Indiana Jones - Raiders Of The Lost Ark > Reviews > Action Man

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
Soundtrack	Good

Advantages:	Ford, the fight scenes, the Nazis
Disadvantages:	Let's not split hairs

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Harrison Ford as incredibly rugged looking Action Man, while at the same time being intellectually gifted archaeologist and acquirer of lost treasures, moving effortlessly backwards in time from the role as Han Solo in Star Wars which really brought him to the world's attention - going forwards to the past, from space age hero to Forties adventurer ...

An epic lesson in redefining a genre and revitalising a style, Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of Stephen Spielberg's landmark achievements, a veritable once in a lifetime experience ... in many ways Spielberg was harking back to a much earlier age, one peopled by clean cut derring do gooders like Bulldog Drummond and Humphrey Bogart but adding enough modern day cynicism and aspects of pastiche to tell us that this was all tongue in cheek reinvention rather than just more of the same.

Spielberg is one of the most masterly of film makers and story tellers and painted this awesome couple of hours of blistering pace and non stop action with enough of his own individual trademarks to make it a massive step forward and in the remarkable Harrison he found someone who was literally born for the role, throwing himself into all of those wonderful set piece stunts with a relish and boyish enthusiasm which was undoubtedly infectious.

The story itself, about an American archaeologist and historian being enlisted by the US powers that be in a race against those terrible Nazis to discover the whereabouts of the mystical Lost Ark of the Covenant and all its frightening force, a veritable Pandora's Box of stupendous power, was pretty fanciful and far fetched, but was in reality merely a framework, a base on which to create all sorts of wonderful cinematic moments to treasure - the opening minutes with its wonderful and often aped depiction of Indy springing all the hidden booby traps you could ever wish for, hopelessly stylised and cliché ridden, the marvellous lorry chase with this supposedly mild mannered academic single handedly despatching Hitler's Finest, memories are truly made of this.

It is those set pieces and moments which are what this film is all about, and Spielberg has left behind him here a landmark achievement indeed - packed with exciting excitement, heroic heroes, villainous villains and a female female. You get a tomb full of the world's most venomous snakes with our happy chums having only a couple of torches to defend themselves and you get simmering evil Human Kind at its most despicable in the rotund Herr Flick-like shape of Ronald Lacey, one of the most unpleasant and claustrophobically evil bad guy leads of all time. You also get the cut glass support cameo from Denholm Elliott, the romantic interest in the form of the lovely Karen Allen and the blustering light relief provided by John Rhys-Davies.

Films like Raiders of the Lost Ark tend to become a bit of a law unto themselves with few reference points or contextual peers - there are aspects of Mad Max which was around at the same time and echoes of the Tarzan movie genre, with just a dash of King Solomon's Mines for good measure, but really none of them are more than just long distant half cousins of a true masterpiece among adventure movies.

It sparked a couple of sequels, each of which featured Our Harry and were similarly wonderful pieces of work, but it was this original episode that was undoubtedly the best of the lot - Spielberg later went on to self parody and the introduction of Sean Connery as Daddy Jones to pep things up, but if truth be known the other films in the series were pretty thin retreads of this original and thoroughly enjoyable piece of history.

In fact the only thing here which is not truly wonderful is the mock mystical religious nonsense of the conclusion when the Ark wreaks its very powerful and terrifying revenge upon those who have disturbed its peace - rather like the camp farce of The Mummy and Conan The Barbarian, it undermined everything that went before, but Jeez you can't have everything and you still got the five day growth and classically folded Trilby of Ford and the glorious scenery and the night and the thanks of the American government to keep you amused as you prepare to wend your very weary way at the end - Rejoice...