Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Cast
Butler
Harrison Ford .... Indy
Karen Allen .... Marion Ravenwood
Paul Freeman .... Dr. Rene Belloq
Ronald Lacey .... Toht
John Rhys-Davies .... Sallah
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
10/10. This movie will be designated as a classic as the years go on beceause this movie holds your attention, and keeps things interesting. This action movie keeps you on the edge of your seat, feeling for the characters, hating the Nazis, and whatever else you're feeling or liking.
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones was a perfect fit because he fits the type of character that will go out and fight for you. Spielberg probably realized this when he saw Han cast in Star Wars 10-15 years back. John Rhys-Davies was great as the man that helps Indy in the desert. Though, for anybody that wants to find the movie he's in currently, you can turn to the Lord of the Rings Series, and see him cast as Gimli. My only question about this is he really short in real life, and they just put on stilts in this movie, or they used different camera angles or something. Karen Allen as Indy's previous love interest works well for the film.
Spielberg was smart to do this movie with George Lucas. They made quite a team in making this movie. This series started the revolution for good action movies, and Raiders of the Lost Ark cannot really ever be duplicated. John Williams created the perfect music for this movie, and even though it was repetitive, it still worked well.
All in all, this is a great movie for anyone to see.
Rater #2
8/10. There are two types of classic movies. There are the "classic"
movies, the ones that all critics love but the major of people don't
really like, and then there are the classic movies, ones that can
never not entertain. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of those that
never cease to entertain. Also, in today's movie environment, it's
hard to find an action movie that also constantly entertains and
keeps you on the edge of your seat, which is a rarity nowadays.
The famous plot has Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) first being chased
by a gigantic boulder (which has been parodied so many times it felt
like I had already seen it), and then going on a treasure hunt to
find the Biblical lost ark, which supposedly holds the original Ten
Commandments before some Nazis do. Along the way, he meets up with
his former teacher/friend's daughter Marion (Karen Allen) who has an
important piece of the puzzle, and together they travel to stop the
Nazis from, basically, taking over the world.
It's easy to picture this movie as a cheesy serial, and, in fact,
Steven Spielberg himself said that that's all he thought this was as
he was making it. Little did he know that he was going to create one
of the most influential movies in the history of American cinema.
That has both good and bad side effects. The good is that there seems
to be no work like this, none that can compare. The bad is the
countless number of imitators. Many have done the "map with the line
tracing where the hero goes" now, and it seems like Raiders of the
Lost Ark is one of the first action movies that has a lot of comedy
in it, and now every action movie is labeled as an "action comedy".
Rarely does a movie come along in this vein where you are entertained
even when there isn't a fight scene or something that most people
would consider exciting on screen. Spielberg knows what the audience
wants, and by gum he gives it to them. The majority of people don't
want a lot of exposition, so just enough is given. Even when
something exciting is not happening on screen, you have to pay
attention to understand what everyone is saying with all of their
accents. That could be one advantage to seeing this on DVD. Although
it would be great to see it on the big screen, I could put on the
subtitles at home.
I hate to say this, though, but there were a few things about this
movie that bugged me. First, even for a crowd-pleasing movie like
this, the lack of character development on many side characters
bothered me (I'm a guy who loves his character development). Also,
although John Williams is a genius composer, the same few bars got a
little tiring after he played them over and over again in every
scene. All in all, though, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a true classic.
Rated PG for strong violence/blood and some language.
Running time: 115 minutes
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