LLS analysis of the Exterior Temple hat from Raiders

[Local Land Surveyor]

From the moment we see Indy's face, as he climbs up the jungle covered, cave-like entrance of Temple of the Chachapoyan's, his hat appears like no other style in the rest of the movie. I have studied this hat and make a few notes as to the general characteristics of this hat. Fresh hat, rebashed Cairo hat, first prototype and the only one left in good enough shape to use in Hawaii, I have no clue. Even though this is probably the least sought after style of Indy hat, I think it deserves its rightful place in the analysis department. The "think tank" at Garrison Hatters has put together a concise pictorial to demonstrate this hat style commonly referred to as the "Exterior Temple Hat". I like this hat, as it shows, to me, how much better the hat would have looked in TOD if the Raiders block had been used. The hat definitely has a unique appearance not to ever be mimicked again in any movie.



This is a pose-by-pose look. The first observation, which is shared by many (not all), is the turn effect of the brim. The brim tends to be centerd to Indy's face with evidence of a "droop" on the front. I believe there is a slight turn not just as dramatic as the standard look we all are familiar with. The front bashes are unique to this hat as well. A small triangular bash is evident on Indy's left side, being emphasised by a "wrinkle" or dent right above the ribbon. Indy's right side front bash is "squarish" in style. The hat has a general "tall, boxy look" to it. Way more so than in the rest of the movie. I think this is wear the definition of "Indy's hat has a tall straight sided crown with a wide brim" comes from. If this hat wasn't in the front of the movie, I wonder if Indy's hat would have been decrtibed as this at all. The bow of the ribbon appears to be less defined like the other style hats. Particullarly as compared the the Raven Bar or Cairo hat. Note how the ribbon does not fit tightly against the hat as evident by the little amount pulling away at the base of the "right eye" bash.



The brim, as a whole, does not have much curl to it. Small evidence of a curl can be seen in Indy's back right side of the hat. Most of any curl has about all come out. The dimensional cut on the brim is still apparent on the hat. The overall look of the hat has more brim "shading" more of the front of Indy's face. The turned hat causes a more flip of the brim on the back left side that you don't see on this hat. The "swoop" on the right side in non-existant here.



I do believe, though, that the Exterior Temple Hat is turned slightly based on the placement of the center of the bow. A little line work has convinced me of this. Some might say, "Well LLS, the ribbon was just placed wrong on the hat". It could be. But where's the fun in that kind of thinking.

So there you have it. The Exterior Temple Hat. That "boxy" looking hat that has a finite time on the screen, but set the definition of the hat from the beginning. There are more subtle things on this hat than meets the eye. It is truely unique.

LLS

[jasonalun]

Hey LLS! Glad to see this finally posted. I've been anxiously awaiting it! I'll comment more later because I have to run. Just wanted to say thanks and looking forward to seeing some other stuff from you soon. (cough*seaplane*cough) Did you get my PMs?

[eazybox]

Least sought after style, eh? That shows what a different beat I march to, as it's probably my personal favorite Raiders look. It really bothered me that I could not get that "boxy" look from any of the hats that I bought early on. It became the standard by which I judged hat crowns, and though I've since tempered that stance, the "exterior temple" look is still my ideal-- maybe because It's the look that was used to introduce Indy to the world.

Great analysis!

Jack

[Indiana Bugs]

I read through much of this site before posting anything, especially the Fedora section. I havent seen anything about the hats, and their shapes and differences, as they relate to the chronology of the events in the film.

I know this theory is not perfect, because in some of the events after SoC, the hat looks like its in better shape than in SoC, where it was already pretty much trashed. and the idol grab hat looks different than the 'outside the temple' hat.

But at the beginning of the movie, the hat (and Indy) had not been through the trials and tribulations to come. The dunking in the river after escaping from the Hovitos had to change the shape of the hat. But we dont see it again until after he has returned home, and then departed again for Nepal. Could he have it it reblocked within that timeframe? Its possible. Not everything that happens to a character happens on-screen.

Of course, this doesnt explain why the hat after the SoC looks like its in better shape than the SoC, even if only minimally. But the general chronology helps to offer logic for the differing shapes of the supposedly same hat.

