majfoalbkeopaza's profile

332 Messages

 • 

7.4K Points

Monday, December 9th, 2024 9:14 PM

Solved

When did "Raiders of the Lost Ark" become "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark", and when will IMDb stop calling it that?

In no particular order, here are some relevant facts and opinions related to this issue:

  1. "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" has never appeared on the big screen. The title on screen is and has always been simply "Raiders of the Lost Ark". (This is in stark contrast to other famously retitled films, such as Star Wars (1977), which has appeared on screen as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope ever since its 1981 re-release.)
  2. The shorter title fits the tone and themes of the first film better than the silly revision.
    1. First off, Indiana Jones (the character) is already included in the original title, as he is one of the titular "raiders" of the lost ark. "Indiana Jones and the Raiders..." implies that he is separate and distinct from the "raiders", which is not the intention of the original title.
    2. The prefix "Indiana Jones and the..." introduced in the sequels is meant to be a playful homage to 1930s adventure serials, which tended to focus on a main character going on many adventures. Not only does this naming convention make more sense for a series of sequels (since the character has already been introduced), it also alters the tone for the first film, which was slightly more serious than its successors.
  3. Colloquially, the film is usually referred to as either "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or even just "Raiders". The film is well recognized by its original title, even without explicitly referencing "Indiana Jones".
  4. The longer title is most commonly seen on streaming services/video-on-demand websites, home video releases and of course, IMDb (currently). However, almost all serious film resources (including encyclopedias, film critic websites and books, etc.) and actual movie theatres use the original title.
    1. For example, Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Google, the Indiana Jones wiki, Encyclopedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Harkins Theatres, AMC...

In conclusion, the longer version of the title should be kept on as an "alternate title", but it should not be used as the IMDb display title because it is dumb. IMDb should change it back to an alternate title and then put some sort of block on it to stop people/entities from changing it back to the dumb version of the title.

Champion

 • 

5.1K Messages

 • 

118.5K Points

1 month ago

Your wish has either been granted, or there's something different about your display. Here's what I see:

This is on Chrome, Windows 11 desktop.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/

332 Messages

 • 

7.4K Points

That was fast. I've been trying to edit it myself for the past week or so and it just kept getting rejected.

I still think the editors need to do something permanent about this because this isn't the first time this has happened. Someone removes the alternate display title, and another person just comes along and adds it back again later. It doesn't need an alternate display title, they should just put a block on it or something.