GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
Welcome to the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series, Volume 23. This week we will be analyzing the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 action-adventure movie [screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, story by George Lucas & Philip Kaufman]. If the possibility of reading this script isn’t motivation enough, I don’t know what is!
You can download a copy of the script here.
Some reviews of the movie:
Chicago Sun-Times [Roger Ebert]
The Guardian [Peter Bradshaw]
New York Times [Vincent Canby]
Variety [Stephen Klain]
The BoxOfficeMojo site for the film’s performance in theaters [$390M worldwide].
Want to know how Raiders came about? Check out this interview excerpt with George Lucas:
It started in Lucas’ head, traveled with him to a beach in Hawaii, pitched there to Spielberg, then back home to hire a writer. Eventually that led to a two-day long story conference with Lucas, Spielberg and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. You can download a copy of that remarkable story conference transcript here.
Let’s use this post today for your general reactions to the script.
Did you enjoy it? What aspects about it made the most impact on you? Would you consider it a ‘good read’? What struck you most about the writing?
Note: What we read is not the shooting script as there were additional drafts. Unfortunately I can’t find any of those publicly available. No problem. As we have seen in the past, we can learn an awful lot about significant and subtle changes between script and screen, so that will be an education in and of itself.
Our schedule for discussion:
Monday, September 24: General comments
Tuesday, September 25: Structure
Wednesday, September 26: Characters
Thursday, September 27: Themes
Friday, September 28: Dialogue
We will have another live Tweet-Cast on Wednesday, September 26 at 8PM Pacific. What’s a Tweet-Cast? Everybody lines up a DVD, Netflix, or whatever version of the movie, then hits “Play” precisely at the top of the hour. During the movie, we comment on it real time on Twitter.
We generally have a group of professional screenwriters participate including Tom Benedek, Scott Frazier, John Gary and myself, and anyone is invited to drop by. It’s a lot of fun, but as you can see from the transcripts, also a great way to break down and analyze a movie. Hashtag: #ROLATC
If you know of any great behind-the-scenes videos or interviews about Raiders, please post them in comments.
Remember: Reading scripts is one of the most important single things you can do to enhance your understanding of the craft of screenwriting. So download Raiders of the Lost Ark and join us the last week of September to analyze the script.
For all of the other screenplays and commentary in the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series, go here.
NOTE: THE USE OF THESE SCREENPLAYS IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
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