Top 25 Favourite Films: #13 Raiders of the Lost Ark (Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1981)
#13. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1981
There are few cinematic introductions like it. It's the jungles of South America, 1936, and a group of adventurers have made their way deep into hostile territory, as the credits roll, and cut their way through, till there are just three. The sequence is shot low, we're clearly in dangerous territory, with two of the adventurers fiding a poison frog dart stuck into a tree. With his back to us, a man in a leather jacket and a fedora hat considers a ragged map. There's a sense of tension and from his belt, one of his companions slowly, silently produces and cocks a pistol. Not silently enough, as, without warning, the figure begins to turn and, equally suddenly, produces a bullwhip, with which he cracks the gun out of his would be assasin's hands, to fall into the water. And out of the shadows, into the light, with a flourish of horns, steps Indiana Jones.
It is the perfect introduction-rivalled in blockbuster cinema of the period only by the introduction of Harrison Ford's other great icon, Han Solo-Jones is quick-witted, a dab hand with a bullwhip, trusts no-body, and, as the next few sequences, in which Jones and his assistant, Satipo (a young Alfred Molina) enter and deal with the pitfalls of the temple, in one of cinema's great action setpieces, proves, as much an adventurer as an expert of antiquites. Over the next two hours, Jones crosses continents, reunites with old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and does battle with the forces of the Third Reich as they race to claim the Ark of the Covenant and its unimaginable power for Nazi Germany, in one of the great action adventure films of all time.
At the heart of Raiders, is, of course, its sense as a homage to the action adventure serial of Spielberg and co-creator, George Lucas's childhoods, from its plot, that homages everything from classic Westerns like Stagecoach to action adventure films like 1954's The Secret of the Incas, where Charlton Heston's Harry Steele is a dead-ringer for Indy, and the Humphrey Bogart-starring The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, to Jones' own background, based upon famous adventurer and paelontologist Roy Chapman Andrews as much as matinée heroes. The villains are evil to the core, the girl is tough but eventually gives in to the charms of the hero, and the day is saved through luck, daring do, and the hubris of the villainous Nazis.
Certainly, this is seen both in the plot, and the character of Indiana Jones himself-much like Star Wars, itself a evolution of the matinée Buck Rogers, by way of the matinee cowboy movie, via eastern mysticism and Japanese samurai movies, they are films without, politely, nuance. Indiana Jones, for all his ruggedness, and occasional moments of violence-something that the sequel, Temple of Doom forgot to its cost-is an inherently good man, is cinematically coded as a good man-the famous truck chase has him on a white charger, for heaven's sake-and simply wants to keep the Ark safe, out of the hands of the Nazis, and ideally in a museum.
This is seen perfectly in his interactions with Marion Ravenwood, a tough, no-nonsense foil for Indy, with whom he clearly has some past-whilst several sequences, in particular the barfight in the Himalyian inn she owns shows her as as the equal to practically any man in a fight, there are still moments where Indy acts as her protector, going to great, and at points dangerous, lengths to rescue her, mourning her loss when he believes her dead, and protecting her in the film's finale from the wrath of the Ark. Frankly, if any element of the Saturday morning matinée passes fully into Raiders it is in Indiana Jones' indeftaigable nature- in the truck-chase, even when wounded, he still fights on to protect it and bring it back to Cairo, even when trapped in the horrifying and snake infested Well of Souls, a literal manifestation of his worse fears, he looks for a way out. He may get knocked down in the film, but physically and mentally, he always gets back up.
The Nazi characters are, simply, evil. Arnold Todt, (Ronald Lacey) is a terrifying, sociopathic figure, dressed all in black, who attempts to torture Marion not one but twice, and is left, when attempting to reach for Maguffin extraordinate, the Headpiece of the Staff of Ra, which is necessary to find the location of the Ark, is forever after marred by it, with one half of the object burned deep into his hand. Alongside him is Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), who acts in the classic cowboy sense, as the black hat to Indy's white (amusing, given that Belloq dresses almost entirely in white throughout the film), but also as his shadow. Like Jones, Belloq is an archeologist-one of the film's great moments, in which they discuss the importance of a cheap watch buried for a millenia, essentally puts them on the same page in their discussion of the very nature of archeology, but unlike Jones, preservation, particularly of the Ark, is secondary to its power, its usage as an "antennae to God."
One can talk about nuance, about the very way we show evil regiemes and evil people on screen, but all of this feels, bluntly, like conjecture-Spielberg is no doubt who his villains are, they are, to a man violent, evil and exploitative of the Egyptian workers, particularly in the case of those that Indy fights against, including a bruising bare-knuckle fist-fight against a mechanic and another against one of the soldiers during the chase sequence. Their defeat, in the otherworldly and spectacularly rendered opening of the Ark, complete with still-effective melting and exploding Nazi heads, is cathartic, and still impressive visual work, four decades on.