[DR Ulloa]

My opinion is that Deb Landis made it a point to make the hat in the Tunisia scenes extremely beat up. Until that point, Indy's hat just looks like a hat that has been well worn, but not abused. The Tunisia hat looks abused. In my opinion, the hats we see in the Tunisia film shoot are all the same. SoC, Drinkin' With a Monkey (Fox, ), They are the same hat. When we see Indy with his hat on again, he is digging for the Well of Souls, this is no longer Tunisia, but I believe was at Elstree. The Tunisia hat was trashed, maybe didn't even fit Ford anymore and a new one had to be used. Deb Landis did her best at making it look old and beat up, but wasn't able to make it an exact clone because it hadn't been abused. That is my theory.

Dave

[eazybox]

If I were a director or costume designer, I would have wanteed Indy to look as good as possible in his introductory scene, so that could have played into their use of a newer looking hat as well.

Jack

[theinterchange]

If I were a director or costume designer, I would have wanteed Indy to look as good as possible in his introductory scene, so that could have played into their use of a newer looking hat as well.

Jack

We march to the beat of a different drum. I always wondered why that hat looked so good. He's been tromping through a humid jungle, the hat should have looked a little more droopy imo.

Having said this, I really love that hat. It's a close second to the SoC hat as my favorite of all the Indy hats. No, wait, it's right up there with the ToD plane cockpit hat!

Randy

[Fedora]

You know, since this hat's crown looks pretty fresh I always thought this was the best look at the original blockshape that we get in the film. If we go by this fresher looking crown, it appears the block used to make this hat was pretty straight on the sides, with a little taper on the front and back. And, this hat is creased higher than the other hats in the film. And it has always been my belief that the hats in the film that show taper was from wear and heat, like you would see in your own hats.

So, if your block that you use, can pull off the fresh look, in detail, you have the Raiders blockshape. But, just my opinion. And it makes perfect sense.

I agree that most of the other hats don't look as tall as the opening hat, unless you go to behind the scenes footage. This one still looks tall to me, but may be the camera creating the illusion. To me this hat looks pretty tall. Gotta be the filming.

Notice the humps look flattish instead of rounded on this hat. Which speaks of a flattish dome on the block, instead of an arced one, but this is not consistent throughout the film.




Because here is the same hat here, and it looks much shorter! Plus you don't see the nice arc from front to back as seen in the pic with Belloq at the table. Even the pics LLS posted don't show an arc from the side view, but flattish on top. But, that hat was creased real shallow on the top too.




We could know for sure how tall the hat was in Raiders by comparing it to the CS. We know that most of the hats in that film were 5 1/2 open crown. Wish I could do a side by side comparsion but I don't have the skills. It would then mostly negate the distortion that occurs in film, as we could compare a filmed hat with another filmed hat. And knowing for certain the specs on one, you could then get a real close idea of the other. Might be hard to find scenes using the same angle though.


Now, to my own tired eyes, the hat LLS posted looks to be the same blockshape as the hat I posted. Same square look from the front,and any differences I think come from D.N. distressing the hat, and it may have had more of a turn too. But, other hats in the film just look different from these two. Gotta be shrinkage going on as the film progressed. And hats were tossed and newer ones were used. Someone once posted a slew of pics showing the tapered looking Raiders fedora with the claim that a particular brand he was enamored with, was indeed the real deal Raiders fedora, because his own hat had some taper. But, you have to ignore these hats above to make that argument fly. So, to me, it dropped like a Lead Zepplin and crashed to the floor. If any hat cannot pull of that square look when new, something is wrong with the block used to make it, if a Raiders fedora was what you were after.

I would love to see someone compare a CS to a sqaure Raiders hat, pictorially. I know what the sides are on that block for sure. They go straight up with no taper at all. We might find with this comparison that the Raiders block had some taper in the sides, that creased out. But, probably no more than 1/8th to 3/16ths of taper from top to bottom. Because if you have more than that, you get a tapered hat when new, even with creases in the hat. The creases will only straighten the sides up a certain amount. Fedora