Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)
starring: Karen Allen, Ishaq Bux, Anthony Chinn, John Rhys-Davies, Patrick Durkin
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It's said that the original is the greatest, and there can be no more vivid proof than Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first and indisputably best of the initial three Indiana Jones adventures cooked up by the dream team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Expectations were high for this 1981 collaboration between the two men, who essentially invented the box office blockbuster with `70s efforts like Jaws and Star Wars, and Spielberg (who directed) and Lucas (who co-wrote the story and executive produced) didn't disappoint. This wildly entertaining film has it all: non-stop action, exotic locations, grand spectacle, a hero for the ages, despicable villains, a beautiful love interest, humor, horror… not to mention lots of snakes. And along with all the bits that are so familiar by now--Indy (Harrison Ford) running from the giant boulder in a cave, using his pistol instead of his trusty whip to take out a scimitar-wielding bad guy, facing off with a hissing cobra, and on and on--there's real resonance in a potent storyline that brings together a profound religious-archaeological icon (the Ark of the Covenant, nothing less than "a radio for speaking to God") and the 20th century's most infamous criminals (the Nazis). Now that's entertainment.--Sam Graham
Description:
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a "history" with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel."
It's said that the original is the greatest, and there can be no more vivid proof than Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first and indisputably best of the initial three Indiana Jones adventures cooked up by the dream team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Expectations were high for this 1981 collaboration between the two men, who essentially invented the box office blockbuster with `70s efforts like Jaws and Star Wars, and Spielberg (who directed) and Lucas (who co-wrote the story and executive produced) didn't disappoint. This wildly entertaining film has it all: non-stop action, exotic locations, grand spectacle, a hero for the ages, despicable villains, a beautiful love interest, humor, horror… not to mention lots of snakes. And along with all the bits that are so familiar by now--Indy (Harrison Ford) running from the giant boulder in a cave, using his pistol instead of his trusty whip to take out a scimitar-wielding bad guy, facing off with a hissing cobra, and on and on--there's real resonance in a potent storyline that brings together a profound religious-archaeological icon (the Ark of the Covenant, nothing less than "a radio for speaking to God") and the 20th century's most infamous criminals (the Nazis). Now that's entertainment.--Sam Graham
Description:
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a "history" with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel."
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- A lot of holes in retrospect
I watched the movie with my 10 year old son recently.Yes, it's a fine, action packed movie, but in 25 years it's definitely dated.Although an action-fantasy, there are an alarming number of non-sequiturs in the movie regarding the reason/logic of events.Cultural stereotypes are also an issue.The violence is also "ramboesque" in places.The humor somewhat masks these issues, but they're clearly apparent.Raiders is more a homage and testament to the art of the hollywood blockbuster, and ... Read More
Rating: - Awesome start in the Indiana Jones series
Here comes Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the action packed franchise. It features Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) searching for the Ark of the Conevant with the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). His rival Renè Bellog (John Rhys-Davis) and a Nazi commander Major Arnold Toht (Ronald Lacey) are after the Ark as well. This was a great movie to watch with your family. The stunts were neat, the visual effects were so real and complex, and the story ... Read More
Rating: - Still One Of The All-Time Adventure Stories
All three Indiana Jones films of the `80s were entertaining but this first one was still the best. It's certainly the most memorable.
Famous scenes, from the opening one with the gigantic boulder chasing Harrison Ford to the film's ending with the Ark of the Covenant opened, will be Hollywood classic moments for years and years.
The action scenes are varied, from fist fights to battles with snakes, to dodging airplane propellers, guns, knives, poison dates, fires, supernatural ... Read More
Rating: - Film History's Second Greatest Hero
At the turn of the Millenium the American Film Institute made up several "Best 100..." lists, and one of them was "Best Hero".Indiana Jones came in #2, right behind Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and ahead of Rick Blaine Casablanca, James Bond, etc. This is the movie that introduced the screen icon, and no cogent individual would argue that any of the three (so far) films that followed were superior to this one.
Henry Jones, Jr. is an archaeologist, and an unmatched thrill ... Read More
Rating: - Inspired by the 1930s, Made in the 1980s, Still Great Action-Adventure in the 2000s.
In 1981, it wasn't obvious that an A-movie that is a pastiche of old B-movies could take the top spot at the box office and inspire a franchise that is still profitable 27 years later. But "Raiders of the Lost Ark" did just that. Set in 1936, as the industrial world moves closer to war, and parts of the third world are still unexplored, archeologist and "obtainer of rare antiquities" Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) scours the globe for treasures of civilizations past. His talent for extracting long-lost ... Read More
- A lot of holes in retrospectI watched the movie with my 10 year old son recently.Yes, it's a fine, action packed movie, but in 25 years it's definitely dated.Although an action-fantasy, there are an alarming number of non-sequiturs in the movie regarding the reason/logic of events.Cultural stereotypes are also an issue.The violence is also "ramboesque" in places.The humor somewhat masks these issues, but they're clearly apparent.Raiders is more a homage and testament to the art of the hollywood blockbuster, and ... Read More
- Awesome start in the Indiana Jones seriesHere comes Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the action packed franchise. It features Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) searching for the Ark of the Conevant with the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). His rival Renè Bellog (John Rhys-Davis) and a Nazi commander Major Arnold Toht (Ronald Lacey) are after the Ark as well. This was a great movie to watch with your family. The stunts were neat, the visual effects were so real and complex, and the story ... Read More
- Still One Of The All-Time Adventure StoriesAll three Indiana Jones films of the `80s were entertaining but this first one was still the best. It's certainly the most memorable.
Famous scenes, from the opening one with the gigantic boulder chasing Harrison Ford to the film's ending with the Ark of the Covenant opened, will be Hollywood classic moments for years and years.
The action scenes are varied, from fist fights to battles with snakes, to dodging airplane propellers, guns, knives, poison dates, fires, supernatural ... Read More
- Film History's Second Greatest HeroAt the turn of the Millenium the American Film Institute made up several "Best 100..." lists, and one of them was "Best Hero".Indiana Jones came in #2, right behind Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and ahead of Rick Blaine Casablanca, James Bond, etc. This is the movie that introduced the screen icon, and no cogent individual would argue that any of the three (so far) films that followed were superior to this one.
Henry Jones, Jr. is an archaeologist, and an unmatched thrill ... Read More
- Inspired by the 1930s, Made in the 1980s, Still Great Action-Adventure in the 2000s. In 1981, it wasn't obvious that an A-movie that is a pastiche of old B-movies could take the top spot at the box office and inspire a franchise that is still profitable 27 years later. But "Raiders of the Lost Ark" did just that. Set in 1936, as the industrial world moves closer to war, and parts of the third world are still unexplored, archeologist and "obtainer of rare antiquities" Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) scours the globe for treasures of civilizations past. His talent for extracting long-lost ... Read More