But most of all, Raiders is a film that practically runs on, as its sequels did to varying degrees of success, emotion. From the nerve-shredding entrance into the temple and the removal of the idol to Indy's escape, to the slowly growing tension of the discovery of the Ark, the terror of the Well of Souls scene, Indy's subsequent escape, brawl, and chase of the truck, to the final showdown and the utter horror of the contents of the Ark, there are so many moments in Raiders that run on pure emotion, that make us jump, or punch the air, or crouch on the edge of our seats in fear of our heroes. But there is one moment that captures the entire film in barely three minute, that captures everything, from the emotion, to the pure mastery of action that Raiders still commands, nearly forty years on, that is practically its calling card upon the world of cinema.
It comes barely twenty minutes in, in the depths of the temple. Jones and Satipo have found, after several pitfalls, the idol, and now the archielogist must recover it. He reaches for a bag of sand, weighs it empties a few handfuls, and, with Satipo watching on, painstakingly attempts to remove it. At first, it seems to work. And then, the bag begins to descend. A rumble, and the entire temple slowly begins to collapse, narrowly missing our hero. He and his aide make a dash for it, and Satipo betrays Jones, taking both idol and whip. Indy leaps, barely makes it, rolls under the door, and comes face to face with his hapless aide.
We see Indy from behind, as another rumble catches his attention, and he turns. And there it is, a colossal boulder, rolling down from the ceiling, a massive, unstoppable thing that simply barrels along behind him. It is one of the most famous objects in action history, the unstoppable push of adventure personified. He makes his escape, with seconds to escape, falls to the floor, covered in dust and cobwebs, looks up, to find he is surrounded by native tribesmen, among them his former comrade, who falls to the ground dead. And into shot, boots first, comes Belloq, holding the upper ground, and takes the idol, thwarting our hero, who manages to make his escape as he is chased.
Every single twist and turn, every moment, every little details is still impressive, still physically bruising and tough-feeling, not to mention practically the cliff-hanger concept in medium, every moment of this chase setting up its own moment of tension, only to pay it off within seconds, as the entire sequence barrels along, from elation, to panic to betrayal and to death-defying courage, one after another. 37 years on, nothing captures this simple emotive perfection of the action movie better than Raiders. It is, simply put, the best action adventure film ever made.
There are few cinematic introductions like it. It's the jungles of South America, 1936, and a group of adventurers have made their way deep into hostile territory, as the credits roll, and cut their way through, till there are just three. The sequence is shot low, we're clearly in dangerous territory, with two of the adventurers fiding a poison frog dart stuck into a tree. With his back to us, a man in a leather jacket and a fedora hat considers a ragged map. There's a sense of tension and from his belt, one of his companions slowly, silently produces and cocks a pistol. Not silently enough, as, without warning, the figure begins to turn and, equally suddenly, produces a bullwhip, with which he cracks the gun out of his would be assasin's hands, to fall into the water. And out of the shadows, into the light, with a flourish of horns, steps Indiana Jones.
It is the perfect introduction-rivalled in blockbuster cinema of the period only by the introduction of Harrison Ford's other great icon, Han Solo-Jones is quick-witted, a dab hand with a bullwhip, trusts no-body, and, as the next few sequences, in which Jones and his assistant, Satipo (a young Alfred Molina) enter and deal with the pitfalls of the temple, in one of cinema's great action setpieces, proves, as much an adventurer as an expert of antiquites. Over the next two hours, Jones crosses continents, reunites with old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and does battle with the forces of the Third Reich as they race to claim the Ark of the Covenant and its unimaginable power for Nazi Germany, in one of the great action adventure films of all time.
At the heart of Raiders, is, of course, its sense as a homage to the action adventure serial of Spielberg and co-creator, George Lucas's childhoods, from its plot, that homages everything from classic Westerns like Stagecoach to action adventure films like 1954's The Secret of the Incas, where Charlton Heston's Harry Steele is a dead-ringer for Indy, and the Humphrey Bogart-starring The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, to Jones' own background, based upon famous adventurer and paelontologist Roy Chapman Andrews as much as matinée heroes. The villains are evil to the core, the girl is tough but eventually gives in to the charms of the hero, and the day is saved through luck, daring do, and the hubris of the villainous Nazis.
Certainly, this is seen both in the plot, and the character of Indiana Jones himself-much like Star Wars, itself a evolution of the matinée Buck Rogers, by way of the matinee cowboy movie, via eastern mysticism and Japanese samurai movies, they are films without, politely, nuance. Indiana Jones, for all his ruggedness, and occasional moments of violence-something that the sequel, Temple of Doom forgot to its cost-is an inherently good man, is cinematically coded as a good man-the famous truck chase has him on a white charger, for heaven's sake-and simply wants to keep the Ark safe, out of the hands of the Nazis, and ideally in a museum.
