Steven Spielberg, who had already had a hugely successful movie with 1975's Jaws, was brought on board the project following Lucas and Philip Kaufman's exploration of the premise. "George told me the story in Hawaii in May 1977, a week before Star Wars opened," the director noted. "He'd gone to Hawaii to get away from he thought would be a monumental disaster, and he and Marcia [his wife] were there with their heads in the sand when I showed up. At dinner one night, George got the news that the film was a hit the first week and he was suddenly laughing again, he told me the story of his movie."

Raiders was Lucas and Spielberg's tribute to the serial thrillers of their youth, and that tone was reflected in the role of Indy himself, yet at the same time done more realistically and less cartoonish. "I always envisioned the character of Indiana Jones as a real throwback movie hero: a lover and a cad and a two-fisted hellion. In the early sequences of the movie, while he's teaching class, he looks the picture of a well-dressed professor. But the moment he puts on his fighting clothes -- his leather jacket and his hat -- he suddenly is dressed also with half an inch of dust, and dirt around his cheeks and under the nails. And, unlike James Bond, he doesn't win every fight he's in. He gets to the edge of the cliff, and sometimes he goes over the other side. He doesn't necessarily survive every cliffhanger unscathed. That was one of the things I was determined to do. I didn't want this man to get into this kind of action and come away with white teeth and washed hands. Instead he comes away cut and bruised and battered and wonderfully in pain."

The key to making Raiders such a thrilling experience is in taking a realistic approach to the story according to Spielberg. "I've always felt that you have to start with reality as a basis for a film like this," the director explained. "That's a problem with some of the old Republic serials, even thought there is not one that I don't like, that the audience suspends it's credibility with the very flat cut or action. When George told me the story of Raiders, he emphasized that the audience must believe in the characters, even though their lives are 40 years removed from our lives."

The teaming of Spielberg and Lucas...arguably the two most powerful filmmakers in the business...could have been a constant butting of heads, but the two had a perfect working partnership. "Essentially George had a 'hands off' policy," Spielberg explained. "Once the movie was launched he pretty much left us alone to make the movie. He spent a week on each location -- so out of the 14 weeks scheduled, George was down for about three and a half weeks. And he was nothing but encouraging and supportive."

The director had already made large scale and/or complex productions, and Raiders was another in a growing list of them. The locations, stunt work and effects requirements meant that this would be walk in the park. But Spielberg finds something to savour from the challenges. "I had a great time making [Close Encounters Of The Third Kind]. Although the hardest movie I ever made was 1941, I had a lot of fun making that film. It just depends on the movie. I had no fun making Jaws. I didn't have as much fun making Raiders, but it wasn't because I had the picture essentially in my head or on paper first, it was more due to the extreme environment circumstances -- shooting in 130° heat in Tunisia, drinking gallons of mineral water, trying to get the Tunisians to do what I wanted them to do. The language barrier was a problem, what with French, Arabic, Italian and English all being spoken at the same time; and having to work through interpreters, trying to communicate my ideas to Tunisian crowds... Sometimes the circumstances ruin all the fun, but it's not because the planning precedes the actual filmmaking."

The casting of Harrison Ford as Indy was utterly perfect, but one that didn't happen until the last minute. Lucas and Spielberg had a somewhat different approach in mind when planning the movie. "We were looking for a leading man for over six months," related Spielberg. "We wanted an unknown originally -- a total unknown. Conceitedly, George and I wanted to make a star of Johnny the construction worker from Malibu. We couldn't find a construction worker in Malibu, so we began looking at more substantial people in the film industry. We were stuck; we had three weeks left to cast the part of Indiana Jones, and there was nobody close. Then I saw The Empire Strikes Back and I said Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. I called George Lucas and said, 'He's right under our noses.' George said, 'I know who you're going to say.' I said, 'Who?' and he said 'Harrison Ford.' 'Right.' 'Let's get him,' he said. And we did."

Unlike Ford, co-star Karen Allen was more obvious from the early stages of casting. "Karen was the most professional actress to come into our readings. She was polished, and she came prepared. After that, we just kept saying, 'Not as good as Karen.' Karen has never done an action picture before, so she came very prepared to play Marion, and very unprepared to fight the bad guys, ride the horses, beat back the snakes, to be dragged by the hair along the ground, to be run over by assorted vehicles, to be hanging from the jaw of a 37 foot jackal god. When she came to the set, she thought it was going to be acting for 10 weeks, and discovered it was a combination of acting and physical fitness. I said to Karen, 'We're now out of the Al Pacino school of drama into Sam Peckinpah school of action.' "

Steven Spielberg, a lover of cinema as well as a creator, has his own opinions of how and why a movie will succeed or fail. "I think that movies can be artistic and relevant and sophisticated, but you have to have a good story...and that all begins with a good concept. I think all the movies that fail are failures because the concepts are weak or have good concepts that are executed poorly. All the films that succeed are really unique and people haven't really seen anything quite like it before.

"I'll probably never win an Oscar," Steven Spielberg said at the time, long before he won several. "But I'll have a lot of fun! I really believe that movies are the great escape."