30 years later, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is Still, For a Lot of Moviegoers (Including Me), the Big Screen's Greatest Adventure.
Apparently, I'm not the only one...
Here's Ryan Holt:
They had forgotten how violent the film actually is, but my interest level was so high that they lacked the heart to turn the film off. So the three of us sat there, and I, who was fairly timid regarding violence in films, ended up hiding my face in my mother's arm very frequently.
But I did love the parts of it that I actually saw, and it soon became part of the Friday-night video tape rotation for me, with my young self gradually working up courage to sit through the climactic liquidation of the villains.
Soon I was dressing up as Indiana Jones and staging mock recreations of the opening excursion into the temple with my brothers and friends.
Glenn McCarty:
Raiders
It's also why I still have a leather bomber jacket in my closet...
John Volck:
The theater was crowded leaving the only available seats up at the very front.
Needless to say, the first image of skulls with gaping jaws hanging off of booby traps got burned into my mind. Before you think this is a lament targeting Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg, searching for therapy bill compensation, I actually enjoyed the film.
When I get past the gruesome images, I think about the sense of adventure of going to far off places and discovering foreign culture as well as becoming more interested in history despite the film's fictional storyline. For a six year old, it was not only a rivetting comic book-like visual story that dealt with action and staying ahead of the "bad guys," but also emphasized for me a thrill of solving puzzles and mysteries.
I think the film even piqued my interest more into the mysteries of God in dealing with the Ark of the Covenant as well as asking myself questions of what I believed at a young age.
I remember the early eighties as a time when the realm of movies began to open up for me and fuel my sense of story and imagination. Before this, there was Star Wars and The Muppet Movie, following Raiders were its sequels, E.T., Tron, Goonies, The Explorers, Time Bandits, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and many others. I believe Raiders and all these movies to some degree, helped me deal with the fears of a sheltered suburban white kid who was afraid of venturing outside the home and taking risks. Some may wince at the titles I have mentioned, but there is a stronger suspension of disbelief when you are a kid, and the characters, shallow or not, still stick with me. Even when I have to face fear as an adult.
Now if I could just find an affordable replica of Professor Jones' hat...
Ken Priebe:
And now, a haiku about 'Raiders of the Lost Ark':
The wrath of God makes
Heads explode while the hero
Is tied to a post
Peter T. Chattaway:
Side note: In BC, the film was rated PG with a warning of "gory violence"; in Washington, the film was rated PG with a warning of "explicit violence". Shortly after this, there was a Wizard of Id comic strip in which the king asks one of his soldiers to do something, and the soldier asks if the king could be more "explicit", and the king repeats the command and adds the words "or I'll bite your kneecaps off." So for years I thought "explicit" was just a synonym for "gory". (That's how I remember it, at any rate. One of these days I'll track down the Bellingham newspaper ads of that era, and the Wizard of Id strips from that era, and see whether they confirm my memories.)
Chris Williams:
RaidersRaiders
Benjamin Stumper:
Raiders
Happy Birthday, Indy and Raiders. May you forever bring excitement and thrills to all your viewers past, present, and future. "It's not the years...it's the mileage."
Mick Silva:
Must have seen this one more than any other movie. But this is how I know that when the wrath of God comes, you will live if you close your eyes.
Buckeye Jones:
Probably 2 or 3 weeks after it opened. I know I saw Clash of the Titans (which opened on the same day) before seeing Raiders.
Where?
Century Theatres on Arden Way in Sacramento.
With whom?
With my dad.
What was your first impression?
Rick Bennett (via Twitter):
Nathan Scoggins:
I forgot all about it until two years later, when my dad told me that he and mom were going to see another movie with Han Solo, and I asked precociously, "Wait -- Han Solo? Or Harrison Ford?"
It would be another two years before I would finally be deemed old enough to watch the original Raiders, but it has since never lost its hold on me.
When I finally got the chance to see it, it was as though I finally was let on the secret -- but, unlike most secrets, this one was actually worth knowing. That boulder! Those snakes! That dress!
It's still a movie that, if it's airing somewhere on TV, I will stop and watch. George, Steven, and Larry Kasdan created the ultimate action/adventure hero, and (KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL notwithstanding) he has yet to be topped.
Want to add your recollections? Email them to me at joverstreet@gmail.com.