Review of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) by Spangle — 21 Apr 2017

Beloved by many, Raiders of the Lost Ark is only one of two Indiana Jones films I had seen, having watched it many years ago. It was so long ago, I rented it with my family from Blockbuster. Considering all of the Indiana Jones movies are, for the moment, on Amazon Prime, I figured I would rewatch this one to be able to actually recall the events of the film before watching Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade for the first time (yes, the only other Indiana Jones film I had seen was Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). A fun action-adventure romp, both Indiana Jones and Suicide Squad are similar in one thing: they make me really wish somebody just made a straight archaeological film without the action, but all of the tombs and chambers remaining a part of the film. Now that would be a lot more fun, but maybe I am alone in that belief. That said, Raiders of the Lost Ark is nice entertainment with some cool action set pieces.

Possessing a nice child-like sense of adventure that only Spielberg can conjure up, Indiana Jones is a fun action romp through Egypt. Showing great attention to detail in every sequence, especially the opening one where Indiana steals the golden idol from a booby-trapped Peruvian temple, every inch of this film feels iconic. It is not a classic for no reason as Spielberg knows how to capture a viewer with imaginative action scenes with great peril, suspense, and thrills. The film later does this again when they find the Well of Souls and Indiana must avoid the snakes in the pit to find the Ark of the Covenant. These sequences show the potential thrills and rush to find the secrets buried beneath the Earth of a potential straight-forward archaeology film. That said, as the action-adventure scenes that they are, Spielberg makes the most of them, capturing them with typically beautiful camera work and attention to detail in the chambers.

That said, the film has unfortunately been treated quite poorly by time. The opening of the Ark and even the scenes in the Well of Souls are clearly done in some old set akin to those found in Legends of the Hidden Temple. While still fun and contributing to the cartoonish feeling instilled by the film and by its hero, it is definitely unfortunate to see so many great scenes impacted so harshly by time and advances in technology. This cartoony feeling is really what makes this film so enjoyable though, so no complaints there whatsoever. It may prevent it from being a great film, as too much silliness is never a good thing, but Raiders of the Lost Ark has just the right amount and is a fun romp as a result.

My major complaints with this film are a few things. From cliche over-the-top Nazi bad guys who are comically and unconvincingly evil to some predictable elements in the action scenes (Marion bumping right into a bunch of skeletons plays out too predictably and fails to gel), it often feels as though Indiana Jones is going beat-to-beat instead of properly flowing. Perhaps this is an issue in the editing or just the general cliches and tropes at work in the film that make it feel so halted at times, but it is the main issue that I have with Indiana Jones. While the film is still enjoyable and makes good use of its cliches, the film too often tries to surprise via its cliches and it rarely works. The film also has a few moments that make really no sense. For example, them breaking out of the Well of Souls by going through just two walls. The latter of two having a brick that was already disjarred. Evidently, it was not as impossible to get out of as previously imagined. Second, the one the that really threw me for a loop was when Indiana is on the U-Boat. How the hell does one stowaway on a submarine? But, even more egregious, the Nazis literally see him on the U-Boat and exclaim, "There he is!" before they just shove off back to the base and do not search for him. He is just hiding in the base with no explanation of how he evaded detection. It really made me wonder if I had missed something. Though more egregious than most situations, the film relies upon so many conveniences where characters pop up somewhere they should never be at just because they need to be for the movie to advance, that it really sucks some of the enjoyment out of the film as a whole. Finally, I know this is probably sacrilege, but I still do not like John Williams. Yes, the score sounds good, but it is annoying. It reaches astronomical volume levels at random points in the film and keeps popping up like the laugh track in Big Bang Theory. While it may sound good, it feels as though Williams constantly screams out the musical notes instead of just playing the music at an acceptable volume. This overuse of music showcases how the film tries to use its music to manipulate the audience into feeling tension or emotion and it is a well that Spielberg returns to far too often. The film is tense and thrilling without the music, yet he relies upon this crutch.