Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Harrison Ford is archaeologist and professor Indiana Jones, who in the late 1930s is hired by the U.S. government to track down the Ark of the Covenant. Along the way he’ll encounter feisty old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), as well as an evil Nazi named Toht (Ronald Lacey), and Indy’s arch-rival Belloq (Paul Freeman) who are both looking for the Ark themselves. John Rhys-Davies plays the gregarious Sallah, Indy’s friend in Cairo, Denholm Elliott is Marcus Brody, Indy’s university colleague, and Alfred Molina turns up as a shifty sort in the opening set-piece.

 

Y’know, I liked “The Big Bang Theory” as much as anyone. However, I gotta call them out (belatedly and perhaps pointlessly now) on their notion regarding Indiana Jones. In addition to being factually wrong about Indiana Jones’ irrelevance to the plot of this 1981 adventure classic from director Steven Spielberg (“Jaws”, “ET”, “Schindler’s List”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Minority Report”), it wouldn’t even matter if they were right. The guys could’ve still been huge fans of the film even if Indy was irrelevant to the plot. Why? Because it could’ve easily have been intentional and somewhat of a spoof of Saturday matinee adventure heroes anyway.

 

Well, with that rather strange and possibly unnecessary introduction out of the way, on to the review of what many consider to be a pretty flawless film. Consider me very much one of the many, because this is one of my favourite films of all-time. Scripted by Lawrence Kasdan (writer of “The Empire Strikes Back”, writer-director of “The Big Chill” and “Silverado”) from a story by George Lucas (“Star Wars”, “THX-1138”) and Philip Kaufman (director of the chilling 1978 version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), it should really be no surprise that the film is so brilliant given I’ve just named four top filmmakers who were involved on it in some capacity. From the all-time great slow reveal of the main hero to the very end of the film, this is a rollicking, great adventure, with one of cinema’s coolest heroes. A guy covered in spiders, plenty of boobytraps, lost treasure, a whip-and-gun carrying archaeologist hero, how can anyone not love this blockbuster update of the Saturday matinee adventure serials of yesteryear. There’s lots of spooky, scary stuff throughout but it’s in the thrill-ride variety, rather than the heavy-handed, gory black comedy vein of the subsequent letdown “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (which does almost everything wrong that this film gets right). As far as I’m concerned, this film and Lucas’ “Star Wars: A New Hope” should be templates for making a great action-adventure film (Both having their genesis in Saturday matinee adventures and author Joseph Campbell’s exploration of hero mythology. Speaking of “Star Wars”, we get yet another all-time classic music score from “Star Wars” composer John Williams (“Jaws”, “Superman”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Jurassic Park”), with an unforgettable main theme in particular. It’s a note-perfect score from a composer with a heck of a lot of masterpieces throughout his long career. Getting back to that slow reveal, Spielberg and cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (“The Blue Max”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) have a lot of fun especially early on showing Indy in silhouette. Meanwhile, if you can get past the rather regrettable use of brownface makeup (perhaps not so easy to do), the bit where Indy shoots the swordsman is still one of cinema’s funniest gags.

 

Han Solo may be cooler, but Indiana Jones is the more 3D character, and this performance by Harrison Ford is arguably his best-ever (alongside his work in “Witness”). Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood is one of cinema’s best screen love interests, but she’s also the type of female character introduced having a drinking competition at some seedy foreign bar. It really is bizarre to go from the ballsy, tough Marion in this film to Kate Capshaw’s shrieking whiner ‘Willy’ in the next film. Ford and Allen are a perfect bickering romantic match on screen. For villains we get Paul Freeman and the late Ronald Lacey as the perfectly sinister and creepy Nazi. Freeman is perfectly fine as essentially the Claude Rains to Lacey’s slimy Peter Lorre. It’s just that the latter’s aptly named Toht is by far the more compellingly evil character. Lacey makes your skin crawl every time he appears. John Rhys-Davies is great in the kind of gregarious-but-possibly-shifty role he’d soon find himself typecast in. I think he and the late Denholm Elliott were even more fun in the third outing “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade”.

 

One of cinema’s greatest entertainments. Great cast, great script, great direction, great action, great music, great romance, and Alfred Molina’s awesome monobrow. There’s something for everyone here, it truly is an all-time classic where everything works.

 

Rating: A+