In 1936, the U.S. government hires archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler’s Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
When Paramount sent me this 4-Movie Collection, I was beyond excited. The Indiana Jones series is my favorite franchise, but “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is my all-time favorite film. Before I continue reviewing the movie, I need to go back to June of 1981. Living in Dublin, Ireland, with my mother and younger sister, my mother took us out one rainy Sunday afternoon to see “Superman II” but the showing was sold out so she decided to take us to see a new film called “Raiders of the Lost Ark” instead. Naturally, I didn’t want to see anything other than Superman but we ended up at the Carlton Cinema on O’Connell Street in Dublin nonetheless. I was a grumpy and angry nine-year-old because I wanted to see the new Superman flick, but once “Raiders” began, and the giant boulder chased Indy out of the booby-trapped Peruvian temple, I was hooked.
A few years earlier, my father walked out on my mother and my sister, and me, so I grew up with no good father figure in my life, but when I was introduced to Indiana Jones on that fateful rainy day in Dublin, Indy became my surrogate father. Whenever I was afraid, I would think of Indy, and I would be okay and the reason he appealed to me even more than Superman was because of his very human and flawed qualities. If he was punched, he hurt. If he was shot, he bled. If someone betrayed him, he felt pain. He was very relatable, and that is why Indy will always be more than just a fictional character; he is the embodiment of what I would have wanted in a real father, someone who would have stuck around, even when the going got tough. And as I grew older, I also began to admire Harrison Ford because, in real life, he exhibited much of Indy’s mannerisms and characteristics (or maybe the other way around), and he was a good person who cared for his family and that is why he will always be my favorite actor of all time.
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” takes place in 1936 and follows the exploits of Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), an archaeologist and teacher who travels all over the world, gathering ancient relics from past cultures and civilizations. He and his best friend Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott), the Dean of Students at Marshall College in Bedford, Connecticut, where both men teach, are contacted by two Army Intelligence agents and informed of an excavation that is happening in the Egyptian city of Tanis. When they learn that Hitler is responsible for the dig, Indy immediately knows what they are searching for: the lost Ark of the Covenant. Unfamiliar with Indy’s proclamation, he tells the agents that according to the Bible, the Ark was a gold-covered wooden chest that was carried by the Israelites and that it allegedly contained the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. He continues to tell them that any army that carries the Ark before it, is invincible because it purportedly contains the power of God.
Shortly after that, Marcus informs Indy that the U.S. Military has given him the go-ahead to travel to Cairo to recover the Ark before the Nazis do. To achieve his goal, he must travel to Nepal to visit an old flame, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who owns a medallion that could help locate the exact coordinates of the Ark. After a fight with some decidedly nasty Germans, Indy and Marion head to Cairo where they meet Indy’s friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), who can give them all the information they need on the Nazis’ excavation. Utilizing the medallion, Indy determines precisely where the Ark is, and now he, Marion, and Sallah must move quickly if they are to retrieve the Ark and escape without being discovered.
Indiana Jones was created by George Lucas, who said he grew up watching and loving the old action-packed matinée serials of the 1930s. When he and his friend Steven Spielberg were in Hawaii in 1977, they took some well-deserved time off, each awaiting the opening day results of their latest films, “Star Wars: A New Hope” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Suffice it to say, both movies did very well for themselves. Spielberg confided in Lucas that he always wanted to direct a James Bond film, but Lucas told him he had an idea for an action-adventure series centered on a daredevil archaeologist who travels the world searching for mythological artifacts. The more he told Spielberg about it, the more enthralled he became and both men agreed to make three films in which Lucas would produce and Spielberg would direct.
“Raiders” was the biggest hit of 1981, surpassing “Superman II,” “Stripes,” “The Cannonball Run,” and “For Your Eyes Only.” It cemented Harrison Ford as the ultimate action hero, and he went on to play the iconic swashbuckling archaeologist three more times, with a fifth Indy movie now in production. As I stated earlier, “Raiders” became my all-time favorite film on that rainy day in 1981, and it has remained so to this day, with no other movie coming close. While I enjoyed “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” they never quite managed to capture the same level of excitement and delight that “Raiders” delivered, and the less we say about “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the better. In this critic’s eyes, it doesn’t exist.
Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford were all in top form, and John Williams’ iconic music went on to be nominated for Best Original Score in the 1982 Academy Awards. The opening scene is among the very best of any action-adventure film ever made, and the truck chase still elicits excitement and astonishment considering that every scene, except for the ghosts coming out of the Ark in the finale, was filmed for real, it takes you back to a time when good old-fashioned filmmaking was truly appreciated, with absolutely no reliance on CGI or special effects. The stars aligned when “Raiders” was made; everything about it, the acting, direction, costume design, music, cinematography, and editing, were all absolutely flawless, and it is the only movie that can still entertain and excite this critic, 40 years later. “Masterpiece” is truly an understatement.
Available in a Limited-Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™ Steelbook® June 14th
