jones is the quintessential fearless adventurer. He’s the hero we all love to root for. We laugh at his quips, gasp at his boldness, admire his code of honor. Handsome, smart, ultra-capable, ultimately on the right side of every situation. In reality, Indiana might actually be a tomb raider. But he is our tomb raider, so effective in the part that he makes us forget how the indigenous people who own those tombs might feel about him. In any event, I hate ranking things, especially people. But if I was forced to, Indiana Jones would certainly share a list with the top ten heroes of Western popular culture: he’s right up there with Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and Robin Hood. I’ll let you decide the other five.
Joseph McBride: I think it's good that Spielberg doesn't spend all his time making heavyweight films but also indulges his gift for escapism. He is an artist with many facets and that rare thing, a great popular artist.
Paul M. Sammon: Ford has been able to portray so many iconic and varied characters primarily because he’s a fine actor! People tend to not recognize that he doesn’t walk-through a part. Harrison is known in the industry as a consummate professional, someone who takes his craft and roles and career seriously. We’re talking a world-class performer. Harrison‘s got the chops to make us believe in the characters they’re currently viewing, and more importantly, to (mostly) forget the previous ones. Ford hasn’t lasted this long and been this successful without a basic gift: tremendous talent. It doesn’t hurt that he’s likeable and funny, too!
Bill Hunt: It seems to me that the most telling sign of Raiders’ lasting impact is that when you think of adventure films—not science fiction, or fantasy, or superhero films, but pure adventure cinema—Raiders of the Lost Ark is always the first example that comes to mind. And it’s really the only one that stands out as iconic and truly memorable. It’s an unquestionably great film, and one that endures.
Eric Lichtenfeld: It comes down to something very simple, even elemental—and that thing is joy. Raiders is worth celebrating on its 40th anniversary because it’s been bringing us joy for forty years. And not only when we’re watching it, either. I mean, to this day, when I just make it through a yellow light, what piece of music do you think goes through my head? I’ll tell you this: it isn’t Pachelbel’s Canon.
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