Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford at RAIDERS 30th Anniversary Screening

Raider’s of the Lost Ark launched the iconic character of Indiana Jones and is widely considered to be one of Steven Spielberg‘s finest films. At the recent 30th anniversary screening in Los Angeles, attendees were treated to newly remastered screening of the film as well as a Q&A with the film-maker and star Harrison Ford.

While ‘Crystal Skull’ detracted significantly from the franchise particularly due to George Lucas’s absurd story, there’s still hope that a fifth movie may someday repair the damage. Spielberg says he still has long conversations with Lucas who recently altered his Star Wars films much to the outrage of fans. However Spielberg has also digitally tinkered with one of his classics, namely E.T – something which he now regrets. Spielberg stated that he no longer has interest in changing or “fixing” his older films and justified his reasons at the time, saying that he responded to criticisms from parents –  excising the “penis breath line” and removing the g-men’s guns; replacing them with walkie-talkies. This tampering altered much of the pacing and changed the film’s tone –  removing the threat of danger. The digital E. T was also not the same character that audiences fell in love with and he later realised that all he’d done was “rob the people who love E.T. of their memory of the film.” He will never make that same mistake and made a point of telling audiences that the remastered version of Raiders has not been altered effects wise or visually in any way, just a brand new print taken from the original negative to take advantage of the Blu-ray format.

During the chat Spielberg was asked about the origin of the famous ‘Just shoot the swordsman’ gag, citing that there was meant to be a a three-page whip vs. sword battle, however Ford was said to be feeling ill from food he ate the night before and the scene was reduced as he would only be able to last an hour or so.

At that point Spielberg’s answer was cut off by a voice off-stage “That’s not what happened” – to the excitement of the audience Indiana Jones himself Harrison Ford entered and was met with a standing ovation. He went on to say that since Indy had already shot a scene where he disarmed a group of baddies in similar fashion, and rather than be repetitive – Ford suggested,  ‘Why don’t we just shoot the son of a bitch.’ Spielberg went onto say how the stunt guy had spent months training for the fight scene only to be told he’s just gonna get shot.  So to make up for lost screen time, on the first take the swordsman acted out an elaborate death scene, backing up, waving about and falling to his knees, flopping down and crawling forward. However on the second take, just before Spielberg called action, Ford fired the prop gun which startled the swordsman and he just fell to the floor – which become the final take used.

Ford was asked what he thinks make the character so enduring to this day -“Let the hero be afraid”. On whether he would play Indy again in the future, he offered a glimmer of hope joking that as long as it’s not set on Mars, he’d be up for it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was released June 12th, 1981, and if you weren’t lucky enough (or alive) to catch it theatres, then the new Blu-Ray release should come close.

You can head over to Hero Complex to watch some of the interview with Steven Spielberg.

via: Collider  Hero Complex