Would "Raiders" have been as popular if the character had been hatless?

[jamespowers]

Oh definitely. I love the look. I even wear my ORs and Westerns with a leather Jacket...

View attachment 9519

Now THAT should be you avatar.

 

[imoldfashioned]

The hat for the Indiana Jones films was a form of branding. Even a shadow of the fedora and whip and people recognise immediately the IJ franchise. Just as people recognise brands such as Coke; Nike; BMW...etc.

But as has been said earlier, the huge following of the IJ films has not created the same enthusiasm for wearing fedoras.

Would the IJ franchise be as popular without the hat branding? Probably yes. The hat is a nice touch, but it doesn't make a movie and the plot good & successful.

 

[Hercule]

I don't think the fedora really had a significant role in making Raiders popular. It was just an integral part of the costuming, given the era the film portrays. (would that Ford wore it like it was actually worn during the era and not like a ball cap) The question that should be asked is would fedoras be as popular as they are had Raiders not been a popular success?

 

[jamespowers]

I don't think the fedora really had a significant role in making Raiders popular. It was just an integral part of the costuming, given the era the film portrays. (would that Ford wore it like it was actually worn during the era and not like a ball cap) The question that should be asked is would fedoras be as popular as they are had Raiders not been a popular success?

I think you hit it with the last sentence. Most young people would not know what a fedora is at this stage of the game if Indy hadn't been popular.

 

[Edward]

Absolutely. Indy introduced the fedora to me. Bogart might be a huge fashion icon to me now, but it as the clothes that drew me into his ouevre, not the films to the wardrobe. Indy was the one who made the mark first. I can't rule out that my love of tweed and how I dress in academic today isn't on some subconscious but nonetheless huge level directly impacted by Indy. It'd be downright deliberate if I had the budget to wander into Henry Poole with a bunch of stills from those university scenes at the start of Raiders....

 

[fedoracentric]

"The question that should be asked is would fedoras be as popular as they are had Raiders not been a popular success?"

I think you guys give that movie, far, far too much power over pop culture. Sure it impacted the ten of you here that got excited over fedoras because the movies came out when you were kids or teens. But many of the rock stars and movie stars and hipsters helping to bring them back now were little kids or not even born when those movies came out. The film likely had zero impact on them. I mean, come on. That first film came out in 1981!

I just think that many of you are giving way too much cultural weight to the Indy Jones fedora.

 

[Edward]

"The question that should be asked is would fedoras be as popular as they are had Raiders not been a popular success?"

I think you guys give that movie, far, far too much power over pop culture. Sure it impacted the ten of you here that got excited over fedoras because the movies came out when you were kids or teens. But many of the rock stars and movie stars and hipsters helping to bring them back now were little kids or not even born when those movies came out. The film likely had zero impact on them. I mean, come on. That first film came out in 1981!

I just think that many of you are giving way too much cultural weight to the Indy Jones fedora.

Absolutely a fair point re younger people, though for those of us old farts born before 1980, I can't recall any other pop culture reference quite as strong as that in what would have been our formative years. It'd be interesting to hear from the younger Loungers on here... I'm not sure what it's like in the US, but my experience in the UK has been that the vintage thing isn't so much something most folks get into very young - though that too could be changing with generation. For me it started with hitting my Thirties and getting to heavy for drainpipes and not in the right job to wear bondage trousers to work...

 

[Seb Lucas]

"The question that should be asked is would fedoras be as popular as they are had Raiders not been a popular success?"

I think you guys give that movie, far, far too much power over pop culture. Sure it impacted the ten of you here that got excited over fedoras because the movies came out when you were kids or teens. But many of the rock stars and movie stars and hipsters helping to bring them back now were little kids or not even born when those movies came out. The film likely had zero impact on them. I mean, come on. That first film came out in 1981!

I just think that many of you are giving way too much cultural weight to the Indy Jones fedora.

I largely agree with you. Not only that, over here, fedoras were already worn by some pop stars and actors before the Indy films. I remember owning 3 or 4 when the film came out. For some people hats were cool in the 1970's. Even the series Dr Who featured a wide brimmed hat in the 1970's.

 

[fedoracentric]

For those who were adults in the USA when the Indy films came out, they had already been steeped in The Untouchables and shows like that using a multitude of fedoras not to mention the real mob war history. Fedoras were worn by many rockers (Jimmy Hendrix, Dylan) long before Indy. As Seb Lucas mentioned, Doc. Who often featured fedoras. Even musicals (Guys And Dolls) relied on the visual of fedoras.

