Anybody who knows me knows that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is my favorite movie of all time. When it came out in theaters back in the summer of 1981, I went to see it 42 times and I owe it all to my mother. At the time I wanted to see “Superman II” but it was sold out so she took my younger sister and I to se Raiders and that was it for me. She loves to recount the story about how I fussed and complained that I didn’t want to see Raiders, I wanted to see Superman but she took us anyway and from the opening shot, it was the first and last time I sat through an entire movie without so much as eating a piece of candy or taking a mouthful of my soda.
I even dressed up exactly as Indiana Jones and made many 8mm short movies but it’s quite obvious that the film holds the same power over many people and two of them in particular, are Eric Zala and Chris Strompolos. How much did they love “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when they were kids? So much that back in the ’80s, they spent seven years producing a shot-for-shot remake of Indiana Jones’ debut adventure titled “Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.” The new documentary “Raiders!” details that remarkable accomplishment, as well as their recent reunion to shoot the one sequence from Steven Spielberg’s movie they were unable to film back in the day.
“Raiders” is directed by Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen and will receive its world premiere on March 14th in Austin, Tx., at this year’s SXSW Festival. That premiere will be followed by a screening of Zala and Strompolos’ “Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.”
