Jonathan Melville: Let’s give classics the IMAX treatment

Much as I enjoyed Mission Impossible IV and Avengers Assemble on that massive screen, I was more excited by the opportunity to see Harrison Ford wield his whip and take on the Nazis in 1981’s re-released Raiders of the Lost Ark, a film I missed first time around.

I made it to the cinema in 1984 for Temple of Doom, but seeing that boulder rolling towards the audience and Indy being chased by the natives at the start of Raiders is something that deserves to be watched on the biggest screen around.

October 26 sees the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall, arrive in IMAX, but I’d also like to see the first 22 films given a new lease of life in the format. Watching Bond take on Dr No, Blofeld and Goldfinger, with a new film released every few months, would be double-o-heaven.

Other classics deserving of the IMAX treatment include the original Star Wars trilogy (going into hyperdrive could induce travel sickness); most of the original Disney animations going right back to 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; some of those vintage Hammer Horror films starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee; and perhaps a few Sergio Leone Westerns, where the impressive vistas could be done justice.

As for Raiders, there’s still time to see it at IMAX if you’re reading this on Thursday afternoon as it ends tonight.

Here’s hoping it’s not the only outing for Indy on IMAX and that Temple of Doom is being prepared for release somewhere in Hollywood right now.

@jon_melville

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