Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was nine and living outside Chicago. Saw this with my Dad at Woodfield Mall. Loved every minute of it.

Come to think of it, has there ever been a year at the movies as good as 1982?

Raiders of the Lost Ark
John Carpenter's The Thing
Conan the Barbarian
Blade Runner

The list goes on and on.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I assume you're referring to the re-release of Raiders, but no matter. Raiders also instantly takes me back to circa 1982 as well. Whether or not that's when I actually saw it is irrelevant. It was definitely a great year for sci-fi/fantasy (Wrath of Khan, Road Warrior, E.T., etc.).

No wonder Uncle Rico wanted to go back there so badly.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was six years old in Virginia Beach, VA. I went and saw it with my dad and thought it was the most boring movie I had ever seen. Saw it again maybe a year or two later during a re-release and loved it.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

about two years away from being born...

I love the Indy Jones movies, Spielberg, Lucas and Zemeckis have created three of the greatest trilogies of all time. Hard to believe it's been twenty-five years. I can't wait to see Indy 4...

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

Anyone living near Atlanta, The Fox Theater is showing 'Raiders' tonight at 8p (6/12) as part of their Summer Movie Series.

It is going to be glorious!

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I remember taking to Raiders even faster than I did to the original Star Wars, seeing it five times in the first two weeks back in '81. I think I'll break this one out tonight...

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

7 years old. My mother put the newspaper ad on the fridge for a week or two before release. I didn't think I'd be interested in "mummies and old stuff". I wanted spaceships and lightsabers. I remember the theater I saw it at. I realized my mother knew me better than I knew myself

One of the greatest films of all time.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I couldn't have said it better myself! Well ....

Mike

(I really like the coined word "afterwads." I think this is the antonym to "foreplay.")

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 15 years old and I really didn't have much of an interest to see it. I went with a group of friends about a month after release and then proceeded to see it another 12 times before the summer was over.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

summer 1981. I was 8 at the time and the only thing on my mind that summer was superman II.and i saw cannonball run. but it wasn't until i saw it in a re-release the following feb. at a smaller theater. and at that theater they had this huge cutout poster for conan the barbarian. i thought it was the coolest poster i had ever seen. the the flick came on and i was hooked.it has always been in the top 50 of my all time favorite films but as the years have gone on it has became my favorite film of all time. bought a 44 inch widescreen last year and put the dvd in turned down the lights and felt i was nine again.awesome movie."doctor jones . again we see theres nothing you can possess witch i cannot take away."

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 12 when I saw it in the summer of '81. I saw it at the Temple Theater in Tacoma, Wa. To say that I was absolutely blown away by it is a mild understatement. Of the three, the funnest one to see in theaters was 'Temple of Doom' (the audience was really jacked on opening night), but 'Raiders' is a close second. The scene where Indy shoots the swordsman drew a huge round of applause from the audience, with 'Temple of Doom' the crowd was basically cheering and clapping during the entire final 20 minutes of it.

The scene in 'Raiders' that was totally awe-inspiring on the big screen was easily the truck chase. To this day that sequence is an absolute marvel to behold.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

My first experience with Raiders was a little traumatic. I was nine, and saw it with both of my parents. They are about ten years older than baby boomers, and a bit prudish in their tastes relative to mine. They thought the film was far too violent for young kids and didn't approve of it. My father even said "Damn that Lucas!" (A much more commonly expressed sentiment these days, albeit for different reasons).

Being a somewhat timid and non-rebellious child, I feigned not liking the movie that much when they quizzed me about it. In secret I thought it was the greatest fucking thing I'd ever seen. But that experience scarred me a little - to this day I don't really enjoy watching movies with my folks unless it's comfortable (and preferably old) family fare.

The best action adventure movie ever. I'm hoping some revival theater around D.C. may trot it out in a decent print. The last, brief revival of the movie at the Uptown in downtown Washington showed an absolutely godawful print that would have made Robert Harris claw his eyes out.

--Jefferson Morris

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 8 and Raiders is one of a several movies that I can remember seeing at one of our local small town drive-ins. I know drive ins generally got prints later, so I don't know exactly how long it had been out before I saw it.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 17. I graduated from High School in 82. That was one of the best years of my life as far as movies. A friend and I saw Raiders about 10 times that year at the dollar movie theater. We wanted to see it as many times as we could before it was gone from movie screens forever. We saw new and good movies every week the 81-82 school year. Hey young guys, you know my mom always says time goes by faster as you get older. It is true, before long it will be 25 years later. It is not a long time.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

My mom took me to see it when I was a kid. I loved the movie even though I puked almost immediately after the credits began to roll.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

