Raiders of the Lost Ark 30th Anniversary Screening: Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford and E.T. Blu-ray Update
Posted September 13, 2011 04:59 AM by Matthew Smith
Blu-ray.com was in attendance for the 30th Anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg's adventure classic, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Audience members were not only treated to a digitally restored print of the film (which looked pristine), but also witnessed a Q&A session with Spielberg and surprise guest, Harrison Ford. The event was hosted by The Los Angeles Times and moderated by Hero Complex columnist Geoff Boucher.
The big question leading up to the night was if the director would divulge any information regarding the Blu-ray release of the first three Indiana Jones films. Spielberg answered this question with a succinct, "We don't know", but elaborated by saying he hopes they will be available soon. Here are his exact words:
"We don't know. Soon but we don't know when soon is. Soon in my world would be about 6 months but soon in George's world is later than six months but I don't know. He's coming out with Star Wars first and then after that he's going to position Raiders. We're just not sure if its going to be Raiders, Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade one, two, three separately or if all three will be together. They haven't decided yet."
When questioned on the controversial topic of going back to digitally enhance past films, Spielberg revealed that Universal is working on a Blu-ray for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial but gave no release date. While expressing his regret for digitally altering the film, he asked the audience if they would object to Universal leaving out the 2002 version, which was answered with a resounding "No!". Here's the quote:
"What I'd like to ask is this. We'll do a little poll here. I know we're coming out with the Blu-ray of E.T. If I came out with just one E.T. on Blu-ray, the 1982 one, would anybody object to that ? (Audience shouts 'No!') Ok, so be it."
Furthermore, Spielberg and Harrison Ford both expressed a willingness to make a fifth Indiana Jones film if they were presented with a script. At the question, Ford joked, "As long as they don't send me to Mars!".
Other topics touched on during the Q&A included stories from the making of the Indiana Jones films and their take on the current state of the film industry. Check out the highlights from the session below.
How Harrison was Cast as Indiana Jones:
Ford: I got a call from George Lucas saying that he wanted me to meet Steven Spielberg and that he was sending me a script to read in preparation for that. I read the part and I read the script and I thought it was an incredible opportunity and a few hours later I was at Steven's house talking about it. And of course it was because Tom, Tom Selleck had to drop out because of an overlying commitment to do Magnum P.I. So I hadn't heard the name Indiana Jones until about four hours before I had the part.
Spielberg: And what happened was that after it was preempted with Tom's commitment to CBS for Magnum P.I., George coincidentally asked me to see a cut of the The Empire Strikes Back. And so I walked in to watch a rough cut of Empire Strikes Back in Northern California and when the movie was over I walked over to George and said we have your Indiana Jones. And he said "Who?" and I said that guy, Han Solo. That's Indiana Jones and then George said well yeah he's a great actor but he's identified with this character now and Star Wars. And I said yes but he's an actor! And George had never thought about Harrison in that same context but at that point he said yeah I think it'd be great. At that point he threw in and said yeah and he called Harrison a couple days later.
Ford: It was an absolute delight to revisit this character and to work with Steven again, who only hires me for Indiana Jones, but I'm an actor you know! (laughs)
Spielberg: You know who I offered Jurassic Park to- this guy. Alan Grant- first offered to Harrison Ford.
Ford: You know if we get a script for Indiana Jones I'd be delighted to play the character again. The thing that we both had as an ambition for the character and the series was that each time we meet Indiana Jones we wanted to advance the audience's understanding and experience with the character. Not just by putting him in new adventures but learning something new about him. Something about what made him what he is. And that led to meeting his father and meeting his son played by Shia (LeBeouf) and bringing back Karen (Allen). Which is to me what makes the character so interesting.
How Harrison Played the Character
Spielberg: He approached the whole character with something that I wasn't going to do in the movie and that was let this hero be afraid. I thought he was going to be a great movie idol with many possibilities for iconic movie moments. Harrison said if you want the audience to believe I'm real and not just some guy with a cape you better let me show that I'm afraid. I'll recover from it okay but you need to let me show that fear. Harrison brought that entire tapestry to the part and that transformed the movie.
If Spielberg Considers Revisting His Work
Spielberg: That's a little hot topic isn't it? (laughs). Let me put it this way, George does what he does because there's only one George Lucas, and thank god for that. He's the greatest person I've ever worked with as a filmmaker collaborator and he's a conceptual genius. He puts together these amazing stories and he's great at what he does. My feeling is that he can do anything he wants with his movies because they're his movies and we wouldn't have been raised with Star Wars or Indiana Jones had it not been for George.
