Like most famous movies that enter the realm of classic cinema status, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark had a lot of care and passion placed into its creation. Starting as far back as the early 70s when George Lucas conceived the idea of the whip-carrying adventurer, the movie would be a call back to those classic serials’ films of the earlier 20th Century like Buck Rogers (1939), Zorro’s Fighting Legion (1939), Spy Smasher (1942) and others of the sort. Raiders went through several famous directors and actor, several different writers and concepts, experienced troubling filming experiences and even took the risk of being released during a time when the film industry was in decline, but most classic films don’t become that without taking risks. Indiana Jones is still a popular name to this day, and it has this movie to thank for that. Set in the 1930s, the film follows archaeological explorer, Indiana Jones (played infamously by Harrison Ford), a man who places himself in several perilous situations in order to retrieve important artifacts that can be added to museums and properly studied. One such popular artifact is the Ark of the Convent, an ancient chest containing the Ten Commandments, and this one is specifically being targeted by the Nazis and rival archaeologist, René Belloq (played by Paul Freeman). Wanting to retrieve it first, Indy ventures across the world to Cairo with a former love named Marion (played by Karen Allen) to find the Ark before the Nazis find it to literally unleash the power of God on their enemies. Deemed an instant classic the second it was released and becoming the highest grossing film of the year (earning approximately $354 million worldwide against a $20 million budget), Raiders of the Lost Ark takes what is arguably a concept hard to treat seriously and makes it an action-packed and intense but overall fun adventure movie with charming actors and memorable action.

When it’s revealed that the structure of the movie is going to be based around those classic adventure serials of the 30s and 40s, it paints a pretty good picture of what kind of tone, energy, and style to expect. On the surface, it seems like it would be hard to take this concept seriously (a man dressed like a cowboy finding treasure with a whip sounds pretty silly), but it shows the talent of great directing by acclaimed director Steven Spielberg and great writing from acclaimed screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, by how surprisingly effective it is at coming across as predictable silly, but also strangely enriching and acceptable. The movie is definitely on the lighter side in terms of its feel, featuring a very up-beat, energized and corny atmosphere that does great at sucking people in, but it’s also home to its fair share of intense and even graphic moments that help add that much needed element of realism that really balances it out; it’s not soullessly cold and harsh, but it’s also not too over-the-top or goofy. The set-up and story written by Lucas and Phillip Kaufman is incredibly simple to understand and therefore very easy to get across to the audience as the movie has wonderful pacing in the first half that gives a lot of information and context about the world and characters without feeling too overwhelming. It separates its softer moments out with the high-flying action and while it doesn’t really sit down to have deep character or story (that’s not what this kind of story requires) it has just enough of a sense of weight and determination from its leads that it grounds itself enough against the bombastic fun. With that said, while the movie is mostly very well paced, a casual moviegoer may start to feel a few bumps as it reaches its conclusion. While the film may only be roughly two hours in length, it could have trimmed down at least ten minutes out of its final act to give this concept its proper amount of time without it wearing itself out. With that said, the last act isn’t really boring, it just feels a bit more predictable and less spontaneous than the rest of the movie, which is providing constant entertainment and this lovable sense of passion that exudes from the world and its character.

Each of the characters feel like perfect staples for this kind of adventure serial; pretty easy to grasps characters with pretty easy to grasp roles. They aren’t especially deep, but this simplistic outline fits nicely in this fast action-oriented environment where they have to rely on charm to stick with the audience rather complexity, which is exactly what this film does. Through great acting, directing, and writing, a lot of these performances stick the landing in making a lot of these familiar roles feel a bit fresher. Indiana Jones is a pretty memorable and fleshed-out character; he’s a cynic but also filled with a lively passion of discovery, he’s not really a people person unless they have purpose to him, he’s a man of experience yet doesn’t flaunt it, and despite his position and silent cold demeanour, he does have a good heart and does at the end of the day help those in need (even if he’s willing to risk that in exchange for discovery). It feels like Harrison Ford was a perfect choice for this role considering how the character is mapped out; he’s great at having that cynical edge while also being able to mix in a gritty sense of fun action along with it. He’s become associated with the name, his moments in the action are a tone of fun and totally believable, he has great chemistry with all the other actors, and he provided one heck of a timeless hero that has stayed in the pop culture space for a good reason. Belloq is also a lot of fun as the main villain. Despite being pretty basic in nature, he’s gifted with a nice sense of sophisticated charm and enough of a calm genius to make a nice foil for the hero, and Paul Freeman does a lot to make the character slimy and clearly evil, but never someone you actively hate as you enjoy watching him, which can be also said for the side villain played by Ronald Lacey, who has this fantastically creepy demeanour about him that makes him intriguingly frightening in every scene he’s in. John Rhys-Davies as Sallah makes for a pretty likeable supporting character, and even a brief cameo from Alfred Molina in the opening is presented with his usual level of passion despite his limited screen time, resulting in a memorable sequence.  Marion as a character is a bit split in terms of quality; on the one hand, she’s very likeable, seeing her get involved in the action and not just acting as a hostage is appreciated, and Karen Allen feels like a nice mixture between feeling like a modern-day heroine and a classic female portrayal from movies of this type within the era. While she is still a damsel for a good chunk of the movie through get captured several times, and Allen’s acting can range from genuinely charming to whiny and helpless at times, she does still have a defined character and a good sense of likability that makes her work well enough throughout.

The movie does a great job feeling like a product that’s engrossed within this corny serialized environment but can also be gritty enough to make it inappropriate for younger ages. The feeling of adventure in this movie is always perfectly blended between this feeling of genuine joy and genuine fear, and it really helps ensemble a tone that the franchise would have trouble properly capturing again going forward. The opening alone does a fantastic job setting up everything that this movie is going to deliver in terms of mood, personality, and tone; going through a ruined temple, stealing an idol then escaping certain death from an oncoming boulder immediately being matched with people being skewered to death, with screaming snake-invested corpses and people literally being melted alive. It has a great sense of fun adventure but is also legitimately intense in moments. There’s a great level of production to this film that makes it feel like you are within a by-gone era through the production design by Norman Reynolds, a lot of the sets are really impressive in scale, and even the costumes designed by Deborah Nadoolman has now become infamous with the character while still retaining a blue-collar appeal through its dirty look and old-fashioned design. The action is over-the-top and features a lot of goofy actions but does still get gritty when it needs to. It just helps to give this world more believability and sucks the audience in more when it feels legitimately life-threatening, but still remembers to have fun at the same time. It almost relies on its simplistic nature to make these pretty predictable action set-pieces (avoiding an oncoming boulder, truck chase, escaping a collapsing temple) more memorable because of how they portray them. The music is infamous due to the talents of John Williams creating a score that is hopeful and upbeat as well as action-packed and filled with that awesome sense of adrenaline that makes you want to beat up bad guys.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is still known as one of the greatest movies ever made and it’s not hard to see why. Its arguably become a franchise so well known that it has been ingrained into pop culture despite only being home to four movies (with two films within this franchise not even being that favorably received). It’s something about how it handles itself and what it decides to focus on that transforms a corny premise into a gritty fun adventure movie with plenty of charm as well as plenty of fear-factor. The actors are endearing, its paced well for the most part, the action is engaging, the music is famous, and despite its time-specific story and 30s-serial style, it’s a remarkably timeless movie that can be watched and appreciated at any time. It has its nit-picks and could have trimmed down a bit of the ending to make it truly perfect, but outside of that, this is whip-cracking adventure that’s worthy of going back to again and again.

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