Smith and Jones: Discourse Analysis of the Raiders of the Lost Ark Story Conference

Before writing the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Lawrence Kasdan joined George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for a five-day creative meeting. The transcript of this conference is one of the most unique and important artifacts available to scholars of cinema history and screenwriting, yet is has never received any interrogation within academia. The chapter rectifies this by analyzing the Raiders story conference transcript, allowing the reader to fully understand the creative process behind a multi-million-dollar blockbuster. Employing methodology from the field of applied linguistics, the investigation establishes the relative contributions of the three collaborators – executive producer Lucas, director Spielberg, and writer Kasdan – as they develop the project from its earliest stages. Through discourse analysis, the chapter demonstrates how each participant contributed different aspects to the movie’s creation. The analysis shows that Kasdan’s contributions were successful in injecting the project with verisimilitude, as well as developing the female lead, transforming her role from being what Lucas called a “problem” into a fully defined co-protagonist.