Raiders of the Lost Ark

I remember as a kid going to the drive in theater in Chicago. It was a family event. My mom would make snacks and get the drinks ready. My sister and I would get into our pajamas and gather up all of our sleeping stuff… toys, blankets and pillows. My dad would drive all of us to the theater in our station wagon.

The films we would see at the drive in where not the typical kids films. I remember seeing Rocky at the drive inn. Most of the time, my sister and I would setup our places on top of the car, right on the roof rack. We had a mattress that covered the hard metal. We used blankets, pillows…. everything we needed to make it comfortable. My dad would put the loud speaker on the glass and open up the car window. My mom and dad would sit in the front seat while Jen and I would take the roof - it was great. Usually my sister and I didn't watch the movie that was on the screen in front of us. It seemed like it was both slow and boring or because there was so many distractions. From the roof we could watch movies from other screens and people walking around outside. We would laugh, eat popcorn and candy and bug my parents for more snacks. I'm sure they couldn't watch the movie with us on the roof jumping around. Ahh - to be a kid again.

This was the typical setting for most movies we saw at the drive inn. I honestly don't remember much the first time I watched Raiders. Maybe it was because we not really paying attention to the film. But I do remember several scenes from the film, which stopped my sister and I from playing around.

A few days after our drive inn experience, my dad wanted to see the film again. I also wanted to see it so I could watch it more closely. This time we went down to the theater and watched it. I had a better sense of the film after watching Raiders a second time. I remember that I liked it and wanted to *be* Indian Jones.

Flash forward to the present…. and here I am living in Egypt - where the Lost Ark was found! Ahh - "Cairo, city of the living". I didn't catch that subtle joke until I lived in Egypt and visited Cairo. I had the chance to visit the city of the dead and it's quite unique. Lawrence Kasdan the writer of Raiders did his homework because that joke would only be known by a few.

One of the things that I remember about Raiders are the many flubs. It doesn't distract from the movie only enhances it. Raiders was made like a Saturday serial movie. Maybe that's why Spielberg overlooked some of the quirks that are in Raiders. Here is my favorite example of this.

Scene: Indy is fighting with the Nazis in the bar in Nepal. Problem: The thug has Indy in a choke hold over his leg. The evil Nazi guy says, "Shoot them. Shoot them both". The thug pulls out his gun and shoots just off to the left of the screen. The guy he shot falls from the right of the screen. Reaction: It's just an example of the many things that give this picture its Saturday serial quality.

Raiders is still influential in my life. I still watch the movie after having seen it 100's of times. From watching it in the Drive Inn, Cable TV, VHS, Beta, Laserdisc and now a pirated DVD I still feel like a kid watching it the first time. It has become one of my favorite timeless classics.

Find out more about Raiders of the Lost Ark at the Internet Movie Database.