I mean, I do not dispute that many thousands of young teens in the 1980s and 90s got exposed to and many excited about fedoras thanks to Indy Jones. But I don't see that this one film series can be credited with bringing hats back to fashion. I think it way overstates its influence.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Yeah and the 1920's and 1930's were huge in the 1970's, including that turgid Gatsby adaptation with Redford, Bugsy Malone, Cabaret, Farewell My Lovely and Chinatown just to name a few fedora films.

 

[Edward]

I largely agree with you. Not only that, over here, fedoras were already worn by some pop stars and actors before the Indy films. I remember owning 3 or 4 when the film came out. For some people hats were cool in the 1970's. Even the series Dr Who featured a wide brimmed hat in the 1970's.

Things may have been different in Aus. Up here, liking Docto Who was never exactly cool prior to the flah bang wallop reboot. Not that I ever cared, though I am by now a youch disillusioned with the reboot....

 

[Huertecilla]

The fedora is crucial for the silhouet, the character. It is iconic.
This icon already existed.
It is an archetype of the treasure hunter:

Fred C. Dobbs - Humphrey Bogart - Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Harry Steel - Charleston Heston - Secret of the Incas

Indiana Jones is the Mark 3. and the hat is consequential.

It is not a question of the hat being instrumental in the success. It is an essential part of the archetype which already existed. Lucas gave it a good platform in the footsteps of the predecessors. THAT is what made it successfull and the hat is an integral part of it.
The character would not have existed without the hat. The rest of the question is superfluous.

Have a look at Harry Steel in the Secret of the Incas. The film is almost a blue print for ´Raiders´.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33ActK3gT8&list=PLBE5A35E0BA8BAEC5

 

[T Jones]

The fedora is crucial for the silhouet, the character. It is iconic.
This icon already existed.
It is an archetype of the treasure hunter:

Fred C. Dobbs - Humphrey Bogart - Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Harry Steel - Charleston Heston - Secret of the Incas

Indiana Jones is the Mark 3. and the hat is consequential.

It is not a question of the hat being instrumental in the success. It is an essential part of the archetype which already existed. Lucas gave it a good platform in the footsteps of the predecessors. THAT is what made it successfull and the hat is an integral part of it.
The character would not have existed without the hat. The rest of the question is superfluous.

Have a look at Harry Steel in the Secret of the Incas. The film is almost a blue print for ´Raiders´.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33ActK3gT8&list=PLBE5A35E0BA8BAEC5

...as well as Alan Ladd from the early 1940s movie, China.

 

[Tedquinton]

And Gary Cooper in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' I couldn't copy an image for some reason, but his costume is in exactly the same mould.


{edit for image by RBH}

 

[Edward]

Oh, yes - Indy was unashamed homage / pastiche - in the best possible way, of course.

 

[suitedcboy]

Do you think that Indy in a ball cap with a frayed bill edge would have basically started bespoke ball cap businesses and web sites dedicated to frayed bill ball caps? We will never know.......

 

[Seb Lucas]

The fedora is crucial for the silhouet, the character. It is iconic.
This icon already existed.
It is an archetype of the treasure hunter:

Fred C. Dobbs - Humphrey Bogart - Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Harry Steel - Charleston Heston - Secret of the Incas

Indiana Jones is the Mark 3. and the hat is consequential.

It is not a question of the hat being instrumental in the success. It is an essential part of the archetype which already existed. Lucas gave it a good platform in the footsteps of the predecessors. THAT is what made it successfull and the hat is an integral part of it.
The character would not have existed without the hat. The rest of the question is superfluous.

Have a look at Harry Steel in the Secret of the Incas. The film is almost a blue print for ´Raiders´.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33ActK3gT8&list=PLBE5A35E0BA8BAEC5

The reality is that a fedora and leather jacket were the uniform of the working man in the early 20th Century. The characters wore it because it was worn. In those earlier films it was real life influencing film not the other way around.

 

[frussell]

Thank God they didn't dress Indy in the high-waisted trousers Alan Ladd always seemed to be wearing, or we'd be lining up to buy bespoke pants and nipple cream to ease the chafing. I always associated the image with Charleton Heston in The Greatest Show on Earth, as mentioned here many, many, many, times before, along with the above-mentioned movies with Cooper, Heston and Ladd. Frank.

 

[Landman]

...as well as Alan Ladd from the early 1940s movie, China.

View attachment 11367

I prefer Ladd's hat and A-2 jacket!

 

[Greyryder]

Am I the only one who finds the brim on Indy's hat bizarre? It's almost a western style brim, with a little bit of an upwards roll around the half of it. It's not the standard fedora flanging. I noticed it, last time I watched Raiders.