Saturday 5 June 2021

40 years of Indiana Jones



As production begins this month on Indiana Jones 5 in the UK, Lucasfilm is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark with a new 4K UHD Blu-ray disc collection.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's homage to the Saturday morning matinees they grew up watching became one of their greatest cinematic achievements with the help of Hollywood composer John Williams.

Inexplicably, Raiders of the Lost Ark passed me by at the time of its original release. Kenner's toy line never reached UK shores and I was too busy playing with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back toys to notice. Instead, I remember watching Clash of the Titans during the summer of 1981.

I want my THX... It wasn't until the movie's home video rental release that 'the man in the hat' would capture my childhood imagination. Incidentally, it was the first time I would hear a movie in stereo with Dolby NR on an uncle's state-of-the-art VCR connected to a hi-fi system - igniting a lifelong passion for home cinema.

Pre-order the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection (affiliate link).

What are your memories of Indiana Jones? Let me know in the comments below.

4 comments:

  1. Coincidentally I also missed "Raiders" at the time when it first appeared in the cinemas. I guess it didn't have enough spaceships in it to lure me in. I saw "Temple" and "Crusade" in the cinema years before I finally sat down and watched the whole of "Raiders" on TV, rather than just catching the odd highlight here and there.

    I guess that means I accidentally saw the original trilogy in the correct ascending order of greatness!

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    1. Yes, the lack of aliens and spaceships may have been the reason I overlooked it, too.

      I saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with one of my best friends from middle school (we'd watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi the previous summer) and was traumatised by that heart scene!

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  2. Yes, I remember seeing "Temple" in the cinema and thinking "Wow, this is incredibly dark for a family/children's film"! And even in its trimmed form it's still rather too dark all things considered, and distinctly politically incorrect in its attitudes to the locals.

    Then again I never could understand why "Empire Strikes Back" was a U certificate film for years and years given how dark and nightmarish it was!

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    1. Absolutely and there were times when the action dragged!

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