Calling Dr. Jones
Just when you thought you'd seen every possible documentary they could make about the Third Reich, along comes something that still surprises you. Watching The Nazi Expeditions on SBS's 'As It Happened' series, I realize how well Steven Spielberg did his research for Raiders of the Lost Ark. You remember all that stuff about Nazis running around Tibet - it really happened! In 1938, a team of scientists under the direction of the SS went to Tibet to look for evidence of an original 'aryan' race. They even investigated the Yeti. Nazis versus the Abominable Snowman: now there's a storyline Roger Corman would have given his right hand for.
The Nazi interest in the supernatural, the occult, and pseudo-science is a great subject for a film, and it will probably never be better done than Raiders (though I haven't seen the much-praised Hellboy, which also uses this subject). How much of Raiders is Spielberg's love of a good 'trashy' plot, and how much is his desire to make a film about the Third Reich? I've sometimes thought you could see prefigurings of Spielberg's interest in the Holocaust in Close Encounters. The scenes where civilians are being herded onto freight cars to evacuate the anticipated landing site seem like this, but maybe I'm over-interpreting, because what then do we make of the scene where Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) meets the smiling little ET who looks like Jean Renoir, and who extends a stiff-armed, flat-palmed salute in greeting?
Just when you thought you'd seen every possible documentary they could make about the Third Reich, along comes something that still surprises you. Watching The Nazi Expeditions on SBS's 'As It Happened' series, I realize how well Steven Spielberg did his research for Raiders of the Lost Ark. You remember all that stuff about Nazis running around Tibet - it really happened! In 1938, a team of scientists under the direction of the SS went to Tibet to look for evidence of an original 'aryan' race. They even investigated the Yeti. Nazis versus the Abominable Snowman: now there's a storyline Roger Corman would have given his right hand for.
The Nazi interest in the supernatural, the occult, and pseudo-science is a great subject for a film, and it will probably never be better done than Raiders (though I haven't seen the much-praised Hellboy, which also uses this subject). How much of Raiders is Spielberg's love of a good 'trashy' plot, and how much is his desire to make a film about the Third Reich? I've sometimes thought you could see prefigurings of Spielberg's interest in the Holocaust in Close Encounters. The scenes where civilians are being herded onto freight cars to evacuate the anticipated landing site seem like this, but maybe I'm over-interpreting, because what then do we make of the scene where Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) meets the smiling little ET who looks like Jean Renoir, and who extends a stiff-armed, flat-palmed salute in greeting?
posted by cuckoo at
10:14 AM
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