Review of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) by George-Roots — 24 Jun 2013

My Number 1 favourite movie of all time and pretty much the pinnacle of adventure cinema "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is a film that no matter how many times it re-runs on air I can sit down and watch it indefinately.

"Raiders", a marvel piece of cinema was created and brought to life by two of hollywoods biggest names at the time (Steven Spielberg "Jaws" & George Lucas "Star Wars"), Inspired by the old film serials of the 30's and 40's where adventurers will survive and escape virtually in-escapable peril,.

Harrison Ford is in his prime as the famous fictional architect Indiana Jones, whose journeys would involve bizarre riddles and strange hyroglifics that would usually result in biblical proportions.

At the very beginning of the movie we are treated to a jungle exhibition with a mood defining score from John Williams and a younger, thinner Alfred Molina. Suddenly we enter a cave and finally the film already set it's moods and expectations in no less than 15 mins!!!

Suddenly we see what little of Jones's regular life is like as a College professor, and in no time we see him off on another adventure searching for the legendary Ark of the Covenant (Built by the Israeles to hold the fragments of the Ten Commandments). this ends up seeing Jones traveling to Nepal to meet his old flame Marion (Karen Allen) who may hold the key to finding the Ark, unaware that both of them are being followed and hunted by Nazi Gestapos sent by Hitler to collect the Ark for himself, this revalation pairs Indy and Marion together as the head for Cairo to find it first.

Among the Highlights of the movie as said before is The Cave, The Barfight in Nepal, The famous Market chase and the undeniably funny "Gun to the Swordfight" scene and so many others, even the ENDING of the film is so famous it has been more than parodied to death in recent Pop-Culture.

The special effects and visual style in this film are truly a lost art, from the wax melting faces and giant fiberglass boulders, to the spirits, streets of Cairo, dimly lit dungeons and tombs, everything and anything could come out from anytime, anywhere.

Also many people do not know all the talent behind this movie, Joe Johnston won an Academy Award for his effects and would later turn to directing, most notably recent "Captain America: The First Avenger" where the Nazi Villian utters "And the Fuhrer digs for trinkets in the desert" ;-).

And Michael Bay was the storyboard artist who thought the movie was going to be horrible, saw it, loved it and eventually became a film-maker himself (yet he really needs to learn something or two).

Even then though as I write and dive into this movie I can't explain why it's such a gem, Adventure films before and after to me never really reached this magnitude (not even the sequels) and no matter when and where it's on i'll just have to sit and watch it. all in all you're along for the ride and once it's started there's no going back.

"Raiders" even after all i've said there no possible way to fully describe the experince as a whole, but why it means so much to me, in one sentence is...

"One of the most Imaginative movies ever made and that's what I consider Cinema and Story telling is all about".

Final Verdict: I loved it the first time I saw it, and i'll most likely continue to love it till the day I die, My ultimate number 1 movie of all time.