Happy Birthday, Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Today is the 25th anniversary of Raiders.

I remember where I was when I saw it, I remember who I was with, I remember everything about the film. I have seen it more times than I have seen any other film. I don’t even own it – but I can recite it. When I watch it now, every single scene unfolds just the way it plays out in my head. It never gets old.

But look here!! This is so exciting!

In honor of the birthday of this, one of my favorite movies ever:

Read this WONDERFUL essay about Karen Allen as Marion. Read the whole thing. He could not be more spot on in his assessment of why the character of Marion is so essential to the success of this film.

YAY! Great post.

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20 Responses to Happy Birthday, Raiders of the Lost Ark!

  1. kevin says:

    A good friend became an archeologists because of this movie. Snakes, why did it have to be snakes

  2. red says:

    “I am the monarch of the sea …”

  3. Emily says:

    “Asps…very dangerous…YOU go first.”

  4. Nightfly says:

    Hey – don’t use all the great quotes! I’m cooking a contest post and and I didn’t want to leave this out!

    (Uh-oh… Did I just type that? Sigh.)

  5. red says:

    “You want to talk to God? Let’s go see him together, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

    shivers!! I love that line!

  6. red says:

    hahahaha

    So many good lines to choose from!

  7. Wutzizname says:

    I remember going to see ‘Raiders’ with all my friends from school (I was in like…the 4th grade, or something) We put down the action figures and such to go see ‘The other movie with Han Solo in it’

    We had such a great time. There were like 7 of us. We were all packed in a row at the Theater in Security Square Mall, right across from the Arcade (Wasn’t hard to find us in that mall!!) each of us staring eagerly at the screen, drinking in the film with our eyes and ears, watching so intently that we were afraid to blink because it was so incredible.

    And then the cusswords showed up, and we all gasped, and tattled on the characters among each other.

    “oooooh! She said GeeDee!!!”

    …and then the scene with the snakes. And Marion gto caught coming down the statue, and didn’t want to fell, and was hanging on for dear life…and several of us cocked our heads sideways when we thought we saw panties.

    …and were thwapped for our efforts.

    …and then the scene with the melting bad guys. Terrible stuff, but we had no idea why our friend Andy’s parents let us see such terror.

    Of course when we got in the car to go home, we were just GUSHING with tales of what we had all just seen. None of us could re-explain the scene we had all just seen fast enough.

    “Ohmygosh!! Did you see when he shot the guy with the big sword?!!”

    ….That was a great movie.

  8. red says:

    I love how you say you “tattled” on the characters!! hahahaha

  9. Jeff says:

    Boy, talk about a “make you feel old” moment. “Raiders” is the only blockbuster I’ve ever seen on its first day of release, and it was the day after I finished the last final of my junior year in Berkeley. 12:30 show, and there’s nothing quite like the first time you see that moment where Indy just shrugs and shoots the swordsman instead of engaging him in some elaborate battle – with a theater full of people who were also seeing it for the first time.

  10. Rob says:

    My very favorite movie. I saw it for the first time at the theater with my future wife. Fell asleep. Wasn’t bored, just tired.

    Of course, my favorite moment is seeing Indiana’s bigger-than-life silhouette on Marion’s wall but my second favorite moment is watching Indiana’s knees buckle when that big German popped him in the mouth.

  11. Ann Marie says:

    Man, I love this movie. Also, that post was dead-on about how the sequels just can’t compare… though I have a soft spot for the 3rd movie, just for the father-son interplay and, you know, Nazis again.

    I loved this movie so much that I wrote a paper doing a compare/contrast between Indy and Beowulf. Because then watching the movie was RESEARCH.

    (I also did a paper once where the topic was “person who influenced your life” and I chose the guy who emptied the garbage in the office I worked in, cuz he was VERY VERY cute and I had a crush and he was putting himself through med school, yadda yadda yadda.)

  12. Nightfly says:

    This movie is behind a great story with me and my Dad, actually, and I should put it up on my blog sometime.

  13. dorkafork says:

    That Karen Allen essay is spot on. I think there’s a similar dynamic with the Bond movies, the more memorable Bond girls tend to be tougher.
    zlxcvnlkjbh
    Sorry, my jaw just dropped on the keyboard. This post inspired me to re-read an Indiana Jones DVD review that mentions “behind-the-scenes tomfoolery where Barbra Streisand walked on the set of Temple of Doom in a dominatrix outfit and started whipping Harrison Ford while he was chained to a rock.”

  14. "dave" says:

    Is it true that they’re finishing a fourth chapter? I seem to remember hearing about it quite some time ago.

  15. red says:

    Ann Marie – Indy and Beowulf? I LOVE IT!!

  16. red says:

    Dave – It’s been in the workings forever! I think last year they said it was a “go” – but I’m not sure what’s happened now.

    God, wouldn’t it be so awesome if they did one more – and it was GOOD???

  17. There was the time I was in college, setting up in my new dorm room, lovingly pinning up my favorite Indy poster, the one where he is grinning from ear to ear with his fedora at a jaunty angle and his shirt WIDE OPEN (woo hoo!) and my new room-mate, who was gay, cocked her head and had a brilliant epiphany – “Oh I know why you like Indiana Jones…you’re an anthro student!”

    Er….in word, no!

  18. God, wouldn’t it be so awesome if they did one more – and it was GOOD???

    Well in the spirit of the post – only if they brought back Marion.

    Frankly, Im a little put out with that Triumvirate. I can’t see HF as Indy any more. Unless he was planning to pass on the whip and the fedora…

  19. Tributaries says:

    OH MAN – I missed it!

    Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the opening of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” – and I wasnt here to

    Like Sheila (by way of LRHB), I can remember seeing …

  20. Nightfly says:

    Well, he could still raid the early bird buffet, but that doesn’t hold much drama.

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