Daily Dialogue — July 12, 2016
Brody: However, an Egyptian pharaoh…
Indiana: Shishak.
Brody: …yes, invaded the city of Jerusalem round about 980 B.C., and he may have take the Ark back to the city of Tanis and hidden it in a secret chamber called The Well of Souls.
Major Eaton: [skeptically] Secret chamber?
Brody: However, about a year after the pharaoh had returned to Egypt, the city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sand storm which lasted a whole year. Wiped clean by the wrath of God.
Major Eaton: [turns slowly toward Col. Musgrove] Uh… huh.
Colonel Musgrove: Obviously, we’ve come to the right men. Now you seem to know, uh, all about this Tanis, then.
Indiana: No, no, not really. Ravenwood is the real expert. Abner did the first serious work on Tanis. Collected some of its relics. It was his obsession, really. But he never found the city.
Major Eaton: Frankly, we’re somewhat suspicious of Mr. Ravenwood, an American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable.
Brody: Oh, rubbish. Ravenwood’s no Nazi.
Colonel Musgrove: Well, what do the Nazis want him for then?
Indiana: Well, obviously, the Nazis are looking for the headpiece to Staff of Ra and they think Abner’s got it.
Major Eaton: What exactly is a headpiece to the Staff of Ra?
Indiana: Well, the staff is just a stick. I don’t know, about this big. Nobody really knows for sure how high. And it’s… [turns blackboard to blank side] …it’s, uh… it’s capped with an elaborate headpiece in the shape of the sun with a crystal in the center. And what you did was, you take the staff to a special room in Tanis, a map room with a miniature of the city all laid out on the floor. And if you put the staff in a certain place at a certain time of day, the sun shone through here and made beam that came down on the floor here… and gave you the exact location of the Well of the Souls.
Colonel Musgrove: Where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, right?.
Indiana: That’s exactly what the Nazis are looking for.
Major Eaton: Now what does this Ark look like?
Indiana: Uh… there’s a picture of it right here. [opens a book on the table] That’s it.
They all look at an illustration of the Hebrews devastating their enemy with the Ark.
Major Eaton: Good God!
Brody: Yes, that’s just what the Hebrews thought.
Colonel Musgrove: [pointing to a beam of light] Uh, now what’s that supposed to be coming out of there?
Indiana: Lightning. Fire. Power of God or something.
Major Eaton: I’m beginning to understand Hitler’s interest in this.
Brody: Oh, yes. The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it… is invincible.
— Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Info Dump suggested by Will King.
Trivia: Philip Kaufman shares story credit with George Lucas because they originally dreamed up the film together in the 1970’s. Reportedly, it was Kaufman’s idea to pursue the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Originally, Kaufman was going to direct.
Dialogue On Dialogue: This is info dump done well because the content is fascinating and the way it’s conveyed is through the use of visuals (e.g., chalkboard, Bible illustrations).
