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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Story
It’s fascinating watching a story that is completely unaffected by the protagonist. Other than a lot of killing Nazis, he doesn’t do much to alter the end result.
It’s exciting and flows from one set piece to the next really well.
Score: 0.5
Characters
Indiana is tough, charismatic, wise cracking, and fluctuates between genius and fool. As an adventurer, he attracts disaster and does everything with wry wit. As an archeologist, he doesn’t do much but consult experts. I wonder what his specialty is?
Marion is the tough girl who can drink anyone under the table, shoot a gun, and runs her own bar in the tough part of Nepal. She’s also completely defenseless and screams more then my children watching this movie.
Salah is still one of my favourite characters.
The villains are evil Nazis and its nice to remember a time when we as a society were against Nazis.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue in this is iconic and quotable in a way only Harrison Ford and Spielberg can be.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The visuals are good for the time but are showing their age. The cinematography does a great job in its use of shadows.
The music is excellent and definitely big and adventurous. Perfect for the movie.
Score: 1
Fun
There isn’t a lot of cringe (outside the weird classroom scene) and I really enjoy the nostalgia, but after so many other movies, like the Librarian or Stargate, having the protagonists be hyper-competent and smart, it makes Indiana Jones feel a little less special.
The kids liked it and were a little freaked out by the faces melting until we explained how the fx were done.
Score: 0.5
Overall
One of the first archeology adventures and still a fun ride. It’s aged fairly well but the character of Indiana is often more frustrating than not. That’s in part because he’s not too bright and the uncomfortable history of archeology.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5