Saturday evening my neighbor invited me over to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) on his outdoor inflatable screen. My neighbor, his wife, his son, and I had a blast watching this classic under the stars.
Raiders is one of those films that has so many iconic scenes, I sometimes forget the actual order of events. I experience the same sensation with the original Star Wars (1977) film, which I also watched outdoors with my neighbor and his family: I know the broad strokes of the story and all of the memorable moments, but I am always amazed by how much I have forgotten between viewings.
I don’t know if anyone else experiences this sensation when watching these modern classics, but I think it accounts, in part, for their enduring freshness (even if Star Wars looks like the 1970s in a samurai-western space opera). Every viewing feels, in a small way, like seeing the film for the first time. I suspect it’s due in part to the young age at which I first saw these flicks, and the marked but incomplete impressions they left upon my young mind.
But enough navel-gazing! Raiders stands the test of time, and I was reminded again how great Hollywood blockbusters used to be.
The Portly Politico 