Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz was the special guest at film historian Bruce Crawford’s 50th Omaha Classic Film Event celebrating Steven Spielberg’s 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Mankiewicz remembers seeing Raiders in the theater as a teenager. “There are certain movies where the entire theater-going experience is imprinted on you. I remember how the milk duds tasted,” he said. “That first shot where Harrison Ford is revealed, and that whole James Bond-like opening–you just knew this was something special. This was the kind of movie that made you say ‘Wow, if this is how i felt every time I saw a movie, I would see two movies every day in the theater.’ I’m constantly chasing that feeling and that experience.”
Mankiewicz says he probably saw Raiders of the Lost Ark three times in the theater but watched it many more times on cable television. “I grew up in Washington D.C. which was one of the last cities in the country to get cable, which probably wasn’t until 1989 or 1990. Raiders was a movie I would hunt out and try to find and probably one of the first VHS tapes I bought. Indiana Jones is a character that you want to be a part of your life.”
Cherry the Geek TV also spoke with Mankiewicz about the TCM Classic Film Festival, Die Hard, Grease 2 (the superior Grease film) and more. You can watch the full interview by clicking on the link below:
Mankiewicz spoke with film historian Bruce Crawford for about an hour before the Raiders of the Lost Ark screening. They talked about Turner Classic Movies, his career, some of his celebrity interviews and more. It was a wonderful conversation filled with delightful and humorous stories. You can watch the full conversation by clicking on the iink below:
Bruce Crawford began holding his Classic Film Events in Omaha back in 1992 with an in-person tribute to special effects legend Ray Harryhausen and screenings of Mysterious Island and Jason and the Argonauts. Other films he has screened include Ben-Hur, Psycho, North By Northwest, Jaws, The Godfather, Forbidden Planet, The Great Escape, and Alien. Past guests have included Janet Leigh, Ray Bradbury, John Landis, David McCallum, Michael Biehn, Patty Duke, Richard Kiel, and Jane Seymour. You can learn about past and upcoming Omaha Classic Film Events by visiting http://omahafilmevent.com/.
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