this is the most interesting thing you'll read all day

Hey, ya know how Indiana Jones is one of the most iconic heroes in movie history? And how Raiders of the Lost Ark is just a brilliantly made action adventure flick? Well the interweb has gotten its hands on a most interesting part of Indiana Jones/Raiders history: the transcript of the original Raiders story conference between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.

The 125-page behemoth of a pdf file discussing the nature of "Indiana Smith" and what makes him tick. They also go over the scene-by-scene progression of Raiders. I'm only 25 pages in myself, but here is a blog post by a professional script writer going over the "greatest hits" in the transcript.

You'll also enjoy the vaguely racist comments of George Lucas: "They're the third world local sleazos. Whether, they're Mexicans or Arabs or whatever." And: "He could be French or Italian No. Italians are too crazy. He could be an Arab. One of those weasel-faced thin-moustached Arab professors."

You won't enjoy how eager they are to make Indiana Jones a child predator:

Lucas: He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.
Kasdan: And he was forty-two.
Lucas: He hasn't seen her in twelve years. Now she's twenty two. It's a real strange relationship.

That's right - they wanted to have our hero BANGING AN ELEVEN-YEAR OLD. Its generally thought now-a-days that Marion was 15-17 and Indy 25-27 during their initial affair, which is still pretty weird, but at least its not vomit-inducing.