In a frenzied handheld shot that just points at whatever’s going on in front of it, more like a documentary than a docudrama, we see soldiers gearing up, assembling rifles, watching helicopters fly overhead – it’s hec
“Snakes…why did it have to be snakes?” Indiana Jones’ fear of snakes is one of his defining characteristics, and it’s put to excellent use in the narrative of Raiders of the Lost Ark guide Ark when Indy enters the Well of Souls and finds that it’s filled with hundreds of hissing cobras and pythons. However, as it turns out, neither Harrison Ford not Steven Spielberg are afraid of snakes, so it’s unclear where exactly this character quirk came from. It was a good thing for Ford and Spielberg, because it meant that they could focus on their work during the snake-infested sce
Spielberg seemingly acknowledged this as proven by his Holocaust drama Schindler’s List and the works that followed. No longer were Nazis depicted as silly bad guys for someone to beat up. Instead, they were shown in all of their monstrosity and inhuman
Steven Spielberg’s original choice for the role of Sallah, Indy’s international contact who functions as the movie’s comic relief, was Danny DeVito. DeVito was interested in playing the role, but ultimately, the production conflicted with his shooting schedule for Taxi . John Rhys-Davies played Sallah in the end and, although DeVito would’ve done a fine job with the character – especially since he’s Raiders ’ comic relief and DeVito is hilarious – Rhys-Davies’ take on the character was great. Years later, when Raiders had inspired a long slew of copycats, DeVito played a similar comic relief character in a similar action-adventure movie, Romancing the Stone , alongside Michael Doug
In the temple in the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark , little hieroglyphs of R2-D2 and C-3PO can be seen engraved on the wall . They can also be seen engraved on a golden pillar in the Well of Souls. This could just be seen as a fun Easter egg. But on top of that, the use of R2-D2 and C-3PO as hieroglyphs also seems to suggest that those droids actually went on their cosmic adventures a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away , and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises take place in the same unive
It’s appropriate that the movie begins with a pan down from the night sky, filled with stars, that settles on a familiar forest landscape. It symbolizes E.T.’s arrival on Earth from up there. It also straps us in for a movie that brings science-fiction concepts to our doors
Lauded as one of the greatest movies ever made, Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced the movie-going world to one of its most timeless icons: Indiana Jones . Even though the dream team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who had each directed a record-breaker for the highest grossing movie ever made at this point, were behind the production, they struggled to garner any interest from the major Hollywood stud
The camera deliberately points down, so we can’t see what’s ahead. A 25-foot great white shark, or any other terror that the ocean has to offer, could be lurking around anywhere. As far as opening title sequences go, this is quite rivet
One of Indy’s best friends is Sallah, a fellow archeologist and excavator who’s known for his jovial attitude. He’s also an Egyptian who’s portrayed by the Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies in both Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusa
Spielberg’s WWII epic Saving Private Ryan , the one that induced PTSD attacks in war veterans, opens and closes with the same image: an American flag, blowing in the wind, color-graded with a very bleak, washed-out palette. Some critics have called these shots contradictory to the movie’s message. Saving Private Ryan is poised as an unpatriotic, anti-war film, yet it’s impossible to see the American flag as anything other than patriotic. The desaturated colors could be seen as Spielberg having his cake and eating it,
Selleck ended up turning down the role due to CBS picking up Magnum PI , but the show was delayed due to an actor’s strike. Since Raiders of the Lost Ark filmed in different parts of the world, Selleck could have played Indiana Jones, but by that point, Ford was already cast in the role inst
Raiders of the Lost Ark features a lot of supernatural moments towards the end of the film, but one of the most chilling scenes comes in the very beginning when Indy is searching for the Golden Idol. Indiana Jones tells Satipo (Alfred Molina) to turn around and his entire back is covered with tarantulas scurrying ab
That being said, when they first tried to film the scene, none of the spiders moved when they were put on Molina’s back. This was because all of the spiders were male. After they added a female to the mix, however, the spiders got very animated and the shot was achie
Both of these films seemed to recognize that Nazis make for fantastic villains in the Indiana Jones franchise. However, Raiders of the Lost Ark just succeeds a little more in making their villains truly despica