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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Name: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: action film, treasure hunt film
Duration: 115 min
Rating: 8.4

Directed by Steven Spielberg.

Directed by Steven Spielberg · Shot by Douglas Slocombe · Cut by Michael Kahn · Music by John Williams · Ratio 2.35:1 · 115 min

How it was made

Storyboard artists produced roughly 6,000 images covering more than 80 percent of the script, letting Spielberg pre-visualise scenes and cut down setup time on set.
Spielberg had miniature sets built with 1-inch-tall figurines for major sequences, including the Well of Souls, the Tanis dig site and the Cairo marketplace, to plan blocking, lighting and how many extras would be needed.
Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, production designer Norman Reynolds and editor Michael Kahn were all hired because Spielberg admired their previous work.
Paramount mandated an 85-day shooting schedule, but Lucas, Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall set themselves a tighter 73-day target to avoid repeating the overruns of Spielberg's previous film, 1941.
An early plan to give the villain Toht a mechanical arm that could swap for a machine gun or flamethrower was scrapped during storyboarding because Lucas felt it pushed the film into a different genre.

Own the film

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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) on Amazon — 4K, Blu-ray, DVD or digital

Behind the scenes

The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark | Indiana Jones Behind the Scenes — Pajasek99 · 51 min
Indiana Jones The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 — Special Features · 58 min
On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark | Indiana Jones Behind the Scenes — Pajasek99 · 58 min
Raiders of the lost ark - Making of the melting face (Special effects) — David's Movie Corner · 9 min
Why Raiders of the Lost Ark Still Looks like a Billion Bucks — wolfcrow · 8 min
INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) Behid-the-Scenes Featurettes — FilmIsNow Epic Movie Zone · 4 min
Indiana Jones The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark Updated — Special Features · 51 min
[Rare Video] On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) — Cinevizual · 58 min

Elsewhere

More by Steven Spielberg

Bullitt
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
Escape to Nowhere — 1961
Firelight — 1964
Amblin' — 1968
Duel — 1971
Murder by the Book — 1971
Something Evil — 1972
Watch Dog — 1973
The Sugarland Express — 1974
Jaws — 1975
Close Encounters of the Third Kind — 1977
1941 — 1979
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — 1982
Twilight Zone: The Movie — 1983
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — 1984
The Color Purple — 1985
Empire of the Sun — 1987
Always — 1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — 1989
Hook — 1991
Jurassic Park — 1993
Schindler's List — 1993
Amistad — 1997
The Lost World: Jurassic Park — 1997
Saving Private Ryan — 1998
The Unfinished Journey — 1999
A.I. Artificial Intelligence — 2001
Minority Report — 2002
Catch Me If You Can — 2003

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