Watch: What Retirement? Steven Soderbergh Remixes ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’

Steven Soderbergh wants you to watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark” without any of the sound and in black and white.

Why, you ask?

“I want you to watch this movie and think only about staging, how the shots are built and laid out, what the rules of movement are, what the cutting patterns are,” he wrote in a blog post. “See if you can reproduce the thought process that resulted in these choices by asking yourself: why was each shot—whether short or long—held for that exact length of time and placed in that order?”

Indeed, Soderbergh has removed the color, turning the entire film into black and white. He’s also removed the John Williams epic score and replaced it with an electronic trance track. 

“Of course understanding story, character, and performance are crucial to directing well,” Soderbergh adds,”but I operate under the theory a movie should work with the sound off, and under that theory, staging becomes paramount.”

You can watch the entire 2-hour film, with Soderbergh’s adjustments, here.