The Xiphister: Indiana Jones on the Big Screen

Indiana Jones is coming back to the big screen and with more than one awesome theatrical experience. And no, this isn’t an announcement of the start of Indy 5 production.

Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures is coming on Blu-ray on Tuesday, September 18. The collection will have all four films on Blu with the first three available for the first time in high-definition format. To celebrate this awesomeness, there are two theatrical experiences you should know about.

First up, Raiders of the Lost Ark in IMAX.

The film, which was originally released in the summer of 1981, recently was upconverted for the Blu-ray edition. The process went so well that Paramount and Lucasfilm decided to go full bore with it and transfer it into the IMAX format. Spielberg, who directed the film, was skeptical that Raiders would hold up for the very demanding IMAX transfer, but he had these quotes for the folks at Yahoo!

“I didn’t know if the 1981 print would stand up to a full IMAX transfer, so I came in expecting a grainy, muddy, and overly enlarged representation of the movie I had made 31 years ago. And I was blown away by the fact that it looked better than the movie I had made 31 years ago.”

“All the shadows in the earlier scenes that we shot in Hawaii were always kind of muddy anyway on 35mm, because we couldn’t schlep all of our big arc lights down into this valley. Suddenly, there was definition in the shadows, which I had never seen before. And the shadows weren’t murky and washed out; they were sharp as a tack. I sat there, I think, probably with my mouth open a little wider than it normally is.”

Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the best adventure films of all time, and seeing it on an IMAX screen will undoubtedly be fantastic. If Spielberg is happy with the transfer, then I trust that it's good.

Check the IMAX website to see if it’s coming to a theater near you during the week of September 7-13.

If you want a more complete Indy experience in your life, check out the AMC Theaters Indiana Jones movie marathon. On Saturday, September 15, AMC Theaters will be showing all four films in order on the big screen.