Inspiration

Listening to the radio yesterday on the way to work, I heard an interview with a guy who, as a boy, was such a fan of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark that he was inspired enough to make his own version of it. Chris Strompolos and two of his friends spent seven years (they began their labour of love aged 11!) making this movie in a garage, even accidentally setting fire to the building while trying to do some of the special effects. Wanting permission to film on a submarine, they hassled the officers at a naval base not far from where they lived for three years until the navy got so tired of being begged that they gave in and allowed the trio to do their filming.

The finished magnum opus was called Raiders: Adaptation. Chris told Fran Kelly (the Radio National Breakfast presenter) that after they finished the movie, the three friends all went off to uni (Chris went off to study film, I believe) and more or less forgot about it until someone happened on a video copy and gave it to Steven Spielberg himself who told them he was impressed by their efforts. As a result of this a movie is being made of their story (by Scott Rudin, I believe), and Chris is also making his own film.

I’m quite inspired and impressed by this story. By the fact that the three boys actually remade the entire movie – this, as Chris pointed out, in the time before video was widespread, so they had to do it by memory and by watching the movie as many times as they could. The fact that they sustained a passion and commitment to such an involved and difficult project over such a long time. And best of all the fact that their love of the film itself and movies in general has led to all sorts of doors opening for them now, all these years later.

Categories: meaning-of-life, Raiders: Adaptation