Movies - TV
Harrison Ford’s Improv Deeply Disturbed One Indiana Jones Writer
By BILL BRIA
The unforgettable scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where Indiana Jones swiftly disposes of a swordsman stands out as an impressive improvisation by Harrison Ford.
The script originally had a protracted fight sequence, but Ford, grappling with illness and aiming to expedite the production, proposed a more direct approach.
Ford shared with Life Magazine that, upon noticing that Indy hadn’t used his gun the whole movie, he asked director Steven Spielberg “‘Why don't we just shoot the sumbitch?’”
While Ford and Spielberg were happy with the outcome, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan was not. He disliked how the scene injected humor into an act of violence.
As the writer told Joseph McBride in “Steven Spielberg: A Biography,” he knew he held the minority opinion, “It was very popular, but it disturbed me.”