Raiders of the Lost Ark ***** (1981, Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman) – Classic Movie Review 1222

Director Steven Spielberg’s glorious, rip-roaring 1981 fantasy adventure epic stars Harrison Ford in one of his two or three most iconic performances as archaeologist and treasure hunter Indiana Jones. Indy is sent to find the Hebrews’ Ark of the Covenant that Adolf Hitler believes will make his army invincible before the evil Nazi treasure seekers, led by arch-rival Paul Freeman, can get their hands on it first.

The film co-stars Karen Allen as Indiana’s former lover Marion Ravenwood, Paul Freeman as his nemesis, French archaeologist René Belloq, John Rhys-Davies as Indy’s sidekick Sallah, Ronald Lacey as Gestapo agent Arnold Toht and Denholm Elliott as Indiana’s colleague, Marcus Brody.

Transforming and re-inventing the whole then dormant genre, Raiders of the Lost Ark established a new benchmark and set the trend for such movies. It’s a spectacular, ambitious, huge-budget version of the formulaic, low-cost 30s Saturday morning serials at the movies for kids that Spielberg and story-writers George Lucas and Philip Kaufman grew up on.

It works so brilliantly because of everybody’s enthusiasm and sense of fun that hides all the vast skill, expertise and painstakingly hard work behind it. If only today’s painfully serious blockbusters shared this movie’s sense of fun!

John Williams’s famous score is a huge asset, and so is Douglas Slocombe’s sleek widescreen cinematography. Lawrence Kasdan is solely to be praised for the screenplay, despite the work by Lucas and Philip Kaufman, and no doubt Spielberg.

Alfred Molina, Anthony Higgins, Wolf Kahler, Vic Tablan, Don Fellows, William Hootkins and Tutte Lemkow also co-star.

The technical achievement was honoured at Oscar time: there were five Academy Awards for Best art direction/set decoration (Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley), Best editing (Michael Kahn), Best sound (Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Roy Charman), Best visual effects (Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson, Joe Johnston, Dennis Muren) and Best sound effects editing (Ben Burtt).

Though it’s got a PG certificate, there is an explosive finale that could be scary for some children, and TV may edit it for early evening or afternoon screenings.

Producer Frank Marshall has a cameo as a pilot; the visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren is a Nazi spy. Indiana was the name of executive producer Lucas’s dog. Though Spielberg was interested in casting Ford as Indy from the start, Lucas was not, as he had already worked with the actor in American Graffiti and Star Wars, but he eventually relented after Tom Selleck was unable to accept.

On a cost of $18million, it earned $390million at the box office, making it a nice little earner.

A one-week release in IMAX theatres was announced for September 7 2012. Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt supervised the format conversion and the audio was enhanced for surround sound.

On Empire magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, Raiders ranked second, beaten only by The Godfather.

Three sequels have followed so far: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Ford also returned to his role for a 1993 episode of the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

http://derekwinnert.com/the-godfather-classic-film-review-2/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1222

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/