The best Indiana Jones movie is Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? Well, whatever your opinion on the highly debated Indiana Jones topic, the director of one of the best Matt Damon movies certainly thinks it’s the best of Indy is to be found in Steven Spielberg‘s shot at it.
He liked Raiders so much, in fact, he created his own remake and shared it with the world. Honestly, it’s kind of weird (and we’re unsure of the legality), but the intentions were good, and we wouldn’t mind sitting down to watch it.
Steven Soderbergh, who’s responsible for one or two listings on our best thriller movies, posted an entirely different version of one of the best ’80s movies online.
On 22 September 2014, the Contagion director posted an “educational purposes only” cut of Raiders on his ‘Soderblog‘. At the bottom, there’s a full Raiders movie with no diegetic sound or color. A black-and-white, alternatively scored version of the film apparently meant to inspire learning filmmakers.
The text reads, “[David] Fincher said it: there’s potentially a hundred different ways to shoot something but at the end of the day there’s really only two, and one of them is wrong). Of course, understanding story, character, and performance are crucial to directing well, but I operate under the theory a movie should work with the sound off, and under that theory, staging becomes paramount (the adjective, not the studio. although their logo DOES appear on the front of this…).”
Soderbergh also praised Spielberg’s staging, “I’m not saying I’m like, ALLOWED to do this, I’m just saying this is what I do when I try to learn about staging, and this filmmaker forgot more about staging by the time he made his first feature than I know to this day (for example, no matter how fast the cuts come, you always know exactly where you are—that’s high-level visual math shit).”
“At some point, you will say to yourself or someone THIS LOOKS AMAZING IN BLACK AND WHITE and it’s because Douglas Slocombe shot THE LAVENDER HILL MOB and THE SERVANT, and his stark, high-contrast lighting style was eye-popping regardless of medium.
Soderbergh’s black and white cut of Raiders is, frankly, impressive. Spielberg’s movie still really works and the lack of color accentuates lots of the director’s other visual choices: his use of shadow, his blocking, the camera’s movement, and the pace of editing. Certainly if you’re wanting to learn about good movies, it’s a good place to start.
For more Indy, find out how to watch the Indiana Jones movies in order. Or, check out the best movies of all time, and the new movies coming soon. And there’s always new anime to enjoy, too.