Nostalgia Saturday Continues
What a treat. Last week it was Back to the Future the Empire was showing. Apparently continuing the trend of showing older movies, they had a truly awesome double bill this week. The second film I'll devote another (much more difficult) post to. The first? Only the film I would choose as my all time favourite if a gun was ever put to my head to force me to choose an all time favourite film. Raiders of the Lost Ark.
This might come off as one of those irritating, soundbite stories stars tell on chat shows in order to get across just how much they love films and why they were inspired to get involved and how they're not just vacant models in it for the money, but seeing as how I'm not famous or a model or indeed on a chat show I hope you'll believe the sincerity of the tale. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of those films that I just love and, as good as it is, the logical part of me knows it isn't as good as I think it is. Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans is another such film. In the case of Raiders, I think it's that, it was the first film that switched me on to films. And here's the romantic story... I reckon this was the first time it was shown on TV. It was probably 1984/5, I would have been 8 or 9. My Mum was in hospital, my eldest brother wasn't at home (I'm not sure if he was in the States yet or not), I was at home with my brother Brian and my Dad. In our living room there's a chair and a couch that sit opposite the TV and there's a gap between the end of the couch and the wall. Well as a child, I would sit on the floor in that gap and play with my lego or cars or whatever I happened to be playing with that day. Bed time was either 8pm or 9pm, this was a long time ago so I'm a bit sketchy on some of the details. For the sake of this post we'll say bedtime was 9. So about 7.50 both Dad and my brother tell me that there's this film coming on TV that they're looking forward to watching and I can't make noise while it's on, as I would be if I were playing. My choice is simple. I put away the toys and either, A go to bed an hour early, or B sit quietly and watch the first hour of this film until 9.00pm comes and then I go to bed. Well you know what it's like when you're a child. Death by torture is preferable to going to bed early so I put my toys away and sit dutifully on the couch. Now I didn't have much of a clue of what films were, other than being vaguely aware they were long and, though I would have had neither the cognissance nor the vocabulary to verbalise this, beyond my attention span. So I sat there, sullen, ready to be bored, but unwilling to relinquish an hour of waking life. And then it started.
The jungle, cool. Who is this guy wandering around the jungle? Hey that's cool, what did he just use to take the gun from the guy who tried to shoot him? A whip? Wow. Look at this, they're in a cave and his friend's covered in spiders!! What's his name? Indianna Jones? Coool! Oh my God the whole place is collapsing around him and there's arrows flying at him and LOOK AT THAT BOULDER!!
Of course it's a great opening sequence but to an imaginative, creative, impressionable child it was mesmerising. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing and how I was seeing it. How was this possible? Dad had explained how they use cameras to film things and that they then put it all together and I always remember thinking during the opening sequence when the boulder is after him, the camera must be in front of him in this shot. But now it's behind him... Why can't I see the camera in front of him? But I didn't have time to think as he was then outside and facing Belloq and the Hovitos. And really that just didn't cut it anyway. How was this possible? I was so excited by this thing, it couldn't just be cameras. Who was doing what to make me feel like this? Well bedtime came and went. Wild horses could not have dragged me from the couch. There was a shoot out in a bar, there was a chase around the streets of some strange looking city with really narrow looking streets, there was a bit with some kind of laser from the sun I didn't understand, then, "Snakes... Why'd it have to be snakes?" which made me laugh. There was a cool fight between Indy and this huge guy...
I'll quit the second rate Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time writing style to talk about the truck chase. That still ranks in my top 5 favourite action sequences of all time and any thoughts that it's there purely for romantic reasons were dispelled seeing it on the big screen yesterday. Here's why it's so good. It means something. It's not an action sequence thrown in for the sake of it, because it's between too long since the last action sequence and the audience might be getting bored. We've spent around 80 minutes watching Indy do what it takes to get the ark before the nazis do but he's just lost to them. They have the ark, they were going to transport it via plane but Indy scuppored that plan so now it's loaded onto a truck and what's he going to do now? This means so much to him and so it means so much to us. Of course it's an exciting sequence in its own right. The fight in the cab of the truck leading to him being thrown out and sliding beneath the truck to climb back in the back is still one of the great heroic moments in film. But what really makes it work is that we care about its outcome. What happens here matters. It's the same reason the car chase in the French Connection is so good (and is still my favourite car chase from any film). We've watched Popeye Doyle become obsessed with catching Alain Charnier and when he's speeding through the streets, risking his life and that of many an innocent bystander chasing the elevated train, we are gripped because the outcome matters so much. The truck sequence in Raiders is just wonderful. Nothing else in the three films comes close, good as they are.
