Clearly, the Nazis recruited from the same private military contractor which provided protection for the force field generator on Endor protecting the second ill-fated Death Star. Which, really, explains a lot about the unified George Lucas/Steven Spielberg universe, including why an entire department of highly experienced field agents who spent their lives training for an encounter with an alien lifeform allowed a waddling little alien which couldn’t outrun a six year old Drew Barrymore and four kids on bicycles (albeit, flying bicycles) to escape their massive cordon. It also explains how Tom Cruise and others could repeated walk into a highly controlled law enforcement facility using a rotting eyeball to bypass security systems despite the fact that he’d been convicted of a futurecrime and sentenced to sleep prison.
In the dystopian future of Lucas/Spielberg, there is only incompetence.
This is true - and there is no enemy as of yet, as the war has not yet started.
The more obvious suspension-of-disbelief failure is that no boat, much less a submarine, runs on the surface without lookouts - and there is absolutely nowhere to hide on the deck of a sub, and (obviously) no handy hatches etc. to open and hide in.
Indy would be as visible and obvious as a cockaroach on granny’s china plate. There is no way that even the most dozy possible lookouts could miss him.
Actually there is a place to hide. The pressure hull is round. The deck on a WWII is flat. The is a space between the pressure hull and the deck that can be accessed via hatches built in the deck. You are fucked if the sub dives and I have no clue as to what you will eat and drink but assuming all the lookouts a blind for a moment you could get below the deck.
What everyone is forgetting is that Raiders is an tribute to the serial movies of the 1930s where serious suspension of disbelief was required. Common sense, plot continuity, and the laws of physics were regularly ignored.
Watch one of those serials and the usual reaction from a modern audience is “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Which pretty much describes every plot element of Raiders, from the fact that there is a gigantic German dig going on in British-controlled Egypt to the fact that it apparently takes Indy days to trek to the tomb with a crew and pack mules but is albe to escape Belloq and the Hovitos with just a few minutes of running to the river where a seaplane is conveniently waiting. The movie is fundamentally implausible, and it is a tribue to Speilberg that he is able to keep the action going at such a pace and draw such engaging characters that you fail to notice that almost no part of the film actually makes any sense. It is evidence of the maxim that “Great art doesn’t have to make sense; it just has to work.”
Given that the deck is flush and not large, the lookouts would have to be blind indeed not to notice someone attempting to open maintenance hatches right in front of them.
This is despite the fact that he’s already (at this point) seen someone’s heart ripped out of their chest and burst in flame while the victim is still alive. I think Indy is less incredulous of the supernatural than just blasé about its effects. And really, this makes Indy just that much more badass. Gods? Fire casting priests? 500 year old Knights Templar? Aliens? Adolf Hitler? Dudes wielding gigantic scimitars? Yawns and pushes hat over eyes “I’ve seen it all before, honey. Wake me up when we get to Marrakesh.”
I suppose if you do a word association asking people about “German Navy World War Ii era”, the most common answer would be “submarines/U boats”. Plus it may be cheaper to build a mockup of a submarine conning tower/deck for a movie.
I have never read a great deal about the making of “Raiders”. But I remember when it came out, “People” magazine had an interview with a biblical expert who speculated the idea that the Ark was in Eqypt to capitalize on the King Tut artifacts tour in the late 1970s.
The Hovitos can’t shoot for shit, either. Clearly they’ve been receiving foreign aid which has degraded their hunting abilities, or they were hired from the same outfit which provides The Empire with stormtrooper fodder.
It’s the difference between a good movie and, oh, let’s say the Star Wars Prequels. Plot problems in great movies are forgiven if the movie is well made. When the movie is bad, everything seems worse.
