Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation and Other Home Movies

When I was twelve years old, I was just starting my career as a Cellar Dweller. I had my little comic books that I would draw, and eventually I worked with the Dwellers to make a crude animated cartoon. I can easily look back on these early days and say that I accomplished a lot for my age. Then I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation last night at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

The Adaptation is a shot-for-shot remake of the Spielberg classic, filmed back in the early 1980s by a group of 12 year olds. It took the kids seven years to complete their film, which they promptly shelved and forgot as they moved on with their lives. Time passed, and through a complicated series of events a VHS copy of the tape made its way to Eli Roth, and subsequently, Steven Spielberg. That was 2003, and since then the director Eric Zala has been holding rare screenings of his movie for non-profits and charities across the country. He can't exactly sell the thing, since it borrows heavily from the original Raiders soundtrack and script (which the kids recite word for word), but he's more than willing to share it.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect going in to it. I had watched some clips on YouTube, but otherwise was going into this screening fairly unassuming. The film, it turns out, is a lo-fi work of art. The sheer amount of skill and ambition on display by this fairly large group of Biloxi teens is astounding! They nailed the opening boulder chase, the fiery bar fight with Marion, the crowded Arab streets, the excavation scenes, the Jeep chase, the submarine, and even the exploding head once the Ark is opened. At times the audience was in awe of what they were seeing--could this film actually be happening? How did these kids pull this off? But most of the time, everyone was laughing. And really, it's impossible not to. The Adaptation is an adorable tribute to a film that many remember well; better yet, the kids play it in complete seriousness, spouting off curse words and killing as many Nazis as the original.

And yet the entire time, I couldn't help but think about other recent films, created by giant movie studios, that hope to capture the same magic and youth that The Adaptation has. I absolutely loved Be Kind Rewind, which featured two lower-class Jersey boys filming their own home movie versions of classic films. And then there's Son of Rambow, which featured two British boys making their own sequel to the Rambo franchise. Mr. Zala also pointed out last night that Paramount is going to be making a feature movie about him making The Adaptation. I'm not about to declare a Renaissance for high-concept, sentimental home-spun remakes (mainly because that's a real mouthful), but the recent frequency of these movies is very interesting.

While The Adaptation was made back in the 80s, I have to wonder if its recent surfacing has inspired movies like Be Kind Rewind. And moreover, would any of these movies even have arrived without the help of YouTube? None of these films really utilized the online service, but the mere idea that YouTube exists, with its countless remakes, remixes and home movies, had to have spurred these three films into pop culture. Or perhaps the timing is just right. There is something to be said that all three movies focus on classic blockbusters from the 80s. Have the films of the new century been so blah that we are forced to reminisce on the greats of the past? On top of that, the children who grew up in the 80s (me included, although I was really only around for the second half) are adults now, and they're able to make and promote these movies that reconnect them with their childhood. There is a lot to consider here, and I'm just happy that The Adaptation made me even consider all of this stuff.

I am very glad I was able to attend last night's screening--an event that I don't think I'll ever encounter again. Aside from rekindle my ever-growing appreciation for the Indiana Jones franchise, it also showed me that sometimes when you're working your butt off for something you love it can really go on to be something great.