Ahem right okkkk, I've decided to do another set of reviews on a series of films, the Indiana Jones adventures so to speak, so where better to start then at the end, the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, erm maybe not! No this shall be done properly from the beginning, with the best of them, Raiders of the Lost Ark. So here we go......
OK to start with the usual plot dissection, the films starts in the year 1936 in South America, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), an American archaeologist, makes his way into a Peruvian temple, which is filled with booby traps, to find a golden idle, which he successfully obtains. However on his way out, he is surrounded by a tribe of Hovitos, who are lead by a French archaeologist, Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), one of Indy's main rivals, who takes the idol from him, but Indy manages to escape just in the nick of time. Indy makes it back to America, where he returns to a local college where he teaches archaeology and he is approached by two army intelligence agents, who tell him about Hitler and how he has gone on a quest for the occult and sent his Nazi soldiers across the world in trying to find artefacts. The agents also tell Indy that the Nazis are looking for his old mentor, Abner Ravenwood, who apparently has in his possession the head piece to the staff of Ra, an old relic. From this information Indy deduces the Nazis are trying to locate the resting place of the ark of the covenant, the biblical chest buit by the Israelites, which is supposed to contain fragments of the ten commandments, and if the Nazis get their hands on the ark, it will make them invincible.
Indy agrees to go and locate the Ark and try to obtain it before the Nazis do, with his first lead being Abner's daughter, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who was a former lover of Indy's and now lives in Nepal and owns a bar. After a drinking contest, Indy waits for Marion and she bitterly tells him to get out, angry for how their relationship ended, and Indy asks if she has the head piece he needs, but she tells him her father is dead, and to come back tomorrow. Indy leaves, and after he does, Marion reveals she is wearing the head piece on a chain under her shirt, shortly after this, one of the Nazi officers, Toht (Ronald Lacey), enters the bar with some men who raid her place, and Toht is about to interrogate her (with a hot poker no less!) when Indy comes back and rescues her. Toht during the ensuing fight in which the bar catches fire, he tries to grabs the head piece but burns his hand, he runs outside screaming. After the fight is over, Marion vows to go with Indy until she gets her money back that he gave her for the medallion head piece.
Indy and Marion then travel to Cairo where they meet up with a friend of Indy's, Sallah (John Rhys Davies), a talented digger, who's services have also been utilised by the Nazis who are excavating the site called the Well of souls, where the Ark is said to have been kept. The Nazi dig is of course lead up by Belloq, and Colonel Dietrich (Wolf Kahler) who have managed to obtain a copy of the staff head piece from the scar on Toht's hand. Meanwhile Indy and Marion are attacked in the local market by Nazi operatives, and the kidnap Marion, with Indy chasing after her, he is lead to a truck where he sees a basket which Marion unsuccesfully hid in is loaded onto, he shoots the truck driver, which turns on its side and explodes, leaving Indy believing Marion is dead. After this Indy goes to a friend of Sallah's who tells them what the markings of the head piece mean, and they also deduce that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place. Indy and Sallah then take advantage of this and find the actual location of the Ark by using the staff with the head piece, and soon excavate the dig site, and uncover the entrances to the well of souls. Indy goes down inside but it is filled with snakes, some of which he burns with gasoline, Sallah soon follows down and the two of them find the Ark in one of the chambers, they place it in a crate and hoist it up outside.
By the morning however, Belloq, who by now has been holding Marion (it was revealed that they had switched the basket she was in prior to the truck being blown up) sees the dig site, and sends the Nazis up where they seize Sallah's men, and seal Indy into the well of souls, not before Toht throws Marion down into the well of souls also. Indy manages to break through the walls with one of the giant statues to allow them to escape outside, where they see the Ark is about to be loaded onto a plane. Indy fights with one of the plane mechanics, while Marion gets trapped inside the plane after knocking out the pilot, at the end of the fight the mechanic gets diced in the plane's propellers, and Indy rescues Marion from the plane, just before gasoline that leaks from it, catchs fire and blows up the plane. After this, Sallah tells Indy that the Nazis are loading the Ark onto a truck for Cairo, and Indy intercepts the truck and manages to dispatch the Nazi soldiers who are inside it. Indy and Marion with Sallah's help manage to leave Cairo on a cargo ship, but the next day the Nazis intercept the ship and board it, capturing Marion, although Indy escapes, and smuggles himself onboard the Nazi u-boat, where he dons the disguise of a soldier. The U-boat travels to an island in the Aegaen sea, where Belloq and the Nazis plan to hold a ritual ceremony to open the Ark and test its power before presenting to Hitler. Indy tries to stop them by threatening to use a rocket launcher, which he aims at the Ark, but Belloq disuades him from doing so, and let's himself be captured. And at the ritual, with Indy and Marion tied to a post, Belloq has Dietrich's soldiers open the Ark, revealing it is just full of sand at first, but then strange ghostly mist appears and from here all hell breaks loose....
Well they say the first film in any trilogy or quadrilogy is usually the best and this certainly is the case with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which to this day still stands as one of the best and most entertaining action adventure films of modern cinema. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas with Raiders of course were doing their nod to the old 1930s cliffhanger serials seen in the cinema back then, and there plenty of cliffhanger moments in Raiders. And what makes Raiders also that appealing is of course its action set-pieces which are superb as well as very well staged, particularly Indy's chase of the Nazi's truck with the Ark onboard, and how he dispatches them, and ends up being flung out the windscreen of the truck, only to crawl underneath it and use his whip to trail behind it and get back on again. Then there is of course the gunfight in Marion's bar near the begninng of the film, and the opening sequence with Indy braving the temple to find the golden idol, where he has to dodge booby traps that feature big spikes coming out the walls, darts, and that giant boulder!
