Happy 25th birthday, Indiana Jones!

25 years ago today (yes, technically, it was yesterday – get off our backs!), moviegoers got their first full-on, boulder-rolling, snake-fearing, wrath-of-God look at Raiders of the Lost Ark. While Star Wars may have secured its place in the young hearts of developing fanboys the world over four years earlier, Burbanked’s love of all things cinema truly began in 1981.

And Raiders stands the test of time quite a bit better than other films of its era. Just looking at 1981 alone, can we really say that The Road Warrior doesn’t feel a little dated? Aren’t we a little sad because the filmmakers of Escape From New York and An American Werewolf in London don’t exist anymore? And is anyone at all heartbroken because there are no plans for a deluxe 25^th anniversary DVD edition of Zorro, the Gay Blade?

So in celebration of Indy’s big day, we offer some appropriately distracting Raiders linkery:

IndianaJones.com is offering 25 Reasons to Watch Raiders Again, including little trivia tidbits to keep an eye out for while you do so. Some of these are well known, some perhaps not – such as the following screengrab in which one of the extras decided to forego that whole “period costume” thing and, you know, just wear a T-shirt:

John Campea at The Movie Blog makes a very good observation regarding George Lucas’ recent comments on securing the participation of Sean Connery in the long-gestating Indiana Jones IV project: didn’t we read previously that the script was more or less done? And didn’t Spielberg say they’d shoot it next year? So how finished can it be if they don’t even know whether Henry Jones, Sr. is in the story? Truth is, if this one dies on the vine we’re probably better off.

LucasArts announced last month the creation of Indiana Jones 2007 (ideally, the title’s still a work-in-progress), a next-generation videogame that incorporates something called euphoria technology into your gaming experience. We read the site and understand the concept, and it’s cool and all that – but really, euphoria?

Still, it’s nice to see our favorite archaeologist alive and punching in the videogame world – where actors never age; celebrity demands are non-existent; schedules don’t need to be “freed up”; and our illusions are never blown by the boozy off-screen antics of our would-be heroes.