Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Genre

Action | Adventure

Director

Steven Spielberg

Country

USA

Cast

Harrison Ford, Paul Freeman, Karen Allen, John Rhys-Davies, Ronald Lacey, Denholm Elliott, Wolf Kahler, George Harris, Anthony Higgins, Vic Tablian, Don Fellows, William Hootkins

Storyline

Archaeologist Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. (Harrison Ford) is hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis.

Opinion

I bet most people who gave this film a 10 out of 10 didn't consider the film itself, but the fact they loved it as a child. Personally, I really thought that a collaboration between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg would produce something better than this.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a quite entertaining action/adventure film, with some fun and thrill, but it surely is not the best of all time.

Written by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, the story is fairly good, but unfortunately Indiana Jones, the main character, doesn't add anything to the story, and indeed take him out of the story and nothing changes - the Nazis still find the Ark, open it, and die. Furthermore, there Nazis weren't in Egypt in 1936, and how Jones survived the ride on the submarine is a mystery.

At least, there is not an overuse of special effects, which are actually good for the time, although they look fake nowadays - lightnings in particular. And the musical score fits the film.

Harrison Ford is charismatic as Indy - although Han Solo is a more likeable character in my opinion - but he should have worked on his acting better. Paul Freeman is decent as Belloq.

Quotes

Belloq: All your life has been spent in pursuit of archaeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it opened as well as I. Indiana, we are simply passing through history. This, this *is* history.