The G and S Show: Part II

See? Told you it'd be a two-parter. How could I not follow up on my promise?

The big celeb-ridden party was a big success, apparently. A few of my classmates who worked for the Cinema School and acted as "tour guides" for the open house spotted Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Harrison Ford, among a sea of others. Obviously on hand were the ubiquitous Spielberg and Lucas, who gave speeches and did a lot of glad-handing for the new building bearing their names. In addition to being covered by Variety and L.A. Times, I also got some info over Facebook, wheres some friends have posted some pretty rad pics of the industry titans schmoozing in our school.

It's funny, with Spielberg and Uncle George, because they are elevated to such heights - especially among young film nerds, and even more especially at USC - and such a record of hits that they are almost like these fictional characters...more a state of mind than actual people. Its also fair to say that they've both incurred some recent scorn (Lucas more so) since Indy 4 came out and looked more like a G'd video game than an adventure film. Lucas has also come under more local criticism at USC because everyone likes to complain about little problems with the new building. Not that I'm complaining, but people may say thing like its too big, its too flashy, it more for architectural aesthetics than functionality, there's not a lot of areas to sit and work and meet, and that the money could have been better spent on scholarships....(I may share some of the opinions, but whatever).

Anyway, it almost is an afterthought that these two men crafted some of the greatest, coolest, most exciting movies in Hollywood history. This fact is made obvious by an amazing little item that has danced its way around the Internet and right here onto MGH.

It is a complete transcript from 1978 of discussions had between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Larry Kasdan about the script for Indian Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Now, some of my more film nerd friends may already be aware, but to anyone who loves Raiders but hasn't read this yet it is AMAZING. The link to download it right HERE.

At 125 pages, it's quite a tall order to tackle but scrolling down to any piece of it is worthwhile, as the whole time they bat ideas back and forth. Lucas talks the most, but Spielberg's got the best ideas, and writer Larry Kasdan (who also wrote Empire Strikes Back) is just listening, occasionally stopping for clarifications.

There's a million great moments and I'm especially surprised by how often G and S mention the production realities and sometimes go into detail, like about the use of a tiger:

G - Then he finds an exit. I like the idea of Nazis putting tigers in there....You know what its like to fly a tiger in from South Africa.


S - It would have to be a neighborhood tiger.


G - There aren't any tigers out there.


S - I'm not in love with the idea.


G - You could have bats and stuff, make it slightly spooky.


So, yeah, apparently "Raiders" might've had a tiger. Then again, Spielberg isn't in love with the idea....how cool is this thing?! It's like sitting in, being a fly on the wall, in one of the most important conversations in moviedom.

Another excerpt I'll share is when G and S talk further about the action in the 2nd half of the first act and they broach the classic "snakes" line:


G - We shouldn't have any snakes in the opening sequence, just tarantulas. Save the snakes for now.


S - It would be funny if, somewhere earlier in the movie he somehow implied he was not afraid of snakes. Later, you realize that is one of his big fears.


G - Maybe it'd be better if you see early, maybe in the beginning that he's afraid "Oh God, I hate those snakes." It should be slightly amusing that he hates snakes, and then he opens this up "I can't go down there. Why did there have to be snakes. Anything but snakes." You can play it for comedy. The one thing that could happen is that he gets trapped with all these snakes.


Who knew? Its just so cool to see that, almost 30 years ago, these guys went through the same idea tossing and brainstorming that all writers go through. I mean, this could have easily been just like a conversation I had with the Red and Yellow team about "Chhk Chhk Boom" back in Glen Ellyn (somewhere on Bryant, perhaps?) or in my writing classes at Second City or here at SC.

It's just very refreshing to take away the Oscars and the blockbuster records and the mutli-million dollar new building and the legendary status and see that it all comes from a couple of guys sitting around, talking about a story they want to tell.