And throughout the film there is also a great sense of fun, and there is plenty of wit and humour, and there are definitely certain moments that are tounge in cheek, the one that sticks in my mind is where Indy confronts a swordsman in Cairo, but rather than fight him, Indy takes out his gun and shoots him instead. Apparently this scene was initially supposed to have been a big fight scene, but at the time Harrison Ford was said to have been suffering from a virus at the time, and instead suggested "why dont we just shoot the son of a bitch!". Perhaps one thing that is noticeable about Raiders is the level of violence in it is quite strong, especially for a PG certificate, as the baddies get spiked, sliced, shot, burned alive, and wiped out nastily by the Ark, complete with melting and exploding faces. For its time it was pretty strong stuff, but the Temple of Doom would take things even further in that arena.
So cast wise, the performances here are all great, with Harrison Ford giving a great performance as Indiana Jones, the adventurous archaeologist, and its hard to imagine any other actor play the part as well as he did, with a dry wit, intelligence, and fair bit of grit as well. As Indy, Harrison get's some of the best dialogue in the film, such as when Marion nurses his wounds and she says he's not the man she knew 10 years ago and he replies "its not the years, honey, its the mileage!". Also the line, which I've used as the title of this post, where Indy tells Sallah to get a plane or boat for them, and he's going after the Ark, and Sallah asks "How?", and Indy says "I dunno, I'm making this up as I go!". Karen Allan is also excellent as Marion, Indy's former girlfriend, who starts off the film as being very feisty, and halfway through becomes more of a damsel in distress, but she nonetheless is a welcome change to the usual screeching females you can get in these types of roles. Paul Freeman as Belloq is great as well, playing Indy's rival, with a sly charm, and clearly is not overly furnished in the morals department, as he doesn't mind working with the Nazis to get his hands on the Ark. John Ryhs-Davies is similarly great as Indy's good friend and digger, Sallah, and he get's some good lines such as when he and Indy open the Well of Souls and look down to see nothing but snakes below, and he looks to Indy and says "asps! Very dangerous, you go first!". Denholm Elliot in a smaller role as Indy's friend and museum owner, Marcus, is also excellent, although he would go on to play a larger part in Last Crusade.
The film itself has many great moments in it, especially in its action scenes, some of which I've already mentioned, and others such as the fight scene in the market, where Indy finds the location of Ark, in the map room, and he shouts up to Sallah for the rope, only to find a Nazi flag fall down in his face! And there are funny moments such as when the wee mischievious monkey salutes along with the Nazis when they salute "seig heil!", as well as later on when Indy and Marion are onboard the cargo ship, with Indy feeling the effects of his adventures and his injuries, he looks at his face in a big mirror, which Marion sitting on the otherside, flips the mirror upside down, only for it to connect sharply with Indy's chin! After a big scream from Indy, Marion looks to him and says "what did you say??".
Technically the film looks superb as well, with Douglas Slocombe's gorgeous photography, which through the ages of VHS, DVD and now on Blu-ray looks terrific, especially in the scenes in Egypt. Steven Spielberg, who is no stranger to knowing how to create suspense and thrills, keeps the action in the film at a nice fast pace and injects the film with the perfect amount of drama and fun. And then there is John Williams superb score, which beautiuflly captures the mood of the film, and gives Indy the perfect signature theme, which is thoroughly memorable, like alot of Williams's scores, and the scores has many great passages throughout (keep seem to use that word passages!) that highlight the heroics, suspense and the fun.
In terms of flaws, well Raiders doesn't have too many, although you could argue in the scene at night where Indy and Sallah dig for the Well of Souls, its seems a bit bizarre that the Nazis wouldn't post guards around the dig site to check out for night activity. As you would think the Nazis would be extremely security conscious, they would try and look out for a sneaking bunch of diggers trying to uncover the very artefact they are looking for! Perhaps I'm wrong, and its reasonable to assume at night time, the guards will be just posted around the soldiers and officers tents. Also the idea at the end of the film that the Ark would be just put in a wooden crate and stored away in a big warehouse filled presumably with other strange and invaluable aterfacts is a bit daft. As the army intelligence agents want to just keep the Ark under wraps it seems they would rather not take any risks with it, but at the same time rather than study it, they decide just to sweep it under the carpet. And with the Ark at the end of the film being put in storage in a warehouse somwhere, they might as well have just left it alone in the Well of Souls, where it can do no damage. Its also a bit strange how Indy knows not to look at the supernatural powers of the Ark in the scene where Belloq opens the Ark, yet Belloq seems unaware of this himself, being a rival archaeologist, you'd imagine he would have this knowledge, and should have been more wise to have dealt with opening the Ark. And if..... they had opened the Ark for Hitler in Berlin, it would have also probably saved WWII from having happened! Marcus's statement about the "army who carries the ark before it, is invincible" also proves redundant in the end, as the Ark is a source of power that no one can control, so in the end it just seems a bit pointless excavating it, especially if they can't control its power!
Anyway all that aside, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a highly entertaining action adventure and it stands as one of the best action films from the 1980s, and that all said its still a great classic.
So that's it for Raiders, cue part two.
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