How does raiders of the lost ark start

Unlike most sequels of the time, it was fast becoming a sensation. But Lucasfilm was already onto its next project, and in partnership with Paramount Pictures and director Steven Spielberg, were ready to start making a different type of adventure film: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Though production was based in England, principal photography commenced on location on the southwest coast of France. On Monday, June 23, , cast and crew assembled for the first day of shooting at the Port de la Pallice in La Rochelle. Rhys-Davies: I remember meeting one of the wranglers who had caught a crew member with this quite large snake saying, "I just want to take it home for my kid, it'll only die anyway.

By the time he remembered, the snake had gone completely. Later, he's taking his wife and his mother-in-law for a drive. And, of course, the snake re-appeared. Kennedy: Do you remember that rat reacting to the hum of the Ark in the hold of the ship? We found a rat that was behaving very erratically because it was deaf. It was turning in this very odd way, trying to hear out of one ear.

When we actually featured it in the shot it worked very effectively. Marshall: The truck chase is really something. It worked just like it should've worked. It's got all these great homages, like going under the truck with the whip like in the old Westerns. All those things were done for real, no CGI.

Spielberg: The whole Flying Wing fight was improvised. One idea gave access to the next, it was a real lesson in cinematic improvisation.

I was getting really excited, as the possibilities were overwhelming. I had to stop myself before the sequence became an eight-minute-long one that George would cut down to three-and-a-half.

Marshall: In Tunisia it was literally F but very dry. A lot of people had dysentery, and we had run out of stuntmen. Steven said, "Go and put that outfit on and you can be the pilot. I'm also the producer. That wasn't much of a stunt; it just hurt. It took three days, by the way. He wanted to do all his stunts. Ford: The stunts were the key part of the thing, getting as far into them as I could.

Working with the brilliant Vic Armstrong, working out how much I could do. We would always devise how the character would work in these circumstances. Spielberg: When it came to the opening of the Ark, George said to me, "You've done a supernatural ending with Close Encounters. Make it thrilling, but make the audience come back and see it a second time. Freeman: I had no idea what was going on. You would just be standing there in costume and they would say, "Okay, imagine this thing coming at you!

Lucas: We weren't focused on how gory the end of the movie was going to be. In the script, one head shrivels, one explodes, the other melts. Steven dictated the level at which it would happen.

Those were the days when you could do things like that without anyone saying much. Spielberg: I showed the movie to George and he had no notes; he was ecstatic. We were all hugging. My editor, Mike Kahn, couldn't have been happier. I went back to LA and then I got the inevitable call from George the next morning saying, "You know, Steve, I've been thinking about the cut. The ending seems three times longer than it should be. I wonder if I could have a run at it.

There was nothing I had to take too seriously musically. They were theatrical and over-the-top. I particularly remember that the Indiana Jones theme was something I chiselled away at for a few weeks, changing a little note here, a little note there. It sounds easy, but it was not. I remember playing Steven a couple of things and him just saying, "Why don't you use them both? Michael Kahn Editor : Johnny's music always lifts the picture up a couple of notches. Everything comes alive.

Williams: I used to love those old romantic themes in Warner Bros. Films like Now, Voyager. For the love story between Indiana Jones and Marion I thought that the music could be like one of those '30s themes and that would contrast well with the humour and silliness, even if it is inappropriate emotionally. I also remember doing pastiches of brass stabs that always represented the evil Nazis - all of it with tongue slightly in cheek.

For the opening of the Ark, I wanted to try and evoke a biblical atmosphere to colour and express that in a way that only an orchestra and chorus can. Just think about that: today, what movie plays in a movie theatre for a year? Allen: I was so pleased when I saw it. It's a wild ride, but there's a sweetness to it too.

Kasdan: It's held up pretty great. In some ways it's simpler than you think it is. For my tastes, that's better than we have now. That's the charm of it. It created a mould that got copied so many times it's hard to see it anymore. Rhys-Davies: Was it [famous literary critic] F. Leavis or is it T. Eliot himself who said, "The great work of art is not only great in itself, it changes the possibility of the craft for others"?

For many people, Raiders did that. Kennedy: Raiders has had a tremendous influence. It has become the touchstone. I hear people even now in development meetings refer to things as Raiders -esque. Spielberg: The first Indy, for me, is the most perfect of the three. I've never gone back and said I could have done anything better than what I achieved on that film. Lucas: One thing I learned - if you hire the best director in the world, making movies is really easy. Prev Next. Steven Spielberg.

George Lucas. Harrison Ford. Lawrence Kasdan. Karen Allen. Frank Marshall. Kathleen Kennedy. Originally published in issue of Empire. There is still something liberating in the idea of Indiana Jones. Harrison is Indiana Jones. If you hire the best director in the world, making movies is really easy. In the original script, Indy loses his hat when running out of the temple and the boulder crushes it, rendering our hero hatless.

The pilot of the float plane, Jock, who rescued Indy was played by the same actor and professional pilot Fred Sorenson who piloted the helicopter that rescued the heroes of Jurassic Park at the end of the film. Marshall tells us that when filming the Jurassic Park scene, Sorenson sang the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme song off-mic as they took off. To read more Untold Stories, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands Friday, or buy it here now.

Home Movies Raiders of the Lost Ark : 14 revelations about its epic opening scene. Raiders of the Lost Ark : 14 revelations about its epic opening scene. James Hibberd. Save FB Tweet More. The era's defining blockbuster confectioners, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, teamed up for a throwback to the action-adventure serials they grew up on.

Harrison Ford's. Credit: Lucasfilm. Raiders of the Lost Ark.