Raiders of the Lost Ark Book

**Mild but fun spoilers that shouldn't hurt your enjoyment of the book**

This, the original novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark, has to be one of the strangest movie-tie-ins I've ever read.

I admit that I haven't read many novelizations, but I was always under the impression that they were meant to reflect the movie. The action should be the same, the plot should be the same, and even the dialogue, for the most part, should be the same. Any artistic license taken should be to fill in the main character's thoughts and feelings, and possibly to expand upon a couple of scenes, to fill in gaps and nothing more.

Campbell Black's version of Raiders of the Lost Ark does some of that -- enough to be recognizable as Raiders of the Lost Ark -- but it also breaks free of those bonds big time.

Black reinvents entire scenes and adds new ones, alters dialogue completely or paraphrases freely, and goes so far in making the story his own that one wonders what he used as the blueprint for his version.

It is so different that one might initially think Black had an early Lucas draft of the story to work with; but then he uses bits of dialogue that match the movie, suggesting that he might have used Lawrence Kasdan's screenplay as a guide (which is actually what is claimed in the book's frontispiece). Neither of these can account, however, for the presence of Indy's decision to kill the Arab swordsman. This, one of Raiders of the Lost Ark's most famous scenes, was concocted on set by Ford and Spielberg so that Harrison could finish early and recover from a bad case of dysentery. Yet there it is in Campbell Black's novelization, requiring that the movie was complete before Black wrote his version.

It is true that Kasdan added the shooting scene to his screenplay post-production, but the complete movie must have been available as a guide for Black too, or at least knowledge of it, so why all the changes? Why is Campbell Black's Raiders of the Lost Ark so unfaithful? And is this the reason why a new novelization, called Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, appeared to coincide with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

There is a story here, and I'd really like to learn what it is.

Still, all my curiosity aside, the differences between the movie and Black's novelization make his version of Raiders of the Lost Ark worth a read.

You remember that girl whose eyelids read "Love" and "You"? Well, her name is Susan, and she has a post-coital cuddling scene with Indy just before Marcus shows up at his house to tell him he's got the gig to find the Ark. Yep, Indy is a naughty professor.

And if you like Belloq there is a whole lot more to enjoy.

I think I am going to have to get the new version and see just how closely it adheres to the Lucas approved film. Something tells me there is nothing remotely as interesting as what Campbell Black did back in 1981.

If you're a fan of Indiana Jones, especially Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is a companion piece well worth hunting down in your local used book store. Get it before they all disappear and you're stuck with "Raiders of the Lost Ark -- The Special Edition"...you know, the one where Han Solo shoots first [I know, I know...I got this backwards. See the comments for the full extent of my knobishness ;):].