Raiders Revisited (part 3)

So Lucas came up with the bullwhip idea and Spielberg scored with the snake concept, where did the girl come from in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Well, first let’s back up a step and realize that Casablanca did influence Raiders. And Casablanca is many things, part a detective story, part mystery, part wartime story, and practically a Max Steiner musical—but when it lands on its feet it’s a love story. And love stories sometimes find themselves in usual places. Look over your list of favorite films and see how writers use a love story as at least a subplot.

Stories of romance often offer a contrast to the action and sometimes give meaning to the main plot.   Where is Rocky without Adrian? And where is Indy without Marion? The screenplay describes her as “twenty-five years old, beautiful, if a bit hard-looking.” When she punches Indy seconds after seeing him we know a lot about her and something about their relationship.

Here’s part of the discussion about Marion in the Story Conference with Lucas, Spielberg and Kasden:

 S — …She’s not just somebody to be around for comic relief or romantic relief. Rather than being a kind of quasi…In the the Dietrich mold like a double agent.

G — It’s more of a plot thing. I had her a German double agent who was stuck over there. Then we can use her in the plot. She sort of has access to information. She is useful and tied in. It has to be something where they’re sort of tied in together on this thing , where it’s conceivable. Again she doesn’t have to be German, she could be American, she could be French or whatever. But I don (a typo in the transcript  I think means do)  think that we should come up with some reason to keep her from being just a tag along. The only thing I can come up with is that she’s some sort of mercenary, and she’s somehow involved. Like she has a piece of the puzzle, rather than being forced into the situation.  Because if she’s forced into it, you’re constantly fighting to try to keep her there. Every scene you’re going to have to explain why she’s there and why she doesn’t leave. Half her dialogue is going to end up being “Smokey and the Bandit” dialogue. 

So that’s how Marion, tough as nails, became an integral part of the story in Indy’s quest to find the Art of the Covenant rather than just a side kick. But, hey, speaking of Smokey and the Bandit, did you know that Burt Reynold’s name was kick around as a possibly playing Indiana Jones? It’s hard to think about now but at the time of the story conference in 1978 Burt was the man. Fresh off Deliverance (72), The Longest Yard (1974), as well has the hugely popular Smokey and the Bandit (1977), I would have easily picked Reynold’s in a fight with Hans Solo. 

But Harrison Ford was a brilliant pick as Indy as he added a little more of that reserved professor quality to the character. And Karen Allen packed a punch as Marion. And just to drop in yet one more Midwest angle, both Ford and Allen were born in Illinois, near Chicago. 

 

Scott W. Smith