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introvertguide · 6 years

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Raiders of the Lost Ark; AFI #66

The tenth film the group reviewed from the AFI list is the magnificent adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). This movie might be one of the most fun to watch films ever, and critics have agreed with that sentiment for close to 40 years. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won 5 of them. Sadly, but deservedly, the movie took all the technical awards, but none of the acting/directing/writing awards. This makes since as Raiders came out the same year as Reds, On Golden Pond, and Chariots of Fire. That is some stiff competition and, since the Academy seems to favor drama over action, Raiders did not have much of a chance. Interesting, though, that Raiders of the Lost Ark is the only Best Picture nominee from that year to be included on the AFI 100. The film also won #10 on AFI’s Greatest Thrills and #2 Greatest Hero. It also swept the Saturn awards as it was an immediate hit with the sci-fi and fantasy adventure crowd.

The movie is about the story of Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford). The film begins with Jones in a jungle and finding some ancient ruins with many traps protecting something he is after. His guides are soon shown to be working against him and Jones barely escapes the ruins alive with a golden idol (but not without being chased by a massive rolling boulder). He immediately runs into a rival treasure hunter named Belloq (Paul Freeman) who tries to kill Indy, but Jones escapes in a dramatic sea plane scene. So far, so good.

Jones is shown after his heroic escape to actually to be a professor of archeology at Marshall College, not just a treasure hunter. He is the hunky teacher that all the students crush on, but Professor Jones does not seem to care about these things. He is, however, interested in an offer to go to Cairo to find the Ark of the Covenant before Nazis do. He also wants to send the Ark back to the museum for study instead of using it as a weapon, the thing which Hitler apparently wants it for.

He starts out by going to Nepal because an old colleague has a medallion that goes on top of a staff that reveals the location of the Ark. Upon arriving at an old bar in Nepal, he finds that his old colleague Abner Ravenwood is dead, but the daughter Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) is there with the headpiece. She and Indy have romantic history of which she seems angry about, but the reunion is immediately interrupted by a very strange Nazi interrogator (Ronald Lacey) who tries to take the headpiece. Indy and Marion are able to fight off the Nazi and his goons and escape, but the Nazi manages to get some information from the headpiece to start looking for the Ark.

Indy and Marion go to Cairo and meet his Egyptian contact Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) and gather information about the Nazi dig for the Ark. I really don’t want to spoil the process of looking for the Ark because it is so much fun. There is a lot of fighting off Nazis and Egyptian mercenaries, a lot of tomb raiding, and Jones’ rival Belloq shows up as the leader of the Nazi dig. There is a point where Indy does find the Well of Souls (where the Ark is kept) and it is full of snakes. He is found out by Belloq and the Nazi group and they steal the Ark from Jones. Indy follows the Nazi convoy and is able to steal back the Ark and hires a pirate boat to get him, Marion, and the Ark back to the U.S. Sadly, the boat is found by a Nazi submarine with Belloq aboard and the Ark is confiscated by the Nazis along with Marion. Indiana is able to stow away on the submarine as it goes to a small island to test out the power of the Ark.

Again, I don’t want to spoil too much, but I will say that Indiana Jones is captured and both he and Marion are captives when the Nazis attempt to open the Ark on the island. Let us say that it doesn’t go well. The power of the Ark is not kind to Belloq and the Nazis and it is far and away the most disturbing violence in the movie (I used to cover my eyes when I was a kid). Indiana and Marion survive and bring the Ark back to the states. Unfortunately, the government confiscates the prize and puts it in a giant storage unit where it will assumedly never be found. Cue the music and the end of the movie.

I think that the fun comes from the pace of the movie because I think it is 70% action/drama, 20% puzzle solving, and only about 10% establishing. It is a very stereotypical “guys” movie and the inner 13-year-old boy in me absolutely loves every second of it. Both George Lucas, who wrote the film, and Steven Spielberg, who directed it, wanted to remake the adventure film serials from the 30s and 40s. This was the equivalent of weekly adventures that would have been on TV if the technology existed, but instead were put out in cinemas and were favorites of younger boys. Neither Lucas nor Spielberg are old enough to have been alive for these serials when they came out, but they bonded over their affinity for the style.

This movie is especially known for the sounds, sets, and cinematography. Some tomb scenes in the movie were filmed on sets in California, but the Cairo scenes were shot in Tunisia, the jungle scenes in Hawaii, and the submarine and docks were shot in France. It is not what one would call “on location” filming, but all the areas are gorgeous and well utilized. I love the John Williams score for the film, as he always does a great job, but I love the sound and sound editing on this film even more. Traditional foley artists used especially loud guns fired in echo chambers to “beef up” the gunshots. The fight sound effects are simply baseball bats hitting leather gloves so the punches sound weighty and devastating. This is very unrealistic but much more satisfying for the audience.

This movie is so much fun, I was able to watch it three times in five days without hesitation. I saw it initially on my laptop with headphones and was blown away by the sound effects (like I am every time). This is definitely a film to enjoy with the guys, so I also watched with my housemates on the big TV and it was a lot of fun. There was no playing with phones during this movie because it just does not stop with the action. FInally, I watched on my room TV to take plot notes, but had the sound down because it was rather late at night. Still a fantastic experience. I think what I am trying to say is that it doesn’t matter what size screen or sound system you have when you watch this movie. It also doesn’t matter if you are alone or in a group when watching the movie. It will be fantastic in about any situation.

As far as a recommendation, it is a resounding yes. Please do. Treat yourself to 90 minutes of awesome fun. I will say that the first and last 10 minutes might be a bit frightening for the very young and the especially sensitive, but it is otherwise pretty tame as far as scares go. The film is not in the same league as something like Citizen Kane or The Godfather, but it is still fantastic and has had as much influence on Americana as either of those movies. In my opinion, Raiders deserves the spot it has on the AFI list and is the perfect example of a fun American action film.

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