Movie Notes: Raiders Of The Lost Ark
= 5 stars
Starring Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Synopsis
Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is an adventuring archaeologist searching for the Ark of the Covenant, staying one step ahead of the Nazis, who also seek the religious treasure for its unknown powers.
The Good
- Countless chases, sticky situations, and exotic adventure. Most notable is the tense opening expedition into a mossy temple, a pit of snakes beneath a desert (capped off with some scary mummies), and Indy’s fist fights with Nazis around a plane and over (and under) a car.
- Movie morality underlines the adventures, starting with Indy’s assistant Satipo (Alfred Molina) who steals the idol from Indy only to meet his death. The evil Nazis are eventually punished as well.
- Wry humor: Spielberg has a keen sense of what the audience is thinking and knows how to twist this to make the numerous jokes pay off. The caped Nazi Colonel Dietrich enters Marion’s tent with a menacing apparatus — that is merely a coat hanger. Indy performs an audacious stunt of working his way beneath a moving car, and then tosses the Nazi driver out the window as if to say “your turn” — the driver fails.
- Loads of interesting characters. Harrison Ford is the world-weary Indiana Jones, Marion the scrappy independent woman, Dr. Rene Belloq as Jones’ foil, and Sallah and Dr. Marcus as helpers who return for The Last Crusade. Then there’s that creepy Nazi dude Colonel Dietrich who burns his hand on the medallion and wears all-black in the scorching hot desert sun.
- Eventually, the Ark of the Covenant is revealed as something science can’t explain, and Indy is amusingly saved by what he can’t understand or truly possess. Jones fades into the background and perhaps the film is really about human’s quest to understand the world which is quite possibly, futile. The world’s wonders will never be completely understood or possessed by us humans, who are eventually humbled by the unknown.
The Bad
- Nothing.
Conclusion
It’s almost ridiculous for me to review Raiders Of The Lost Ark since it’s one of my favorite examples of blockbuster movie entertainment. But I still get something out of it, even after watching it for the 145th time right before watching the newest installment. Raiders is pure fun.
IMBD: Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Wikipedia: Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Rotten Tomatoes: Raiders Of The Lost Ark 96%
Nice review. Seeing the latest Indiana Jones installment (Crystal Skull) left me wishing for the original in a bad bad way. I dunno if you saw Indy 4 yet, but I thought it was dreadful (it made Phantom Menace look like Oscar material by comparison).
Ah yeah… we did see the crystal skull over the weekend. I’ll post the
review after I get through the first three indy flix. I suppose as a
preview, I’ll say although I didn’t find it dreadful, it was certainly the
worst Indy flick yet — and I hope they don’t make any more.
Now Raiders on the other hand, was freaking awesome.
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I actually saw the 3 Indiana Jones movies for the first time through tonight. I have to say that since the first one is a 27-year-old flick, my expectations were probably a little higher. I guess a lot of Blockbusters have made similar movies and I didn’t see anything unique — even though it was first. Still, it wasn’t a bad movie. My favorite was the Last Crusade, mostly because there was actually humor in it.
Wow, how did you go so long without seeing all the original Indy films? I
think I have found the first and the third the best by far and Doom and
Crystal Skull much weaker. So the “even numbered” Indy films aren’t as good.
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Sadly, I have no idea. I definitely would have appreciated it more if I saw it earlier!!! I also haven’t seen any of the Batman movies or the Superman flicks. I saw all of the Star Wars movies only recently! I suck at trilogies (and then some). My favorite, though, is Back to the Future!
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