Speaking for myself, I tried this once and I learned to regret it. Not because of fan outrage, but simply because I was a little disappointed in myself. I got very kind of overly sensitive to some of the criticism E.T. had gotten from parent groups when it was first released in '82. Having to do with Elliot saying _____ breath or the guns with the CIA. And also there were some rough around the edges close-ups of E.T. that I had always thought if technology ever evolves to the point where I can do some facial enhancements with E.T. I would like to. So I did an E.T. pass for the third release of the movie and it was okay for a while then I realized that what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T. My only contrition that I could possibly do because I feel bad about that, the only contrition that I really performed was when E.T. came out on DVD for the first time. I told Universal, we're going to do this or we're not going to put E.T. on DVD. You have to put two movies in the box and one movie will be the 1982 version and the other will be the digitally enhanced version. What I'd like to ask is this. We'll do a little poll here. I know we're coming out with the Blu-ray of E.T. If I came out with just one E.T. on Blu-ray, the 1982 one, would anybody object to that? (Audience shouts 'No!') Ok, so be it.
Feelings on the Current Use of Special Effects in Movies
Ford: Well what I think I was struggling to say was that the potential that filmmakers have with computer-aided graphics... it's wonderful and can be wonderfully creative, but it can also lead to a failure to attend to human scale. To go so far beyond our experience and our imaginations as an audience that it reminds us we're watching a digital effect rather than some subtle extension of our experience which makes us feel like it's humanly possible. This leads to a vast field of computer created enemies as far as the eye can see. This kind of potential often robs movies of a degree of soul.
Spielberg: I think its a tool. The digital tools available to all of us are simply that. It's just a tool. We can either make a movie that celebrates the digital era where we throw away story and just do a bunch of crazy wonderful special effects to keep us entertained but don't give us anything to remember beyond that fact that we spent two hours watching all these expensive special effects or we can continue to write good stories, original stories. Real strong narratives where the digital components are simply going to, if not enhance the experience, allow us to have the experience. I couldn't have made Jurassic Park that anybody would have believed, even back in 1993. You wouldn't have believed that movie if the dinosaurs had been stop-motion animated. That was the first movie to use digital technology to create an entire character, in fact a whole bunch of characters in the animals. So there's a time and place for it... It's when everything is just a special effect that we start to lose our way.
What's It Like Making Movies Today Compared to 30 Years Ago
Ford: Well I was very lucky to come up at the heyday of the movie business. A very lucky time when more people went to the movies than ever, when show business was a good business to be in. That's less the case now. It's hard to see a film that might find an audience and be a success ten years ago and go down the drain now because the audience is so fragmented and the business climate is so tough. I think there's less chances being taken and in some cases there's less diversity in the movie product than I wish there was.
Spielberg: I look at today as being much more diverse than any other time in history, there's more independent films being made. Young filmmakers and artists coming out of different mediums are able to make pictures. They're able to make Youtube movies, movies for limited release on shoestring budgets, and they have film festivals and niche studios that are able to distribute these pictures. There's much larger variety in the kinds of movies being made today. At the same token, when I was making pictures in the 70's and 80's the directors made all the decisions about the genres and what films they wanted to make. Today it seems the studios are in control of the genres and what kind of films they want to make. Then they go out and hire the directors they think would be appropriate. Back in those days, the studios relied on filmmakers to have the answers, and now it seems the studios presume to have all the answers. I'm a mini-studio right now and I don't presume to have all the answers but I know what it feels like to think once in a while I do (laughs). But I always think this going to be a writer, director initiated medium and it's always going to be carried home by the actors.
If There is Anything You Would Change to Raiders of the Lost Ark
Spielberg: No, of all the movies I've ever made, this is maybe the only movie I can bear watching from beginning to end. And watch it like an audience member, not watch it like somebody who knows what's coming next. I can actually get lost in watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. I also get lost a bit watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Those are my two favorite of the four movies. I can't say that about every other movie I've ever made but this movie is very special to me in that way.
lol)
Perhaps I could find a more palatable access point which would allow me to discuss SW again without tapping into the part of me that is burned out and disgusted with the LFL machine. The Droid Builders may provide that. Who knows. In the meantime I'm going to at least try to be less "militant" against these poopy Blu-rays. Maybe DiFabio's "burn it!" idea will provide the needed catharsis and I can go back to simple apathy when it comes to this release.