My older brother took me to this in the summer of '81 when I was 12. I had a childhood fear of skeletons and rotting dead bodies, so I was pretty freaked out by Forrestal, the mummy room, and the ark opening scene. But I still loved it and it remains one of my favorites to this day.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 9 y.o. when I saw it. I actually remember the day quite well. My mom had the idea of taking our own popcorn, which was quickly confiscated by the guy who took our tickets, lol. I was pretty into the movie, and we had a good laugh because there is a scene where Indy is trying to escape from the bad guys (it's right around the time the bald guy takes the airplane blade to the face) and a tower explodes. Right when it exploded, the whole film went down! The theater lights came on and we were just sitting there wondering what in the world happened. They eventually fixed the problem and we were able to see the rest of the film

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was just finishing my freshman year of high school when it came out. I didn't see it for the first time until July of 2001, all of my big interest in June was for SUPERMAN II, which also came out that year. Later in the summer, I spent every Friday night going to see either SUPERMAN II or RAIDERS(and the rerelease of ESB once or twice) with a couple of friends. Those were the days...

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was four years old (my parents took me). I remember very little from the occasion. Probably because I saw most of the movie through my fingers (it scared the shit out of me).

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 14 and consumed since early spring with anticipation for Superman II.
I kept seeing little bits and pieces here and there about Raiders, going back to 1980 and a blurb in Heavy Metal (I think). Seeing the word Raiders (as in Tusken) and the association with George Lucas, I kept thinking it must be some sci-fi concept movie. Then, when the novelization hit the stands with the picture of Indy and Marion staring at each other in the bar, I thought it looked like a western.
Can't say I had a particularly great anticipation for it, as I wasn't a fan of westerns, though I expected it to be decent given the pedigree. I ended up getting to see it in late May at a sneak preview on the biggest screen at my favorite theater (and then stayed in my chair and got to see the 10 pm showing of Outland for free). It was probably the 'sneakiest' preview I've ever been to as there was really no big buzz about it going in. Everything about it was a complete surprise.
It certainly was magical, but I was still stuck in Superman gear, which might have kept me from immediately going overboard with it. The only Raiders memorabilia I bought that Summer was an Illustrated Screenplay (that I got autographed by Jayne Kennedy who was promoting her Playboy pictorial at the same mall) and the novelization and a couple magazines.
It was all Superman, which was funny because SII ended up being a huge disappointment to me even though icouldn't being myself to admit it until years later.

That was a wonderful spring/summer for movies- one of my favorites

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 13, almost 14, and Raiders opened on the same day as my grammer school graduation, so of course, I had to go anyway! Lucas, Speilberg and Ford teaming up was at least as important to me, if not more so, than a silly old graduation. So my best friend (same class) and I were taken to a theater 20 or 30 minutes away to see it. We loved it. With our graduation that night, it made for a very memorable day that we still talk about 25 years later.

I should add that a few weeks later, my father took me to see it again, and he loved it so much that over the course of the summer, he insisted we see it several more times (6 if I recall). In the years prior, he had told me I shouldn't bother seeing Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back so many times over and over. It took Raiders of the Lost Ark for him to get why I was doing that. He even didn't mind standing in lines that sometimes lasted 2 hours to see it again.

I think we take for granted now what a refreshing experience at the movies Raiders was in its time.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was a few months away from being born (Nov, '81). I grew up on Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade was the only one of the bunch that I was able to see theatrically. It wasn't until after I saw Last Crusade that I really discovered how awesome Raiders was.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

9 years old. 70mm Saturday matinee with my dad after seeing mysterious (and even scary) TV commercials proclaiming "From the makers of Star Wars and Jaws". The commercials didn't focus on the character INDY (as the sequels were to do), so it was great discovering him on the silver screen. And that's what I remember most from that first viewing - experiencing one of the great cinematic characterizations, unfold before my childhood eyes.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was about 2 and a half months old.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was a few weeks over 2 years old so I could not have seen it in the theater. I think I saw it a year or two after it was released on VHS. I can't remember if I fully saw it the first time or it was bits and pieces over the years. I did watch it fully over 2 years ago and remembered it's greatness. I think on Friday afternoon I will watch it to feel like a kid again. I hope I do feel like a kid again because I will be watching some 80's horror movies that night. I hope I don't get scared.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark 25th Anniversary

I was 2 years, 2 months, and 10 days old so obviously I didn't see it first run. The first time I saw it, I believe was on full screen VHS after Crusade came out.

Now of course I have the widescreen DVDs, but it doesn't hold a candle to when I saw Raiders a couple of summers ago on the big screen as part of a local theaters midnight screening series. The fact that the print was well-worn didn't matter to me at all. Seeing Indy on the big screen was a surreal and fantastic experience that I'll never forget.