Raiders: The Adaptation

When the average boy falls in love with a film, there's a good chance he'll buy a copy, memorize a few lines and move on. But when 12-year-olds Eric Zala and Chris Strompolos fell in love with Raiders of the Lost Ark, they took a different route, creating a shot-by-shot remake complete with stunts. First shown to a surprised audience in Austin, Texas, this film is becoming a national sensation, with screenings around the country drawing huge crowds. What's the attraction? Maybe it's something in our universal psyche, a desire to take what is known and remake it, paying tribute as we do. But film is a complicated medium, and the process of imitation inevitably becomes one of translation. And with each translation, that which was original and "true" becomes something new and different. In most cases, this is boring at best. But something magical happened as these men spent the better part of their youth in this quixotic quest: They created something altogether new and wonderful. (DW)