RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Action / Adventure

Director: Steve Spielberg

Cast: Harrison Ford / Karen Allen / Paul Freeman

Plot

In 1936, the U.S. Army gives archaeologist Indiana Jones the mission of recovering the Ark of the Covenant before a Nazi-sponsored expedition does, kicking off a quest that will take Jones from the mountains of Asia to the deserts of Africa to the high seas aboard a German U-Boat.

What I Liked

I should begin this review by stating that very few films have as much sentimental value for me as “Raiders.”  I spent countless afternoons watching this movie (or “The Last Crusade)” or imagining myself as Indiana Jones as I ran around in the woods or played in a friends backyard.

The thing about sentimental favorites from childhood, however, is that many of them disappoint once you get to be an adult.  Time passes, you see better movies, the standards for effects change, the youthful belief in magic fades, the adult mind criticizes too much.  The great thing about watching “Raiders” is that it was nearly as much fun to watch it this time around as it was back when I was a kid.  That’s because most of the fun of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is based on quality of craft, which is always timeless.

Let’s start with the performances.  Harrison Ford is perfectly cast as Indy.  In many ways, he reminded me of everything that great about a Humphrey Bogart performance: masculine, ballsy, smart, flawed, and vulnerable.  To this mix, Ford adds a level of self-effacing humor that Bogart’s characters always lacked, making Jones one of the most well-rounded action heroes in cinema.  Jones is cool enough to be envied and relatable enough to fool you into imagining yourself in his shoes.  Despite being a beloved action hero, Jones is no John Rambo or even James Bond; unlike those characters, he doesn’t always get it right and usually pays for his mistakes by taking hellacious beating.

Karen Allen reinvents the action movie girlfriend role as Marion, a tough-talking, hard-drinking spitfire who rescues herself from distress at least as much as our hero does.  Though Marion does wind up in a few classic “tied to the railroad track” type scenarios, in Allen’s hand the character is more heroine than victim.  She is utterly convincing in the role, making Marion in many ways the female version of Indiana.  The screwball comedy style of banter between Indiana and Marion, who is almost always shown to be Indiana’s emotional and mental superior, has a large amount to do with the film’s endearing comedic elements.

Combine those two performances with some of the most thrilling stunts ever caught on camera, exotic locations, a cacophony of gunfire and explosions, plenty of fist-fights, tasteful use of shocks and gore, and some of cinema’s most memorable one-liners and you’ve got arguably the greatest action film every made.

What I Didn’t Like

Indiana Jones is such an terrific movie action hero, it’s a shame that the filmmakers never truly came up with a villain to match him.  In “Raiders” he was usually pitted against his professional rival Rene Belloq, a French egotist who fancies himself the yin to Indy’s yang.  It isn’t that Paul Freeman didn’t play the role right, but just that the part wasn’t written to be very interesting.  Most of the villains in the series, Belloq included, are cribbed directly out of older movies, with nothing about them that makes them the least bit interesting.  In some ways, this allows room for the on screen action to become Indy’s most compelling adversary in the form of one death-defying trap after another.  In other ways, it’s a disappointment that Jones never got the Moriarty, Joker, or Darth Vader.

Most Memorable Scene

The who film is almost one unforgettable scene after another, accompanied by equally memorable dialogue.  Still, when “Raiders” is mentioned, the very first scenes that come to my mind is the opening sequence as Indy and one lone surviving assistant explore an booby-trapped jungle ruin and try to make off with a golden idol.  The whole thing is a fun homage to the old 1930s movie serials, a wonderful series of creepy gags, and a perfect introduction to what is to follow in the next two and a half hours.  I’m pretty sure anyone else who has seen the movie (Is there anyone who hasn’t?) would agree that that opening twenty minutes or so are the most classic in a classic film series.

My Rating: 5 out of 5