Raiders of the lost imagination

Ah Raiders of the lost ark....this is what started it for me (not Star Wars like the rest of the world at the time), of course i enjoyed Star Wars, who didn't? but Raiders lit the light that continues to this day.

1981 was the first time i left the cinema knowing what filmmakers were fully capable of, to have me sitting on the edge of my seat and wanting more.

The realisation that Han Solo didn't really live on the Millennium Falcon and is actually an actor soon paled when he introduced us to Indiana Jones. 

This i went to see with my family, a frequent trip out in those days, but then it was a different experience even though you expected to be on the end of a long queue that trailed down the high street in Tunbridge Wells in the rain, you couldn't wait to see a few black and white stills of the movie of your particular queue at the entrance to let you know your almost there, you got your sweets and in you went.

This burned into me like no other cinema outing, the sheer pace from the unusual at the time opening when we are only invited in at the climax of another story in order to start the next, grabbing your attention from the start then letting you get to know the characters briefly and straight back in for a plot driven roller coaster ride that made me hold my breath at the end when it hit the fan.

 marvelling or amazed what everybody had in common was pure movie fulfilment.

Gripping Jaws

Jaws exploded onto the cinema in 1976 so i was but a nipper but the arrival of videos put paid to that and came with a built in well documented fear factor so by the time we were finally allowed to see it i could at last see what all the fuss was about.

 And boy were they right, right from the beginning with the
anticipation just because somebody was in the water frothing like the waves, you were right there with her.

 From that moment on for the next year or so anywhere i swam could have had a shark there for all i knew. who can forget the moment the head appears through the hole in the boat? for me this is where movie jumps started.

Spielberg introduced the world to the summer blockbuster with Jaws, a template still used to this day from Indy to this years Man of Steel, it all started with a haunting score by John Williams I'm sure we are all familiar with.
Three sequels followed getting weaker along the way as most sequels do, but this still did nothing to dilute the originality and immediacy of the original.