In Raiders!, a pair of devoted fans finally realize their childhood dreams by recreating the iconic airplane fighting sequence of the original Spielberg classic.
If you see only one movie this summer, see the movie about the movie it took seven summers to make. Hype? You bet. But the hard sell is warranted when it comes to a documentary with a high-flying title and an action-adventure blockbuster legacy attached. This is Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, a film devoted to coming-of-age summers, grown-up realities and the running down of Spielberg-sized dreams with boulders chasing relentlessly behind.
A little history first: Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, a franchise-starting hoot involving Nazis, treasure hunts and a globe-trotting, two-fisted professor of archeology, was released in June of 1981. Among the millions enthralled by the Harrison Ford-starring film were two Mississippi boys (Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala) who set out a year later to remake the movie shot-for-shot. The resulting Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, filmed over the course of seven summer vacations, was finally completed in 1989.
In the early 2000s, the school-boy Raiders remake was discovered and lauded by the film-word nerd class. Even Spielberg expressed his love of the low-budget fan film and the inspiring dedication involved in its making.
In 2014, the cast and crew reunited to shoot the one scene – the original's airplane fight sequence – that was not completed in their youth. And now the documentary Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made endearingly chronicles the whole thing, from the 1980s adolescent odyssey to the sobering adulthood present. It's a saga, you bet your bullwhip.
Raiders! directors Jeremy Coon (Napoleon Dynamite) and Timothy Skousen have crafted something comprehensive in nature, blending in a contextual backdrop with the teen-to-men lives of the two main fanboys. We learn of their broken homes (divorcing was "just something parents did" in the 1980s) and broken dreams. A rift between young actor Strompolos and the bullhorn-happy kid director Zala formed over a girl; their friendship survived their quixotic quest only by a shoestring.
In a well-layered film that is a cross between Richard Linklater's Boyhood and a Goonies reunion, funny bits abound. After an actor is set aflame, Zala's divorced mother (scrambling solo to hold the household together) shuts down the production. The filming resumes the following summer, but on the condition of adult supervision. That monitoring comes in the form of a laid-back Budweiser enthusiast who once served as an extra on the original Dawn of the Dead. Far from giving mature guidance, the dude literally pours gas onto the fire.
Commentary comes not only from the grown-up cast and crew of the adaptation, but from film geeks that include actor-director Eli Roth and British thespian John Rhys-Davies, who was in the original film. His garish narration is a bit over the top – too bad Spielberg wasn't corralled to participate instead.
At times, heartstrings are pulled too actively. Speaking about his father's mission to film the "lost scene," Zala's young son – who adorably says, "I think it's really neat that Steven Spielberg needed $20-million to make Raiders of the Lost Ark and my dad only needed his allowance" – is shamelessly called upon to speak about how proud he is of his dad still chasing childhood dreams. Then again, that's what the film is all about: the suspension of one's wonder years, and the revisiting and resolution of youth's romantic missions.
Just as the 1980s filming was complicated – no less than five giant rocks were constructed for the famous boulder scene – the 2014 shooting of the missing airplane segment was fraught by financial difficulties and poor weather. The lessons learned by those involved were just as hard won. "We thought we were missing out on childhood," a now grown-up cast member says. "Turns out we were filming our childhood."
And so if angels give grace to fools and children, as the film suggests, wisdom is earned by years. Cue the triumphant Raiders theme music – life's adventures are never done.
Brad Wheeler