Wednesday 5 January 2011

BACK ON UK TV: "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK"

"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?" Indy descends into trouble in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

On BBC 1 and HD today at 9pm, and then the other two to follow each week. I'll be intrigued to see which version of RAIDERS is shown: the original as has been seen on the UK's SKY MOVIES over the last year, or two years ago BBC HD copy, which had a new cgi overlay background sequence during one scene in the truck chase (image below):

Old version 1981.
New version-shown on BBC 1 HD during 2010- July 2012- for the so far unreleased INDY Blu-rays? With thanks to ORIGINALTRILOGY.COM

I'll never forget seeing RAIDERS for the first time in 1981. I was eleven years old, and I knew nothing about the film apart from seeing some stills in STARBURST magazine (I didn't even know it was set in the 1930's). Me, mum, my brother and his wife (my dad didn't want to come-he regretted it afterwards!) went to the weekend sneak preview midnight screening, the week before its proper release in UK cinemas, at the lovable flea-pit cinema the Streatham ABC, in the days when you didn't book online or phone for tickets, you just went and hoped you got in there! We did, the cinema was jam packed, and we were all blown away by how exciting the film was- and as the opening scene unfolded we were all impressed by Harrison Ford, superb in a role that was meant for him! My love of STAR WARS got me in trouble, though: when I saw William Hootkins in the film, I remember turning round to my mum and saying, "It's Porkins!", to which I got an aggressive "sshhh" from the angry adult above me!

Great days and happy memories!

UPDATE 6/1/2011: The new version of RAIDERS was shown.

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