Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition) | Harrison Ford, Karen Allen | Great, great, great, great, great!

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	Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition) Harrison Ford, Karen Allen Paramount Pictures, 2008 average customer review:based on 174 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a "history" with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel."

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DISMAL OFFERING FROM LUCAS AND SPIELBERG -- A 2008 REVIEW

After giving us gems such as "Jaws," "Star Wars," "E.T." and "Close Encounters," Spielberg and Lucas have teamed up for their 30s serial homage, "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

To say that this movie is implausible is an understatement at best. The supernatural element -- the Ark of the Covenant -- is at the center of this wild chase, which involves an apparently indestructible adventurer pitted against poorly-drawn stereotypes including cartoon Nazis.

What the viewer gets is two hours of material that is simply unbelievable.

The movie begins with the hero attempting to take an idol from an ancient temple whose traps apparently work as well in modern times as they did when they were rigged hundreds of years ago. With a GREAT amount of disbelief suspension, the viewer sees Indiana Jones escape not only the temple, but hundreds of angry Peruvian warriors. And not one of their poisonous arrows even hits him. And yet, when Jones's partner takes the idol from him and disappears around the corner -- only to be impaled by large spikes -- there's not so much as a scream to be heard. Also, he would have been hit sideways by the spikes, yet when Jones finds him, he's been hit from behind.

The action then moves to the search for the Ark of the Covenant, the gold chest which contained the ten commandments and from which God communed with the Israelites. At this point, the plot reveals itself to be utterly devoid of any higher thought and becomes simplistic. All Jones has to do is take a headpiece that harnesses the sun's rays into a buried map room to show the location of the ark, which begs the obvious question: "Why, before there was a sandstorm that covered the city of Tanis, was there a need to make a map room, when all one had to do was go through the town looking for the ark?"

At one point, in a chase through the town, Jones is confronted with a sword-wielding man. Exhausted, he simply looks him over and shoots him dead -- right on the spot! Was he seized and arrested? Of course not! Because this film operates outside the bounds of any reason.

*** WARNING -- SPOILERS!!! ***

So, after not only narrow escapes including hundreds of submachine guns, children, poisoned dates and Hitler-saluting, Nazi monkeys (I kid you not!), Jones eventually finds the Well of Souls -- the resting place of the ark, which is filled with thousands of poisonous snakes. But the ark is soon captured by the Nazis, assisted by Belloq, Jones's arch-rival. Jones and his love interest, Marion Ravenwood (who is thrown 100 feet into the pit with hardly a scratch!), escape within 15 minutes and live to fight another day in their quest for the ark.

One part of the movie that especially strains credibility is when Jones goes after the ark, which is being transported via truck. He not only singlehandedly throws all the Nazis off said truck, but gets himself thrown off the truck and actually goes UNDERNEATH THIS TRUCK, which is presumably traveling at least 55 mph over hard gravel, and comes back aboard, AFTER BEING SHOT! And his jacket isn't even torn! It really stretches the bounds of believability, not to mention the fake special effects when a carload of Nazis goes over a 300-foot-high cliff.

In the end, the Nazis get the ark and Jones makes one last stand to capture -- not the ark -- but Marion, in yet another of the many cliches this film offers up without shame. At this point, Belloq tries to reason with our hero and a FLY -- YES, A LIVING FLY -- lands on Belloq's face and crawls into his mouth. AND HE DOESN'T EVEN REACT! Didn't ANYONE see this obvious error?? Has Spielberg not heard of "Take Two?"

The ending is an obvious cop-out, where all the bad-guy Nazis as well as Belloq are destroyed in an SPFX extravaganza. These special effects -- from the melting faces to the spooky angels -- are extremely fake-looking. These effects would perhaps have been better rendered in CG, with a computer.

One last issue I have is with the plot device -- the Ark of the Covenant. Although featured to a good extent in scripture, it's not a supernatural object that I think most folks can really relate to -- especially people without a fundamental knowledge of the Bible. I mean, many people have never even heard of it!

