Designed For The Big Screen

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2012)

OK, so I admit I may be a little late to the party with this - maybe some of you have seen it already...
There's only one thing wrong with watching "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and that's knowing you'll never have the chance to see it for the first time again. Bruno Wang is too young to have seen "Raiders" when it was originally released, but when I did see it as a kid in Taiwan, it was such an amazing experience that I was totally blown away by it, even though it was just on TV. This is not the film you want to see on a 27" screen - but that was my only option for a long time.
Happily now, 31 years after the fact, "Raiders" is getting a limited and highly successful run in theatres in a remastered edition in glorious 2D, and Bruno Wang finally had the chance to see it on a big screen, as it deserves to be seen. I'm not sure there are too many folks out there who don't know this film intimately - even among kids, it seems to be regarded as a classic - but it's worth repeating what a truly great movie it is. A collaboration of three huge names - Lucas, Spielberg, Kasdan - "Raiders" was conceived as a tribute to a style of film that George Lucas loved as a child, and wasn't seeing from anyone else. While Spielberg directed (as with all the Indy films) and Kasdan wrote the screenplay, anything "Indiana Jones" will always be first and foremost a Lucas baby, with all the positives and negatives that implies.Raiders
It's interesting that as with the "Star Wars" films, the very best one was written by Lawrence Kasdan - here, the first, and of course with "Star Wars" the second, "The Empire Strikes Back". I think we can say pretty conclusively now that George Lucas, while he may be terrific at coming up with big story concepts, isn't especially gifted at the details - petty stuff like dialogue and character development. Spielberg is always going to deliver slick, good-looking action films - that's a constant - and what we see in "Raiders" is a kind of perfect storm where the talents of all three men are on full display. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" represents a high point which the series would never match in the succeeding three films.
In terms of the new print being shown in theatres, it looks great - but the movie looked pretty damn good even in 1981, so that shouldn't be a huge surprise. There's nothing too flashy - no extended new footage, or 3D, or such - and you can see the age showing at times. But it really doesn't matter much, because "Raiders" also represents an era before CGI changed the way chase scenes and big set pieces were filmed - it's a movie of stuntmen and real cameras, and real actors doing amazing things. And in that sense, three decades old or not, "Raiders" has a degree of realism that big action films today simply can't match.
A couple of final thoughts. First, it shouldn't be forgotten that "Raiders" is a great film and not just a great-looking film because of the script and the characters. It's damn funny, and there are indelible performances across the board, obviously starting with Harrison Ford and Karen Allen, but also the amazing John Rhys-Davies (what a career he's had), Paul Freeman, Denholm Elliot and even a very young Alfred Molina in the opening set piece. Also, it's truly remarkable to think that "Raiders" is only 110 minutes long. In an era of bloated three-hour "blockbusters", Bruno Wang feels a film like "Raiders" that doesn't waste a second is to be treasured - it's phenomenal how much action and drama is crammed into less than two hours. It's a breathless, exhilarating experience - and all the more so on the big screen, as it was intended to be seen.