That's all, folks: Popular fest wraps up as 1,500 enjoy 'Dumbo'; watch videoPlaza Classic Film Festival schedule'Border Lords II' screening canceled due to museum water outagePullen My Blog: Rebels, gangsters, weather and emergency surgery at Plaza Classic Days 9-10 Plaza Classic Film Festival: 'The Guns of Navarone' marks end of 4th annual festLeonard Maltin unable to attend Plaza Film Festival due to eye surgeryPlaza Classic Film Festival: Silent gem, Alloy Orchestra bring unexpected dramaExperts' insights add to Plaza Classic Film Festival experiencePlaza Classic Film Festival turns focus to Wild WestVideo: "Fantasia" at the Plaza Classic Film FestivalIn "Raiders of the Lost Ark," tavern owner Marion Ravenwood looks at her old flame, Indiana Jones, and admonishes him for not being the man he was 10 years earlier.
"It's not the years, honey," he cracks, "it's the mileage."
But the 1981 movie that introduced actor Harrison Ford's charismatic archaeologist adventurer seems to have worn the years pretty well.
It should continue to do so with a new Blu-Ray box set of "Raiders" and its first two sequels expected to be released in November.
Local audiences will be among the first in the world to see how the fedora-wearing, bullwhip-cracking adventurer and his pursuit of the Ark of the Cove nant hold up when a digitally restored version of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" shows at 6:30 and 9:15 p.m. today at the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
El Paso will be the second city to show the freshly minted restoration of the 1981 thrill ride from creators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and starring Ford in the iconic role. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was the first to show it June 17 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
"It's a big one," said Charles Horak, the festival's artistic director.
So big that festival organizers booked two showings of it tonight in anticipation of large crowds at the Plaza Theatre, which can hold up to 2,000 people per show, he said. Tickets are $10 for this film.
Some may wonder if a 30-year-old movie is a little too new for a classic film festival. Horak begs to differ.