I was a very nervous child. Really, this nervousness has carried into adulthood, but as a child everything would scare me. Every family has their stories they like to laugh about. In mine, it's the one about how I was in the room when Michael Jackson's Thriller was first shown. Despite my brother's warnings, I stayed put as it had been such a hyped event. Also on TV at the time, Robert Powell was playing Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth. So when Michael Jackson's eyes turned red at the start of the video, I started screaming and was heard to yell, "Turn over Jesus of Nazareth!!!" So with this in mind, my Dad and brother were quite alarmed when I was still up to see the finale of Raiders with the angels turning to skeletons, the fire shooting into the nazis and of course the famous melting and exploding heads. They may have asked me if I wanted to go to bed now as this was a bit scary but I was too invested in it. And the odd thing is I wasn't scared. I was just in complete awe of how something had managed to grip me this much for 2 hours. I was very sorry it ended and I didn't sleep much that night. I also remember visiting Mum in hospital maybe the next day or a couple of days later and all I was able to do was babble on about this film I had seen.
So seeing the film on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen, was such a joy. I guess now when I watch Raiders all of what I've just described is still at the back of my mind. I'm reminded of the excitement of childhood discovery and the impact things have on you at that tender age. I remember the feeling I had when I saw it for the first time, and every trip to the cinema since has had accompanying it, the hope that I'll recapture that feeling. This attempt to get into film writing carries with it the hope that I'll one day have a hand in making some kid feel equally excited about a film. I know how that might read and I really don't care. Raiders of the Lost Ark holds alot of feeling and passion for me. And I do not allow myself to notice its faults. Just to bask in the unashamed glow of sheer entertainment. Of a wonderful hero, of great storytelling, of superb action set pieces. Of cinema at it's very best.
Of course this isn't the logical part of me talking. It never is when it comes to Raiders.
This might come off as one of those irritating, soundbite stories stars tell on chat shows in order to get across just how much they love films and why they were inspired to get involved and how they're not just vacant models in it for the money, but seeing as how I'm not famous or a model or indeed on a chat show I hope you'll believe the sincerity of the tale. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of those films that I just love and, as good as it is, the logical part of me knows it isn't as good as I think it is. Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans is another such film. In the case of Raiders, I think it's that, it was the first film that switched me on to films. And here's the romantic story... I reckon this was the first time it was shown on TV. It was probably 1984/5, I would have been 8 or 9. My Mum was in hospital, my eldest brother wasn't at home (I'm not sure if he was in the States yet or not), I was at home with my brother Brian and my Dad. In our living room there's a chair and a couch that sit opposite the TV and there's a gap between the end of the couch and the wall. Well as a child, I would sit on the floor in that gap and play with my lego or cars or whatever I happened to be playing with that day. Bed time was either 8pm or 9pm, this was a long time ago so I'm a bit sketchy on some of the details. For the sake of this post we'll say bedtime was 9. So about 7.50 both Dad and my brother tell me that there's this film coming on TV that they're looking forward to watching and I can't make noise while it's on, as I would be if I were playing. My choice is simple. I put away the toys and either, A go to bed an hour early, or B sit quietly and watch the first hour of this film until 9.00pm comes and then I go to bed. Well you know what it's like when you're a child. Death by torture is preferable to going to bed early so I put my toys away and sit dutifully on the couch. Now I didn't have much of a clue of what films were, other than being vaguely aware they were long and, though I would have had neither the cognissance nor the vocabulary to verbalise this, beyond my attention span. So I sat there, sullen, ready to be bored, but unwilling to relinquish an hour of waking life. And then it started.
