We Are Not Alone

A barely-formed Glenn Erickson, of the mighty and indispensible DVDSavant, working in the model shop of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Glenn has been incredibly nice about spreading the word about Shadowplay via his powerful organ, boosting my stats to undreamed-of levels, for which I’m enormously grateful.

For Spielberg-heads (and you know, I still love quite a few of those films from my youth), Glenn has written excellent insider’s-view articles of CE3K and 1941. Check ’em out.

And via TV genius Graham Linehan’s Why That’s Delightful, where he condenses the internet into manageable form, we get news of the e-publication of the story conference notes taken when George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Larry Kasdan first got together to talk about Lucas and Philip Kaufman’s story idea for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Well worth checking out, for fans and foes alike. Haters will find much to sneer at as the moguls talk nonsense, embrace cliche, expose the covert racism of the INDIANA JONES series to the light of day, and posit Indie as a paedophile who may have seduced Marian (Karen Allen, eventually) at the age of 11 (Lucas seems particularly keen on this idea). Admirers will meanwhile gawp in wonder as a legend takes shape, and gain valuable insight into the exact contributions of the various talents involved — Lucas: production mechanics and commercial gameplan– Kasdan: character nuance — Spielberg: understanding that it’s a theme park ride in episodic narrative form. The absent Kaufman’s contribution seems to be the overall narrative shape and the biblical MacGuffin. As you can surmise, I have a rather schizoid attitude to the whole thing: my inner 13-year-old still loves the first movie, and my mor “adult” side appreciates the craft and artistry that’s gone into it.

I remember a very illuminating Kasdan interview from the time, where he listed the things he mentioned stuff that didn’t make the final cut — most of which is included here, and all of which got recycled in the sequels. Kasdan also talked about scenes he never quite cracked, which was fascinating — armed with this knowledge, you could see where Spielberg’s presentation skills were covering up script problems. I think the interview ran in Starlog or something, I wonder if anyone can find it.

We can laugh about it now

Er…

I seriously dig the use of the word “appealingly” in the opening text crawl. It’s in perfect English otherwise, so I’m envisaging some hapless, perspiring translator being forced to use this word by producers, even as he tries to persuade them it’s not, perhaps, the absolute best choice.

The sample (dubbed) dialogue is also inspiring, and the snappy exclamations superimposed over explosions. “This could happen to you,” is my favourite, although I doubt the Cukor reference is intentional.

I have no doubt that THE LAST WAR is a sincere attempt to raise awareness of a terrible threat while raising money for Toho. And there’s also a slight sense that by 1961, Godzilla had lost his edge slightly. “Our deterrent lacks credibility!” cried the execs. “Maybe we should try destroying cities and landmarks without a giant lizard? Could that work?”

Even the phrase “employing every vestige of our technical skill” somehow lacks confidence.

“We, Toho Pictures, are in a better position than any other production company to make a film such as this. We have a long and successful history of blowing shit up. ”

Many thanks to Glenn Erickson for pointing this one out via his great DVDSavant.