After gathering dust for a number of years, a college roommate of one of the auteurs made a copy of the tape. It eventually found its way into the hands of a Hollywood insider who ended up passing it on to Steven Spielberg. It turns out that Spielberg loved it. Now Dan Clowes is in the process of writing a film based on the experiences of these kids in the making of their film.
The movie itself is hilarious. The kids were so incredibly resourceful. Every Christmas, they'd ask for new gifts from their parents - a hat, a whip, etc. They filmed every scene except for the bald mechanic gets sliced by the airplane scene. A few adaptations were made -- Indy escapes on a boat rather than an airplane at the beginning of the film. And the monkey that gets poisoned by bad dates is replaced by Snickers the Dog.
But who cares? Once you've seen a Mississippi basement go up in flames during the bar scene, watch a bunch of teenagers re-enact the "Indy is underneath a moving truck" scene, and have a chance to marvel at the audacity of a bunch of kids filming the submarine scenes on the USS Alabama, you will forever be hooked. I watched the whole 100 minutes absolutely stunned. I would love to see it again.
It is a testament to these kids (and you get to see them grow up in the film albeit out of order since they didn't film the scenes chronologically) that they stuck with their plan over the course of seven years. And it further reminds me that Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the best movies ever made.
Youthlarge gets interviewed in front of the Brooklyn Lyceum by BBC America.
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11 comments:
dammit! well, at the very least, you're welcome for the tip - though i then have to pass credit to Kaci who hipped me to the festival to begin with.
when will YL be on BBCA? or have i missed that too?
yes, thank you for letting me know about this.
as far as bbc america, we have no idea. but the interviewer was very prim.
The interviewer's name isTim Something. So ergo, Prim Tim.
Seeing him must mean they are bringing Talking Movies back to BBCA- now with youthlarge flava!
Was the BBC America piece connected to the movie you'd just seen or was it one of their generic "God I love the BBC, the British are so much cooler than Americans" bits?
finally we agree on something.
Indiana Jones IS one of the BEST movies ever made.
Too bad we cant share it with the kids.
bowles,
i don't know the answer to that question but in general, it does seem that everything the british do is somehow making fun of us. first you enslave us, then you burn the white house and then you make fun of all of us fatties.
debbie,
i'm sure that the parents who are upset about pee wee herman will love when we show them a movie with melting faces.
i hope amy sherman-palladino sees the interview and wants me to make a guest appearance on gilmore. my schedule is more than open.
Damn! I've been wanting to see that since I read the Vanity Fair article on it a couple years ago (last year?). I'm am super-jealous and expect a full report over beer(s) when we are back in July.
Just a minor program note: the movie is actually called Indiana Jones: The Adaptation.
I concur with all of Dan's comments. I especially loved Snickers.
I would like to see other movies done like this. The hilarity of a skinny little kid with high-pitched voice and glued-on beard portraying Indy's big, jolly Egyptian friend (and future Gimli portrayer) is something you could never, ever get from a Hollywood movie.
The resourcefulness of these kids was amazing too. They even convinced the officer in charge of a naval park in Mobile, AL to let them film on a submarine and the USS Alabama.
Also a bonus: in the Q&A afterward, the filmmakers came off as genuinely nice, unpretentious guys, and decent questions outnumbered bonehead ones (possibly a first for any Q&A I've attended).
i echo jim's comments on snickers and the filmmakers. the latter seemed geniunely amazed, excited and humbled by the level of recognition their film has gotten decades later.
snickers was the best animal actor of all time. sadly snickers led a short life of only 5 years.
btw, what is up with this film festival being so unorganized? they tout this as their third year and it was run like a middle school hoedown. we weren't even let into the lyceum until well after the listed start time of the movie and then we had to wait even longer while the staff had to take group photos.
Disorganized film festival, what? I say, should have had the British organise it so that we can poke fun at the jolly fat Americans. First we had better take out a few rows of seats, eh? Toodle Pip,
Bertie the Professional Brit.
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