Raiders of the Lost Ark story conference transcript

**CapnChaos** · 03-14-2009, 09:56 PM

Couldn't find where anyone had posted a link to this. Back in 1978, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan met for a few days to break down the story for Raiders of the Lost Ark. The tapes were transcripted and the whole thing is available in a pdf file.
Here
I've been reading it as homework for doing my own adventure comic. It's a great study for how to economize storytelling and break down characters. It's also fascinating to hear how much of the character they had off-screen that they never intended people to really find out about, but they wanted in mind when they wrote the script (like Indy being a ghostbuster of sorts.)

**Supreme Convoy** · 03-14-2009, 09:58 PM

I started reading it as well. 5 pages in and it's a great read!

Truly a cool find amongst geeks.

**Gunter** · 03-14-2009, 10:08 PM

Lucas wanted Marion to be 11 when Indy had the initial affair with her?

Damn George.

**Andy Kuhn** · 03-14-2009, 10:22 PM

cool, thanks for the link!

**Armored Dildo** · 03-14-2009, 10:23 PM

nice find!

**oconnellmd** · 03-14-2009, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Gunter

Lucas wanted Marion to be 11 when Indy had the initial affair with him?

Damn George.

See, George, if the man is full-grown, and the girl is eleven, it's not technically called an "affair".

It's called RAPE you sick fuck!!

And what's with Spielberg's follow-up to that? Not, "George, what the HELL did you just say?", but instead suggesting "She's promiscuous. She came onto him." What the hell kind of pedo circle jerk was going on at that table?

That disturbing moment aside - a really fascinating read.

**Ashwin Pande** · 03-14-2009, 10:35 PM

Fucking cool find. Thanks!

**oconnellmd** · 03-14-2009, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by Gunter

Lucas wanted Marion to be 11 when Indy had the initial affair with her?

Damn George.

And in the context of that info, let's now take a look at that Indy/Marion exchange from the film:

INDY: I never meant to hurt you.
MARION: I was a child! I was in love.
INDY: You knew what you were doing.
MARION: It was wrong. You knew it.
INDY: Look, I did what I did. I don't expect you to be happy about it. But maybe we can do each other some good.

Creepy, isn't it?

**Gunter** · 03-14-2009, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by oconnellmd

And in the context of that info, let's now take a look at that Indy/Marion exchange from the film:

INDY: I never meant to hurt you.
MARION: I was a child! I was in love.
INDY: You knew what you were doing.
MARION: It was wrong. You knew it.
INDY: Look, I did what I did. I don't expect you to be happy about it. But maybe we can do each other some good.

Creepy, isn't it?

Definitely.

**CapnChaos** · 03-14-2009, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by oconnellmd

See, George, if the man is full-grown, and the girl is eleven, it's not technically called an "affair".

It's called RAPE you sick fuck!!

And what's with Spielberg's follow-up to that? Not, "George, what the HELL did you just say?", but instead suggesting "She's promiscuous. She came onto him." What the hell kind of pedo circle jerk was going on at that table?

That disturbing moment aside - a really fascinating read.

The thing that kind of saves it is they moved it to 15 which makes is a little less weird. That's about how old my great-grandmother was when she met my great-grandpa in the '30s. But yes, it's a blessing that details didn't end up in the final product. I think the "came onto him" thing is Steven's attempt to keep him from being a predator.