Perhaps a UFO, or aliens -- something EVERYBODY has heard of -- would be better suited as an "everyman" MacGuffin. Roswell, Area 51 or something. Spielberg has done UFOs before -- he could have done it this time. Oh well... maybe in anther Indiana Jones movie. One can hope.

Anyway, all this is topped off with poor dialogue throughout:

Indy says to Marcus, "I don't believe in magic -- a lot of superstitious hocus-pocus." Well, we know well that he MUST believe in all that, after what he saw in the Temple of Doom a year earlier!

Other examples:

Marion: "Indiana Jones. I always knew someday you'd come walking back through my door. I never doubted it. Something made it inevitable." (Who uses "inevitable?")

Marion, to the Nazis: "YOU BASTARDS! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!!!" (after being thrown 100 feet down into a pit of snakes. Not, "HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE SNAKES EVERYWHERE!!!").

And to top it off:

Sallah: "(The ark) was not something man was meant to disturb. Death has always surrounded it. It is not of this earth." (Of COURSE it is "of this earth!" The Israelites built it out of gold and wood, as per God's instructions, as recorded in Exodus, Chapter 25!)

Oh, well. We know Lucas has a problem with dialogue. Apparently all the sharp, witty dialogue in "Star Wars" was just a fluke.

On a final note, Harrison Ford, at 39, is simply too old for this role. A younger man, in his late-20s, would have been better suited and more plausible for the physical demands. Or at least early-30s, as Sean Connery was when he first played James Bond.

Inevitably, this movie goes beyond reasonable suspension of disbelief required of the viewer. One can only conclude that Lucas and Spielberg have offered up a helping too large to digest with plausibility.

On a positive note, John Williams's score is perfect.

This movie lacks all credibility, so if you decide to see it, BE WARNED -- THIS IS TWO HOURS OR YOUR LIFE YOU WILL NEVER GET BACK, NOT TO MENTION THE COST TO SEE IT!!!

(NOTE: Before there is a mass revolt... this review was written from a 2008 perspective, to make a point. It was written as if this were a new Indiana Jones movie. It is written in the spirit of the hypercritical reviews that are leveled against so many movies nowadays, including "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," and the newer "Star Wars" movies. Go read the reviews, you'll see. That's why I gave it 5 stars; "Raiders" is actually one of the greatest movies ever made.)

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Great, great, great, great, great!

The start of a great series! And few films have managed to be quite as great. SEE IT!

Stop it! This movie is just too good, stop it!

You want perfection in your action adventure movie? Then look no further. I have to yell "Stop it!" at my TV, because just when you thought it could not possibly get any better, it does! That's when I start throwing my popcorn at the TV because I can't believe what I'm seeing and I almost pass out. This movie rocks!!

The Classic Indiana Jones Film!!!

Indiana Jones is now a classic hero from the 80's era. He is very smart and always knows what he's doing. With the help of Marion and Sallah, Indiana finds the Ark. It has a lot of action, comedy, and much more. I like toward the end when all the Nazis die a bloody death because of the Ark. If you love Indiana Jones, you'll love RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK!!!

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The Adventure Begins...

Due to the recent release of the fourth installment, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", in the long-time trilogy, now turned ongoing "Indiana Jones" series; I felt the need to go back and re-watch all the classic original films that started this whole franchise. Without further ado, let us begin with the 1981 adventure flick that made Harrison Ford even more of a household name, with his second most iconic character's first film, "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark".

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" (as it was known when initially released to theaters) follows the adventures of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford), an archaeology professor/tomb raider. After being contacted by members of the U.S. government concerning a former colleague's connection to the Nazis and Hitler's interest in all things related to the occult, Indy embarks upon a quest to discover the powerful Ark of the Covenant before the evil Nazis can get their hands on it. To do so, Indy must ally himself with a former love, Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who fully lives up to the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", and do his best to keep both of them alive as their harrowing journey takes them from South America to the streets of Cairo, and beyond.

