VOTD: ‘Raiders of the Lost Archives’ Compares Raiders With Old Adventure Films

Posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 by Russ Fischer

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas famously created the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, as a loving homage to the adventure films and serials that they loved in their youth. Elements of those movies are everywhere in Raiders, even as the Spielberg film is defined by a specific post-Jaws blockbuster sensibility.

Now there is a great video called Raiders of the Lost Archives, which culls footage from 30 films made between 1919 and 1973 (indlucing several big Charlton Heston films) and presents that footage side-by-side with the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Check it out below.

Now, I don’t think that all of these shots, or even many of them are specific references made by Spielberg. Rather, this is a good demonstration fo the style of those early adventure films, and a clever way to demonstrate how the established elements of those movies were incorporated into Raiders. [BuzzFeed]