Club Obi Wan

First a disclaimer....I used the search function for over an hour to see if it's been discused before but came up with little info so here's my thought.


We know there were more than one Fedora used in Raiders. Given the overall floppy nature and generaly distorted look of the SOC hat; is it possible that this hat is the result of the jump into the river one that was dried and re shaped? It would almost account for the ridiculous amount of bashing one has to do to replicate the look of the one in the scene.



Your thoughts?

Sounds very reasonable to me.

I believe all the Hawaii scenes (including the jump in the river) were filmed after the trip to Tunisia.

That's correct, the Tunis scenes were shot before the production moved to Hawaii.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Aaaahhhhhh.... well, that puts an end to that theory. LOL Guess it was just a sweaty distressed hat then. Carry on.

As far as I can remember, the really porous felt began to wilt in the hot Tunisian climate. In an attempt to have the hat keep it's boxy shape, the bulge in the right side of the hat was added in. Essentially, it's sub-standard felt made it look so good . It can't be replicated really. Many have tried. Fedoraiders does a nice job. Don't know if he is still selling hats here. Penman's SOC is probably the best one I've seen.

Your best bet is to find yourself a time travelling De Lorean, go back to 1979, purchase an HJ Poet, and spend a month in Tunisia and try your best to keep the hat from wilting on itself.

Dave

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You might check this timeline, if you have not already. The 'into the river' sequence would explain the condition of the hat during the SoC, but the Hawaii/South America sequences were among the last filmed on location, and not in studio. The nazi sub/Bantu scenes were the first filmed then all Elstree sets, then they went to Tunisia for all the really cool action sequences and SoC on location.

No telling what amount of distressing the hat received during the Elstree shots and before SoC..? I know that in the Making of Raiders Derek Taylor points out that they were distressing the jacket with a wire brush and knife by the pool at one of the hotels in Tunisia. Undoubtedly, they [could have] slam dunked the lid in the pool or other such water to mimmic the "into the river" shot that had already occurred (in sequence) in the movie, and then reshaped it and let it dry in the sun..? Just a theory, but before the Tunisia sequences were filmed in September of 1980, the hat must have undergone quite a bit of distressing behind the scenes up to this point. Had to. How else could it have looked that way, unless Ford was wearing it all the time, everywhere and anywhere, in the shower... etc.?

As an aside, I personally do not believe that the SoC/Tunisia hat and the South America hat was the same one, due to its shape and appearance...? I mean, the SA hat looks like a new one..? But the hat that he used inside Elstree could have been the same hat as the Tunisia/SoC hat, as they could have put more and more distressing into it as the film went forward..?

Certainly not. The SA hat isn't turned. And you can really see how straight sided that block was on this hat. The brim also looks really wide as a result of no turn. That is a new hat we see there. The SOC hat was on its way out. LOL

Dave