Many movie fans have long held "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" in extremely high regard as being one of the all-time classics of American cinema, along with being heralded as the best in the "Indiana Jones" series. I agree with the first half of the statement, but I beg to differ on the latter. Although I do enjoy "Raiders of the Lost Ark", I do feel that in the early stages of the movie, the story seems to struggle to find its footing. This results in some rather uneven pacing problems in the first 30 to 45 minutes of the film. While the lulls in the story are never so problematic that the movie begins to truly suffer for it, these moments do tend to draw some attention and caused me to become a bit restless early on. That being said, all the minor problems were fully taken care of by the 45 minute to 1 hour mark, when the movie really kicked into gear and the pace began moving along at a very steady clip; but without going so fast as to make the early parts feel too out of place.

I think my biggest problem with the story for "Raiders", is that early on in the movie there seems to be so much backstory between Indy and Marion, and while it is dealt with to an extent, it never quite seems to get the attention it deserves. I mean, this woman clearly despises this man for something he's done in the past, yet she seems more than willing to let bygones be bygones. And she does so in a manner that makes her anger in the beginning seem immature and irrational. Now, I will be honest that I'm a little at odds with myself on my viewpoint for this aspect of the story. On the one hand, I wish that they would have fleshed out the history between Indy and Marion a little further to justify her intense anger for him; while on the other hand, I'm glad they didn't because this was the very portion of the story that I felt caused the movie to seem uneven. So, I guess I can't have it both ways, but the resulting conundrum regarding this part of the film is most likely the primary reason for why this movie doesn't rank as the best in the series for me, unlike most other fans of the "Indiana Jones" franchise.

From an acting standpoint the movie is very solid across the board. Harrison Ford ("Star Wars" original trilogy) creates another classically heroic, yet flawed character for audiences to easily relate to. Harrison provided Indy with a dry wit, intelligence, and strength that allowed audiences to embrace more of a thinking man's hero that still knows how to handle himself in a fight, without resorting to the typical one-dimensional action hero that one would normally find in these types of movies. Karen Allen ("Starman") is nearly perfect as the fiery ex-girlfriend of Indiana Jones, while she ultimately becomes the typical damsel-in-distress this kind of movie requires; she proves herself to be quite capable of handling herself in minor fights and drinking games as well. The only problem I had with Karen in this movie, aside from her seemingly irrational disdain for Indy early on, was that at times her line readings seem a bit forced. I don't know if this was due to rewrites of the script during the filming or what, perhaps it was just nerves; whatever the case may be, her performance just didn't seem to be consistent all the way through the movie. Serving as Indy's go-to-guy in Cairo, named Sallah, we have actor John Rhys-Davies ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy), who delivers the majority of the comedic moments for the film; while still getting to see his fair share of adventure during his stint in the story. For the most part, the majority of the cast created some very memorable characters, all of which were entertaining and interesting; two qualities that are sometimes hard to come by in these types of films, where the characters usually tend to be a bit more one-dimensional.

With this movie being 27 years old, I find myself surprised by some of the bold stunts that director Steven Spielberg ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind") and his producer/co-creator of the story George Lucas ("Star Wars" saga) dared to accomplish in the film. The boulder chasing Indy in the opening moments of the movie, and the scenes at the end involving the Ark of the Covenant are exceptional works of movie magic. The fact that these two sequences, along with a few others, still look as good as they do even to this day is amazing to me; while at the same time, serving as a fitting tribute to the talent and ingenuity that these two men and the many individuals in their employ, that help to make this magic happen, have at their disposal to take audiences on an adventure that they'll not soon forget.

When all is said and done, "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" is an incredibly fun movie to watch. While it does have some problems during the first half of the movie, overall it's a film that stands strong on its own and kicks off one of the greatest adventure series' in cinematic history.

"Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" is rated PG for violence and brief language.

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