Movie(s) of the Day: Clash of the Titans and Raiders of the Lost Ark
And this is where my love of adventure movies comes from. It's my favorite genre of motion picture. Not action; ADVENTURE.
This weekend in 1981, at the age of four, my parents took me to see two movies that had a deep effect on the kind of story I really loved.
Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' homage to the adventure serials they had grown up with, is an incredibly fun movie. I know a lot of people get irritated when movies like this are funny and not "grounded" or "realistic" (we're talking about a movie that's a race for the Ark of the Covenant from biblical mythology, btw), but this movie is the reason why a lot of adventure flicks were funny and arch for a long time. I think kids who grew up with it don't realize (as I didn't as a kid, obvi) that it's partially a parodist, gee whiz take on a style of movie that the main audience would have been familiar with and enjoyed seeing a sort of piss take of. I don't think Spielberg and Lucas felt they were doing what they ended up doing, which was creating the blueprint for a new generation and what they expected to see in adventure flicks. They were just having fun doing a breezy homage to something that probably seemed hoary and wheezy to their generation.
It really got to me; I mean, it was so exciting, but it was also scary to me. The snakes, the melting faces, even the bit where Alfred Molina has tarantulas on the back of his shirt in the beginning... dang, it scared little me. I remember I would sneak up to my parents' bedroom when I was scared at night and sleep near their laundry. And I did that night.
Nevertheless, this never fails to entertain. Harrison Ford's performance, the score, the style... it really did become the template for a while.
My dad's favorite movie ever has always been Jason and the Argonauts (he wanted to name me Jason, but his sister-in-law stole the name for her son, which my dad was pissed about for years), so I think he was especially xazzed to take his own son to see another movie rooted in Greek mythology with Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects. I'm glad he did, because it ended up being the last movie Harryhausen did.
I was so blown away by this movie as a four year old. Perseus stalking Medusa, riding the Pegasus, killing the Kraken, fighting Kalibos... I still get excited thinking about it, honestly. I know it's kind of silly, but that's part of what makes it so fun. The 2010 remake gets it all wrong, taking itself too seriously, constantly going out of its way to belittle the original movie, insecurely looking over its shoulder for approval, desperately hoping that the audience thinks it's cool.
The thing about the original movie is that it stays emotionally true to itself even as it throws in fun stuff for kids, like Bubo the mechanical owl. But it's rooted in an epic sense of heroism that keeps grown-up kids like me coming back to it and smiling at its goofy wonderfulness.
When I think of this movie, I remember that after seeing it on a Saturday afternoon, my parents and I walked over to the mall and went into Sears. It was the automotive entrance, so that new tire smell was overwhelming, but also the lunch counter had popcorn, and even though it sounds gross, somehow that combined smell just hit me in a positive way. When I'm truly wrapped up in an adventurous movie, I smell that smell in my memories and remember coming out of Clash of the Titans all inspired and excited, going to Sears and my dad buying me the action figure set of Perseus and Pegasus. If an adventure movie makes me feel like I'm getting popcorn and going home to the town house I grew up in to sit and play with my toys, I'm so happy. It's one of the happiest feelings I have.
Nostalgia is so strong. If you're neurodivergent like me, you gotta work to not let it imprison you.
Clash of the Titans and Raiders of the Lost Ark are both turning 45 today, hitting theaters on June 12, 1981.
I hope you all have an adventure today.
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