Must Watch Documentary RAIDING THE LOST ARK
Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the greatest adventure films ever made, I have yet to meet someone that isn't a huge fan of the Steven Spielberg-directed film. It's a movie geek legend, and it's basically everything we love about movies.
Jamie Benning has created a fantastic documentary called Raiding the Lost Ark. Benning calls his docs "filmumentaries," and this isn't the first one he made. He previously created three "making-of" documentaries for the Star Wars trilogy. The director has now released the full Indiana Jones doc for viewing online. Here's what the director had to say:
After 8 months of reading, chatting, trawling, editing and agonising, it’s finally here! You can contact me on Twitter @JamieSWB and at Filmumentaries.com. There is also a Raiding the Lost Ark Facebook group.
Here's a commentary on the doc as well from Wired:
Raiding follows the same format that Jamie basically invented, with hours worth of interviews and behind the scenes footage condensed and re-edited into the main flow of the film to produce a visual commentary of the movie-making process. Jamie has also added graphical reconstructions of deleted scenes, subtitled facts (many taken from The Complete Making of Indiana Jones), and scans from the production diaries, offering an unprecedented insight into the first and best Indiana Jones film.
The real coup with Raiding, though, comes from the fact that Raiders director Steven Spielberg has yet to release an official commentary track on any of his films, so this really is the next best thing, with many clips from interviews from the last thirty odd years giving a great insight into the way he thinks and how certain, memorable, shots came about. An early gem of background info comes from actor Alfred Molina, who played Indy’s guide at the beginning of the film, as he recounts his experiences with all those tarantulas! Makes me shudder just thinking about it. And I love the ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ way Jamie has inserted the title of his film right in with the real title. I’d heard that Tom Selleck was considered for Indy, but it’s a real treat to see a bit of his screen test, playing opposite Sean Young as Marion.
This is a must watch for any movie geek! Check it out below, and tell us what you think. Enjoy!
Raiding The Lost Ark: A Filmumentary By Jamie Benning from jambe davdar on Vimeo.