Somehow, someone has leaked onto the interweb an amazing piece of cinematic history. Over at a blog called Mystery Man on Film, they've posted a link to a PDF document of a 125 page transcript of the original story meeting between producers George Lucas and Stephen Speilberg as they sat down with writer Lawrence Kasdan to discuss a tiny little adventure film they wanted him to write for them. You may have heard of it before. It's called Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Basically, the meeting was an idea session with Lucas and Speilberg telling Kasdan all about their idea for a new type of action hero. One that wandered the world getting into adventure as he looked for ancient treasures. The purpose of the meeting was to give Kasdan enough to go on to write a first draft of the Raiders script for them. They discussed everything from Indy's character to his relationship with Marion to how specific scenes would work.
Here's George Lucas explaining his vision of the main character to Kasdan:
Lucas — He's the guy who's been all around the world. He's a soldier of fortune. He is also... Well, this gets into that other side of his character, which is totally alien to that side we just talked about. Essentially, I think he is a, and this was the original character and it's an interesting juxtaposition. He is an archeologist and an anthropologist. A Ph.D. He's a doctor, he's a college professor. What happened is, he's also a sort of rough and tumble guy. But he got involved in going in and getting antiquities. Sort of searching out antiquities. And it became a very lucrative profession so he, rather than be an archeologist, he became sort of an outlaw archeologist. He really started being a grave robber, for hire, is what it really came down to. And the museums would hire him to steal things out of tombs and stuff. Or, locate them. In the archeology circles he knows everybody, so he's sort of like a private detective grave robber. A museum will give him an assignment... a bounty hunter.
They even discussed what to call their new adventurer:
Kasdan — Do you have a name for this person?
Lucas — I do for our leader.
Speilberg — I hate this, but go ahead.
Lucas — Indiana Smith. It has to be unique. It's a character. Very Americana square. He was born in Indiana.
Kasdan — What does she call him? “Indy?”
Lucas — That's what I was thinking. Or “Jones.” Then people can call him “Jones.”
What I found most interesting in the blog post though (I haven't had a chance to read the whole transcript yet) is the discussion about Indy's relationship history with Marion. It sort of changes how I view their past to be honest.
Lucas — I was thinking that this old guy could have been his mentor. He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.
Kasdan — And he was forty-two.
Lucas — He hasn't seen her in twelve years. Now she's twenty-two. It's a real strange relationship.
Speilberg — She had better be older than twenty-two.
Lucas — He's thirty-five, and he knew her ten years ago when he was twenty-five and she was only twelve. It would be amusing to make her slightly young at the time.
Speilberg — And promiscuous. She came onto him.
Lucas — Fifteen is right on the edge. I know it's an outrageous idea, but it is interesting. Once she's sixteen or seventeen it's not interesting anymore. But if she was fifteen and he was twenty-five and they actually had an affair the last time they met. And she was madly in love with him and he...
Speilberg — She has pictures of him.
As the blog's writer points out (and as I was thinking as I was reading this), this really makes a particular scene between Indy and Marion look very different, and suddenly very akward. Here's the dialogue I'm talking about. I'm sure you'll remember it.
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.
MARION: Why start now?
INDY: Shut up and listen for a second. I want that piece your father had. I've got money.
MARION: How much?
When Marion says, "I was a child! I was in love." I had always assumed she was around 17 or 18 when she and indy were together, and he was in his mid 20's. After reading this though, I am now suddenly left wondering exactly how old Marion was when she and Indy first got together. Was she eleven? Twelve? Fifteen?
Is Indiana Jones a sex offender?
It's quite possible. Of course, this doesn't really change anything. Raiders of the Lost Ark is still the most amazing adventure film ever made, and I'm sure if you asked either Lucas or Speilberg today how old Marion was they'd probably say something like 17 or 18. I just find it incredibly interesting that at the very least, the original discussions of the character had him sleeping with a very young teenage girl at one point in his life.
The rest of the blog post also makes for a great read. It's an amazing inside look at the genesis of one of cinema's greatest characters of all time. If you're in any way a fan of the Indy films, you should check it out.
(Via BoingBoing)
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