The Raiders Ending IS TECHNICALLY Bad....

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Posted by New Jersey Hughes from h186.n-D1A278.sac.verio.net on October 14, 2000 at 11:30:33:

In Reply to: Raiders ending posted by Matt on October 11, 2000 at 19:59:06:

...got your attention, did I? Now, before you decide to burn me and run my effigy out of town, hear me out. RAIDERS is a big action film, an homage to the adventure serials of the last century. Indy is an active character, taking charge and moving the plot forward at all times- UNTIL THE FINALE. Think about it for a moment: the action /adventure hero of a serial-style thriller spends the climax of his greatest adventure TIED TO A POLE. Pretty passive, hunh?

And I'll beat someone to the punch here... It's not like Indy LET them open the Ark, knowing that the Power of God would come out and open up a jeraboam of Old Testament whup-ass; he doesn't resolve the conflict 'passively', in other words (letting the Nazis write their own pink slip by messing with soemthing he KNOWS will do them in). He doesn't even BELIEVE in the power of the Ark until AFTER it's opened (he doesn't tell Marion to avert her eyes until God and ILM start creeping outta the box). If the Nazis had just killed Indy and Marion and opened the Ark, the movie would have still ended the same way; they still wouldn't have 'won'.

Indy had NOTHING to do with it! Pretty kooky, hunh?

Like I said, hear me out. I think it's a testament to just how great and amazing RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is, as a film, that you can have an ending that is structurally wonky, and it doesn't hurt the movie ONE BIT (and I'm not saying the ending is bad; not at all -it's amazing. I'm just talking about story structure). Anyone else see this the way I do? Or am I commiting fan suicide here? :-)

One last interesting thought... one of the deleted scenes from RAIDERS is from when Sallah takes Indy to see Imam, the wise old guy who translates the inscription on the headpiece. In a bit of cut dialogue, Imam warns Indy that, if the Ark is opened, he must NOT look at it. I think if they had left it in, I guess it'd appear that Indy let them 'walk into a trap', as it were, by letting them have the Ark, knowing full well that SOMETHING will go kablooey. I'm thinking they cut the line to make Indy look like the smart guy at the end by realizing that "oh, shit! The power of the Ark IS real! We better not look at it!" A trade-off, I guess...

If anyone's pissed at my observation, well, let's just take it outside and settle it like men. I shall, however, spend the fight tied to a telephone pole, cause it worked for Indy...


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