The jungle, cool. Who is this guy wandering around the jungle? Hey that's cool, what did he just use to take the gun from the guy who tried to shoot him? A whip? Wow. Look at this, they're in a cave and his friend's covered in spiders!! What's his name? Indianna Jones? Coool! Oh my God the whole place is collapsing around him and there's arrows flying at him and LOOK AT THAT BOULDER!!
Of course it's a great opening sequence but to an imaginative, creative, impressionable child it was mesmerising. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing and how I was seeing it. How was this possible? Dad had explained how they use cameras to film things and that they then put it all together and I always remember thinking during the opening sequence when the boulder is after him, the camera must be in front of him in this shot. But now it's behind him... Why can't I see the camera in front of him? But I didn't have time to think as he was then outside and facing Belloq and the Hovitos. And really that just didn't cut it anyway. How was this possible? I was so excited by this thing, it couldn't just be cameras. Who was doing what to make me feel like this? Well bedtime came and went. Wild horses could not have dragged me from the couch. There was a shoot out in a bar, there was a chase around the streets of some strange looking city with really narrow looking streets, there was a bit with some kind of laser from the sun I didn't understand, then, "Snakes... Why'd it have to be snakes?" which made me laugh. There was a cool fight between Indy and this huge guy...
I'll quit the second rate Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time writing style to talk about the truck chase. That still ranks in my top 5 favourite action sequences of all time and any thoughts that it's there purely for romantic reasons were dispelled seeing it on the big screen yesterday. Here's why it's so good. It means something. It's not an action sequence thrown in for the sake of it, because it's between too long since the last action sequence and the audience might be getting bored. We've spent around 80 minutes watching Indy do what it takes to get the ark before the nazis do but he's just lost to them. They have the ark, they were going to transport it via plane but Indy scuppored that plan so now it's loaded onto a truck and what's he going to do now? This means so much to him and so it means so much to us. Of course it's an exciting sequence in its own right. The fight in the cab of the truck leading to him being thrown out and sliding beneath the truck to climb back in the back is still one of the great heroic moments in film. But what really makes it work is that we care about its outcome. What happens here matters. It's the same reason the car chase in the French Connection is so good (and is still my favourite car chase from any film). We've watched Popeye Doyle become obsessed with catching Alain Charnier and when he's speeding through the streets, risking his life and that of many an innocent bystander chasing the elevated train, we are gripped because the outcome matters so much. The truck sequence in Raiders is just wonderful. Nothing else in the three films comes close, good as they are.
I was a very nervous child. Really, this nervousness has carried into adulthood, but as a child everything would scare me. Every family has their stories they like to laugh about. In mine, it's the one about how I was in the room when Michael Jackson's Thriller was first shown. Despite my brother's warnings, I stayed put as it had been such a hyped event. Also on TV at the time, Robert Powell was playing Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth. So when Michael Jackson's eyes turned red at the start of the video, I started screaming and was heard to yell, "Turn over Jesus of Nazareth!!!" So with this in mind, my Dad and brother were quite alarmed when I was still up to see the finale of Raiders with the angels turning to skeletons, the fire shooting into the nazis and of course the famous melting and exploding heads. They may have asked me if I wanted to go to bed now as this was a bit scary but I was too invested in it. And the odd thing is I wasn't scared. I was just in complete awe of how something had managed to grip me this much for 2 hours. I was very sorry it ended and I didn't sleep much that night. I also remember visiting Mum in hospital maybe the next day or a couple of days later and all I was able to do was babble on about this film I had seen.
So seeing the film on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen, was such a joy. I guess now when I watch Raiders all of what I've just described is still at the back of my mind. I'm reminded of the excitement of childhood discovery and the impact things have on you at that tender age. I remember the feeling I had when I saw it for the first time, and every trip to the cinema since has had accompanying it, the hope that I'll recapture that feeling. This attempt to get into film writing carries with it the hope that I'll one day have a hand in making some kid feel equally excited about a film. I know how that might read and I really don't care. Raiders of the Lost Ark holds alot of feeling and passion for me. And I do not allow myself to notice its faults. Just to bask in the unashamed glow of sheer entertainment. Of a wonderful hero, of great storytelling, of superb action set pieces. Of cinema at it's very best.
Of course this isn't the logical part of me talking. It never is when it comes to Raiders.
posted by Garreth at 10:20 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home