When Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, it was unlike anything American theaters had seen for at least a generation.
Set in 1936, the homage to the adventure serials of the '30s and '40s proved to be - by far - the year's biggest blockbuster. This succes was built largely on Spielberg's commitment to the spirit of the material and Harrison Ford's uncannily charismatic - and ultimately iconic - portrayal of Indiana Jones, an archaeologist with a flair for the dramatic. It's little wonder that the film captured the imaginations of filmgoers of all ages around the world, but none quite so much as a trio of 11-year-old boys in MIssissippi.
Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb weren't special in any particular way back in the summer of 1981. However, when Strompolos convinced them that they could make a shot for shot remake of this big budget action film in their own backyards, they became dynamos. Over the course of the next seven years, right on through their college years, the three shot an adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark over weekends, holiday vacations, and any other time they could string together on a shoestring budget that would make Robert Rodriguez faint.
Raiders!, the documentary, is a look back at this sisyphean task, both in loving tribute to the dedication of the boys, as well as an exploration of the toll it took on their childhoods. Co-directors Tim Skousen and Jeremy Coon take the time to explore not only their stories, but the stories of those around them, turning Raiders! into a film more about the men they became than the thing they did.
That's no slight to the film, or their achievement, and Skousen and Coon do definitely give their project plenty of attention. Celebrity interviews from the likes of Jonathon Rhys Davies, Eli Roth and many more pay tribute to the boys' determination and the magic they captured in VHS through this all-consuming task. The film is appreciated in a way that only true cinema lovers can relate to, and a way that most ofthers outside of that small circle might find stupid.
It is, however, the story of the boys. Not only of what they'd done, but also what they'd left undone. A crucial sequence from the original film was always missing from the adaptation -- the fist fight under the airplane -- because the young children had no idea how they could pull it off. Raiders! charts their effort to close the circle by raising money to shoot the missing sequence and the troubles they face in pulling it off as one obstacle after another jumps in front of them, from cash flow to real world intrusions to explosives mishaps. The story is gripping.
I really enjoyed Raiders!, and I think it will speak a lot to any of the kids who grew up with a Super 8 camera, or in this case, a VHS home video camera, and made movies of their own. Perhaps the only thing that separates these kids from others is the fact that they never gave up, even when it was perfectly clear that they should. They got their shot, finished their movie, and can be proud of what they accomplished.
The Disc
Drafthouse Films' Blu-ray of Raiders! is as good as you're going to find. Cobbled together from contemporary interviews, archival interview footage, TV news programs, and the boys' own VHS shots, the A/V quality is obviously all over the place. But the modern footage looks good, and none of that is really why you're watching the film, so who really cares?
This Blu-ray has a number of compelling extras, but perhaps the most compelling is what is conspicuously absent. The actual film that the boys made is featured within the doc in tiny pieces, but it would've been fantastic if Drafthouse had been able to include the full film on the disc. It is my understanding that a number of copyright issues prevented this - duh - but mostly it was the unwieldy cost of licensing John Williams' iconic score as used by the boys to complete their version.
What we do get is solid. A pair of documentaries, one from the directors and another from the boys, now in their 40s, are both well worth a listen. We also get a 16 page booklet full of the boys' original storyboard art, footage of the incomplete film's premiere at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2003, deleted scenes from the doc, outtakes from the adaptation, and a Q & A following that 2003 premiere. It's a super solid disc that film lovers will eat right up.
Definitely worth checking out.