Raiders of the Lost Ark publicity sheet

Here's a Raiders of the Lost Ark publicity sheet that arrived in my mailbox soon after I joined the Star Wars Fan Club back in 1980. It appealed to my love of graph paper, and it had angled photos and drop shadows, concepts 9-year-old me incorporated into my own "artwork" for years to come. The movie's release date seemed to be so far into the future!


(200-dpi scans also available)

This was already posted on Neato Coolville last year when the 4th Indiana Jones movie came out, but I had already made the scans of my own copy before I found it. Doesn't hurt to have more than one out there and Google-able.

If you're a Raiders of the Lost Ark fan, you may also be interested in this transcript of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kasdan brainstorming ideas for the Indiana Jones character the film's plot:

· 6 MB PDF (indirect link)

This was in 1978, back when their creative juices were still flowing. It's a fascinating read. Thankfully they nixed the idea of making him a Kung-Fu master. And apparently it was George Lucas who had all the good ideas. Spielberg and Kasdan sound like idiots half the time.

At one point, George Lucas says "And we want to spend our money on stunts. We want to have 'Wind and the Lion' action. Spend it all on stunt guys falling off horses, rather than one crowd scene with sixteen thousand extras for one shot...it's much better to have a terrific stunt than to have a scene with eight thousand extras. I don't think we need lots of crowds."

So what happened with those Star Wars prequels, then, George?

It seems just about every movie this decade has been all about computer-generated hordes. In the rare times when there are stunts, they're all done with effects, with no real appearance of danger. Nothing approaches that guy hanging off the train in that one scene in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Anyway, thanks to Cinematical and my friend Jenni for posting about this transcript!