This is seen perfectly in his interactions with Marion Ravenwood, a tough, no-nonsense foil for Indy, with whom he clearly has some past-whilst several sequences, in particular the barfight in the Himalyian inn she owns shows her as as the equal to practically any man in a fight, there are still moments where Indy acts as her protector, going to great, and at points dangerous, lengths to rescue her, mourning her loss when he believes her dead, and protecting her in the film's finale from the wrath of the Ark. Frankly, if any element of the Saturday morning matinée passes fully into Raiders it is in Indiana Jones' indeftaigable nature- in the truck-chase, even when wounded, he still fights on to protect it and bring it back to Cairo, even when trapped in the horrifying and snake infested Well of Souls, a literal manifestation of his worse fears, he looks for a way out. He may get knocked down in the film, but physically and mentally, he always gets back up.
The Nazi characters are, simply, evil. Arnold Todt, (Ronald Lacey) is a terrifying, sociopathic figure, dressed all in black, who attempts to torture Marion not one but twice, and is left, when attempting to reach for Maguffin extraordinate, the Headpiece of the Staff of Ra, which is necessary to find the location of the Ark, is forever after marred by it, with one half of the object burned deep into his hand. Alongside him is Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), who acts in the classic cowboy sense, as the black hat to Indy's white (amusing, given that Belloq dresses almost entirely in white throughout the film), but also as his shadow. Like Jones, Belloq is an archeologist-one of the film's great moments, in which they discuss the importance of a cheap watch buried for a millenia, essentally puts them on the same page in their discussion of the very nature of archeology, but unlike Jones, preservation, particularly of the Ark, is secondary to its power, its usage as an "antennae to God."
One can talk about nuance, about the very way we show evil regiemes and evil people on screen, but all of this feels, bluntly, like conjecture-Spielberg is no doubt who his villains are, they are, to a man violent, evil and exploitative of the Egyptian workers, particularly in the case of those that Indy fights against, including a bruising bare-knuckle fist-fight against a mechanic and another against one of the soldiers during the chase sequence. Their defeat, in the otherworldly and spectacularly rendered opening of the Ark, complete with still-effective melting and exploding Nazi heads, is cathartic, and still impressive visual work, four decades on.
But most of all, Raiders is a film that practically runs on, as its sequels did to varying degrees of success, emotion. From the nerve-shredding entrance into the temple and the removal of the idol to Indy's escape, to the slowly growing tension of the discovery of the Ark, the terror of the Well of Souls scene, Indy's subsequent escape, brawl, and chase of the truck, to the final showdown and the utter horror of the contents of the Ark, there are so many moments in Raiders that run on pure emotion, that make us jump, or punch the air, or crouch on the edge of our seats in fear of our heroes. But there is one moment that captures the entire film in barely three minute, that captures everything, from the emotion, to the pure mastery of action that Raiders still commands, nearly forty years on, that is practically its calling card upon the world of cinema.
It comes barely twenty minutes in, in the depths of the temple. Jones and Satipo have found, after several pitfalls, the idol, and now the archielogist must recover it. He reaches for a bag of sand, weighs it empties a few handfuls, and, with Satipo watching on, painstakingly attempts to remove it. At first, it seems to work. And then, the bag begins to descend. A rumble, and the entire temple slowly begins to collapse, narrowly missing our hero. He and his aide make a dash for it, and Satipo betrays Jones, taking both idol and whip. Indy leaps, barely makes it, rolls under the door, and comes face to face with his hapless aide.
We see Indy from behind, as another rumble catches his attention, and he turns. And there it is, a colossal boulder, rolling down from the ceiling, a massive, unstoppable thing that simply barrels along behind him. It is one of the most famous objects in action history, the unstoppable push of adventure personified. He makes his escape, with seconds to escape, falls to the floor, covered in dust and cobwebs, looks up, to find he is surrounded by native tribesmen, among them his former comrade, who falls to the ground dead. And into shot, boots first, comes Belloq, holding the upper ground, and takes the idol, thwarting our hero, who manages to make his escape as he is chased.
Every single twist and turn, every moment, every little details is still impressive, still physically bruising and tough-feeling, not to mention practically the cliff-hanger concept in medium, every moment of this chase setting up its own moment of tension, only to pay it off within seconds, as the entire sequence barrels along, from elation, to panic to betrayal and to death-defying courage, one after another. 37 years on, nothing captures this simple emotive perfection of the action movie better than Raiders. It is, simply put, the best action adventure film ever made.
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