A homage to rather than a spoof of the Saturday matinee serials of the 1930s, Raiders of the Lost Ark brought producer George Lucas (hot from Star Wars) together with director Steven Spielberg, for a movie combining excitement, special effects, and adventure, all played with a wry sense of humor.
Harrison Ford, in the role that suited him best in all of his career, stars as Indiana Jones. a tweed-wearing professor of archeology by day, who spends the rest of his time scouring the globe for treasures and artifacts - like the Lost Ark of the Covenant (the gold chest in which Moses supposedly stored the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments). Unfortunately, the Nazis are after it too, having heard that an army who carried the Ark before it is indestructible.
With his trademark fedora, bullwhip, and rumpled clothes, Indy outruns a speeding boulder in a booby-trapped cavern, escapes from a pit of snakes, dodges sinister bandits in an African market, and hangs underneath a moving truck in a nail-biting chase through the desert. These are only some of the movie's impressive set pieces. Our dashing hero is no Superman,though, getting beaten and bashed up at every turn.
Raiders works on many levels, not only thanks to Ford's superb performance and Spielberg's skill at piling on the action and excitement, but also because Lawrence Kasdan (working from an outline by Lucas) delivers a script that is more than just an old-fashioned adventure. His hero is a complicated, less-than-perfect guy who walks the fine line between being a thief of priceless artifacts and protector of them. The villains - especially Indy's archaeological rival, Belloch, (Paul Freeman) - aren't really that much different from our hero, except in motivation (greed as opposed to historic preservation). The heroine, Marion (Karen Allen) isn't your archetypal girl-in-distress either, but a physically capable woman who (most of the time) can rescue herself and doesn't need the hero at all.
A perfect package of adventure, humor, effects, escapism, and terrific performances that has often been imitated (but never equaled) in films like The Mummy (1999), Raiders has been followed by two fun sequels and a third on its way next summer.
Quote of the Day - Indiana Jones - "Snakes...why did it have to be snakes?"
Tomorrow: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
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