Paul Murray's weblog, with news you may have missed and my $0.02 worth on a number of topics.

"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
- Art Buchwald

I bet you don't have a friend who's an acupuncturist

E-mail me: pmurray63 [at] hotmail.com (Be patient, I don't check it often.)

How it really happened. When Raiders of the Lost Ark was first released, I had several people rave about it to me. Virtually all of them said, "I don't want to spoil it for you, but there's this one scene ..." Whereupon they would invariably describe the famous scene in the marketplace where Indy fights off several sword-wielding locals, eventually confronting a huge bad guy wielding a huge sword. Exhausted, Indy sighs, pulls his revolver and shoots the guy. It was a huge crowd-pleaser.


The story has always been told that Harrison Ford was ill that day and feeling exhausted, inspiring him to improvise his reaction. Not quite, according to a new book by Vic Armstrong, Ford's stuntman on that film and many others. Everybody was miserable in Tunisia, and looking forward to getting out -- including director Steven Spielberg, who was also determined to finish on schedule to redeem his reputation after 1941.

Originally there was an elaborate fight sequence planned and a stunt team went up to the coast for two weeks working it out. [... Stunt coordinator] Peter Diamond ... showed Steven the fight routine. Big Terry Richards played the Arab and he swished his sword about and then the fight carried on through the whole of the Casbah.

Steven watched and said, “Look, I’m going to shoot whatever I can until three o’clock because then I’m getting out of here.” Peter Diamond was dumbstruck: “You can’t do that, it’s gonna take four days to film this fight. It’s a huge fight and the guys have been rehearsing it for weeks.’ Steven said, ‘I’ve got a plane coming at three, I’m out of here, I’ve got enough, I don’t need any more here.’ [First Assistant Director David] Tomblin butted in, ‘For Christ’s sake Steven, you’ve got to do this.’ But Steven was standing firm, “No, I’m out at three.” Tomblin said, “Well, it’s stupid doing this whole routine, you might as well just shoot the guy with a gun.” “Don’t be facetious Dave.” Then Steven paused. “I’ll tell you what, let’s try that. Yes, let’s try just shooting him.” And the rest is history.

This looks like it will be a fun, easy book to read. (via kottke.org)

12/17/2011 Update: In interviews conducted this year, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford both stick to the familiar version of this scene, that Ford wasn't feeling well and thought that yet another sword fight was a bit much. When compared to Vic Armstrong's story, the two versions appear quite contradictory. Someone's memory isn't right. Unless somebody goes and digs up the logs that must have been kept during shooting -- assuming they still exist -- we may never know for sure who's right.

Labels: book, film, Raiders of the Lost Ark

posted by Paul Murray at 10:30 PM | permanent link |

Scorsese does Hitchcock -- for an ad. I think the only time I might have linked to an ad before might be Jerry Seinfeld's short for American Express. Today we have another: Martin Scorsese doing an homage to Alfred Hitchcock with "The Key to Reserva". Hitchcock fans, see how many allusions you can spot.

You'll need Flash to watch it. It's 9:21 long. (Apparently Spanish TV on New Year's Eve is like our Super Bowl, with elaborate commercials.)

Labels: film, Hitchcock, homage, Scorsese

posted by Paul Murray at 10:37 PM | permanent link |