Raiders fedora "look" caused by other sources.

[Pitfall Harry]

I was wondering if anyone here had ever considered that the way the Raiders fedora looked in the film had more to do outside sources than just the way it was bashed?


Wouldn't the hot weather where the film was shot play havoc with the hat? Harrison sweating while wearing the hat could have caused some distortion in the band, wouldn't it?

Also, the hat was taped onto his head in certain scenes so it wouldn't fall off. I have noticed that while wearing my official Indy fedora IF I push in on the sides of the crown as if it were "glued or taped" to my head that the crown distorts and I get the Raiders crown.


Anyone else have any thoughts about this?




Pitfall

[Strider]

I was wondering if anyone here had ever considered that the way the Raiders fedora looked in the film had more to do outside sources than just the way it was bashed?

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

8-[

Guys .... do I say anything?

Ok, I'll be cool.

Pitfall, there's a guy on here that has devoted years upon years upon years (not to mention posts upon posts) to the Raiders hat. His handle on here is 3thoubucks. He has his own site for all of his theories.

www.raidershat.com

Read his thoughts therein, if you dare!

His latest thread containing his thoughts on the Raiders lid can be found here.

[Scandinavia Jones]

Actually, Pitfall has an interesting point. Not to bash $3K - he has come up with some of the greatest discoveries regarding the anatomy of the Raiders fedora - it's just that sometimes we tend to "mythologisize" the poor hat and it's attributes quite a bit...

Wouldn't the hot weather where the film was shot play havoc with the hat? Harrison sweating while wearing the hat could have caused some distortion in the band, wouldn't it?

What if it's really that simple? Nadoolman says the hat was abused and "sat on"... the Tunisian sun, HF's sweat, the general ordeal of filmmaking... that hat wasn't pretty when they were done. If a COW-member would get to see the Raiders hat(s) after the film was done, he/she might be in for a shock, as someone here wrote some time ago. That hat would be worn, torn and beaten unrecognizable, and would look nothing like the fedoras we so meticulously try to give the "correct" bash.
Our efforts to emulate the ROTLA hat is essentially to give a new fedora the look of a ruined one.
Speaking of which - here's another interesting thread on the subject...

viewtopic.php?t=15157&highlight=

Pitfall's thinking outside the hat box here - "what if there isn't any great secret to the mythical ROTLA look?" It sure takes some guts to make that claim that here at COW, what with all us craggy, orthodox fedora guys around, each one with a very rigid headgear-conviction...


Cool.

[Antone]

Our efforts to emulate the ROTLA hat is essentially to give a new fedora the look of a ruined one.
Speaking of which - here's another interesting thread on the subject...

viewtopic.php?t=15157&highlight=

Pitfall's thinking outside the hat box here - "what if there isn't any great secret to the mythical ROTLA look?" It sure takes some guts to make that claim that here at COW, what with all us craggy, orthodox fedora guys around, each one with a very rigid headgear-conviction...


Cool.

Certainly the specific use and abuse the Raiders hat(s) received must have contributed to the look, in addition to other factors. One of the main factors that makes the Raiders hat so appealing is the way it was personalized for Harrison Ford, as is made clear by several threads here on this forum.

I'll commit further heresy here by saying that to a degree the pursuit of the perfect Raiders look is futile in that none of us (I hope!) possess the head of Harrison Ford, or even a close copy, so even a perfect copy of the Raiders hat would never give anyone else quite the same look. I see this as a good thing, however, in that one of the most appealing things for me about custom fedoras is that with use they take on the characteristics of their owners; this is why I generally prefer open-crown hats anyway, since I want my hat personalized to me above all else.

Don't get me wrong, I love the look of the Raiders hat, but sometimes I have to chuckle at the irony of thinking "Wow, that Raiders hat is really unique and has a lot of personality. How can I clone that?"

That said, yes I'm saving up for an AB (or three...) but I'll doubtless be tweaking the pinch, bash, and brim curl as soon as I get them

Cheers,

Antone

[Pitfall Harry]

Yeah, I came across that site a looong time ago when I was looking into buying an Indy Hat. I read it and found it interesting and thought the guy was probably right.

I didn't start this topic to start some sort of "Holy War" as far as the "hat' and how people believe it was created.

I just started thinking about it last night and today while I was trying to reshape my own hat.

I know I'm new here and this site has been around for a long time but I have looked at alot of the "archived topics" and I didn't come across anyone offering this particular answer to how the Raiders hat got the way it was.

I mean don't the stores who sell these hats warn you not to leave the hat out in the sun, like the back window of your car? Wouldn't shooting a movie out in the sun for 16 hours a day with tape and sweat on the inside of the hat cause it to warp and do all sorts of things?

I'm sure all of you already know they couldn't use the Raiders hat for the other films because it was trashed by the time they ended filming.

Now IF they had created that look simply by bashing it and the FX guys messing with it then why couldn't they repeat those steps for Temple and Last Crusade?

So one would have to conclude there's another element they couldn't reproduce and that's the conditions the hat went through while filming in those places that gave it the "look" we all want.


Pitfall

"Not try to reinvent the wheel....just the fedora!"

[Strider]

Well, you know ... Occam's Razor ... the simplest, most straightforward answer tends to be the correct one.

As for 3k$' site, it just contains all of his thoughts and hypothesis about the Raiders lid. I just figured I would link to his site becuase Pitfall asked about others' opinions regarding the hat, and you have to admit, 3k$ has one of the strongest

[Scandinavia Jones]

Very true, Strider! Still not diminishing 3thoubucks' work - the "turn" for instance is, IMO, proven beyond doubt - however, I thought I'd post a link to Steve's thread too, as it represents the more Occam's razor-ish explanation for those lines and bumps...

I'll commit further heresy here by saying that to a degree the pursuit of the perfect Raiders look is futile---]

I didn't start this topic to start some sort of "Holy War" as far as the "hat' and how people believe it was created.

I wouldn't worry about that... this place - as do many fan forums - needs a bit of good old heresy now and then... keeps the forum dynamic and open-minded.

[Pitfall Harry]

I've also heard another story about the "hat".

When the Ark was opened and all the Nazi's were stunk up to heaven the original hat was stunk up as well. God saw the "hat" and decided to keep it for himself. God, wanting the one of a kind "hat" all to himself, put a curse on anyone who would try and duplicate that look. This is why to this day no one has actually been able to replicate that exact look for this "hat".

Scary, isn't it?