kind ever made." The Wanderers (1979) In 1979, he directed The Wanderers, based on comic novel by Richard Price. The direction of the film illustrated Kaufman's mastery of genre quite different from his previous films. It's the story of a benign Italian gang of teenagers in the Bronx of 1963, with Ken Wahl and Karen Allen. It was Wahl's debut film, and Allen's second role, and the film has become a cult favorite. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) co-writer In 1981, Kaufman became involved with the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he received story credit. The character of Indiana Jones was created by George Lucas and Kaufman came up with the story about the pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant. The Right Stuff (1983) In 1983, Kaufman directed and wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film, The Right Stuff, an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The story is based on the events and lives of the original test pilots who were selected to become the first U.S. astronauts. The film helped launch or boost the careers of numerous little-known actors, including Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Fred Ward and Dennis Quaid. Kaufman hired William Goldman to write the screenplay, but after a number of disputes about the focus of the story, Goldman quit and Kaufman wrote the screenplay himself. Goldman wanted the story to portray patriotism and center mostly on the astronauts, whereas Kaufman wanted much of the story to focus on Chuck Yeager (played by Sam Shepard), whom Goldman's script left out completely. Goldman writes in his memoirs, "Phil's heart was with Yeager." And Shepard's biographer, Don Shewey, explains that "though its chief subject is the astronauts, Yeager is the apple of Kaufman's heroic eye." Critic David Thomson agrees: Historian Michael Barson considers it one of the more ambitious pictures of the 1980s. Roger Ebert said the film was "impressive," noting that the way Kaufman had organized the material into one of the "best recent American movies, is astonishing." The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and won four, yet failed at the box office. Kaufman earned the Writers Guild and Directors Guild nomination for his satiric adaptation of the astronaut program. "It may be the last movie of the heroic 1970s," writes Thomson. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)