The Sincerest Form of Flattery, by Bob Connally

We all had movie characters we wanted to be as children; adventures we wanted to live for ourselves and for many of us, it was the start of our lifelong love of film. Like so many other kids in the early 1980s, when Chris Strompolos of Mississippi first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, he wanted to be Indiana Jones. His friend Eric Zala loved the film with just as much enthusiasm, wanting to further understand the nuts and bolts of how it was made. What separated these 12-year old boys from the rest of us was the adventure they decided to embark on together. With storyboards Eric (who directed and played Belloq) created from memory and an audio tape smuggled in to a screening to record the film’s dialogue, the boys set out to shoot their version of Raiders over their summer vacation in 1982.

It took the boys a little longer than expected. For the next seven summers of their lives they built boulders, asked for costumes and props for birthdays and Christmases, set a garage (and themselves) on fire, and got permission to shoot aboard a submarine in Mobile Bay to finish what they started. After holding a premiere in the summer of 1989, primarily for the many family members and friends who acted alongside them or simply helped them in some way or another along the way, Eric and Chris parted ways and the master VHS copy was put on a shelf, presumably never to be known about outside of their own circles. For more than a decade that seemed to be the fate of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.

All of that changed however, when director Eli Roth brought a copy of a copy of a copy to Austin’s Butt-Numb-A-Thon festival in 2002. As the crowd ate breakfast and eagerly awaited an advanced screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the tape began to play and the unsuspecting audience cheered wildly as they saw a 12-year old Chris Strompolos running from a homemade boulder. Suddenly, this little known oddity had been unleashed on the world and it would bring Eric and Chris back together to show their film to enthusiastic crowds of movie geeks. Due to obvious copyright issues, they couldn’t make any money off of these screenings, with proceeds instead going to charity.

All summer long, Zala and Strompolos have been touring the country at screenings of a double feature of the new documentary Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (directed by Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen) and their own film. The documentary tells the incredible story of how the boys did what they did back in the ‘80s while also showing their attempt in 2014 to complete the one sequence they’d never been able to shoot: the airplane scene. Zala and Strompolos are both very open in the documentary, discussing the long breaks in their friendship, both during and in the years after making their movie. We also see that the creative spark and determination to get that one last scene filmed is still very much there 30 years later, which goes a long way towards explaining why they didn’t give up or simply get bored with it somewhere around 1984, which almost anyone else certainly would have.

It had been 11 years since I had been to a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, which Zala, Strompolos, and “Master of Photography” Jayson Lamb had all attended, but the impression the movie had left on me was something I’d never forgotten. I was very happy to see the documentary and revisit their film again at the very first stop on their tour back in June in Seattle. The love and sincerity with which their movie was made was evident from the film’s opening letter to Steven “Spielburg” (they misspelled it) and George Lucas. Like the original Raiders it thrills and delights, albeit on an entirely different level. We see these kids grow up- sometimes aging and getting younger again in the very same scene- over the course of the movie. We marvel at their ingenuity, casting a dog to play the monkey, using “36 bottles of rubbing alcohol” (according to Zala on the audio commentary) to set ablaze a garage for the bar shootout, and Lamb’s ability to create visual effects for the opening of the Ark. Movies are sometimes described as having heart. That’s never been truer than it is about this.

What Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation does best is show what creative people can do regardless of their age, budget, or resources. It also captures a very specific moment in time. One when films weren’t readily available on multiple home video formats or streaming platforms so they could be watched at any time. These kids re-created the movie because they couldn’t bring it home with them. Betamax made things easier than 8mm film would have but still this was a far cry from being able to shoot, edit, and create effects on their phones. Had it been a few years earlier, making their movie the way they did wouldn’t have been possible; a few years later, it’s doubtful they’d have felt the need to do it at all. It goes to show there’ll never really be anything quite like it ever again.

Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made and Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation are both available on DVD now, as their tour continues. If you get a chance to attend a screening, I highly recommend it. Zala and Strompolos are good guys who clearly love interacting with fans and I’m looking forward to the original projects they will be working together on next. Information regarding the films and screenings can be found on raidersguys.com. These are movies that are all about the love of movies. Making them, watching them, loving them.