Another weekend spent enjoying the American Film Institute's George Lucas retrospective at its Silver Theater, this time watching the Indiana Jones trilogy up on the big screen-- catching the first two Friday night, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Saturday.
All three were a treat, especially Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as I had never seen that film on the big screen. Yes, I know, hard to believe, but back in 1984 when my brother took me to the theater, I had two choices: see either Temple of Doom, or Gremlins.
I chose. . . poorly.
Anyway, I'm a huge fan of all three movies, although my opinion is probably pretty common: Raiders of the Lost Ark is nigh-perfect, Temple of Doom is good but too much of a downer, and Last Crusade is entertaining candy.
Regardless of the individual merits of each film, combined they represent Harrison Ford's best work. Oh, and for the record, Last Crusade is the last time Harrison Ford actually troubled himself to act. Seriously, since then Ford can barely fog a mirror, let alone show emotion on screen. Oh well, he was once great, and we've still got the proof up on screen.
One disappointment: the prints for Doom and Crusade were excellent, but the print for Raiders was one of the worst I've ever seen-- it had more scratches than Mike Tyson after a date, and the timing was often abysmal. Honestly, I was waiting to hear Jackie Chan's voice dub in a number of scenes.
I know Raiders and the other films were digitally remastered for DVD, but I'm assuming all flaws were fixed after the transfer from film, and not before. So, it's quite possible the actual Raiders print itself is in this bad of a shape, although I think it's likelier that AFI simply had an older print it's used before, or borrowed from someplace else.
Anyway, I don't know who's fault it was-- the AFI's or, if the print was recently provided, whomever archived that print (another theater, Lucas or Steven Spielberg). But whoever it was, they should be ashamed to have it shown in public like that. If a first-run movie in a sardine multiplex were shown in that condition, you'd get your money back, and it's sad to see such a great film shown in such poor condition..
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After I got home, I took a quick nap, and then headed out to an ex-co-worker's house for a barbecue. Good food, folks and fun, although we spent a little too much time talking about our jobs.
The curse of living (and working) here in Washington: nowhere else in America will you lose whatever talent you once had for small-talk faster than here in this area. I swear, I think I just may be by this point the most boring person in America. Really, I'm about as dry as Betty White's bathing suit area.
So, enjoy what you read here on Garfield Ridge. It's the most entertaining I've been in years. Which is *really* pathetic, eh?
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