Raiders of the Lost Ark
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Steven Spielberg |
|---|---|
| Series | 1st in Indiana Jones series |
| Distributor | Paramount |
| Honors | |
| Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s 1981 resurrection of the Saturday-matinee adventure genre was deservedly popular, and kicked off a successful trilogy. Set in 1936, this first feature introduces Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer whose quests for rare antiquities frequently find him running from one menace or another. Raiders finds Dr. Jones in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of the Ark of the Covenant to win the war. Karen Allen plays the love interest with an old-fashioned “man’s woman” appeal (she… | |
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s 1981 resurrection of the Saturday-matinee adventure genre was deservedly popular, and kicked off a successful trilogy. Set in 1936, this first feature introduces Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer whose quests for rare antiquities frequently find him running from one menace or another. Raiders finds Dr. Jones in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of the Ark of the Covenant to win the war. Karen Allen plays the love interest with an old-fashioned “man’s woman” appeal (she can drink anybody under the table and is free with her fists). The constant, cliffhanger appeal of the movie is great fun—one is always wondering how Indy will get out of one scrape after another—and Ford’s career got a big boost with his self-effacing but masculine portrayal of the hero. —Tom Keogh
Barnes and Noble
When the dynamic duo of late-’70s popular cinema, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, announced they were teaming to do a film, audience expectations were high. Raiders of the Lost Ark, the result of their collaboration, did not disappoint. This humorous, fast-paced update of the old Saturday morning serials catapulted STAR WARS sidekick Harrison Ford into a whole other galaxy of superstardom as Indiana “Indy” Jones, a handsome University of Chicago archaeology professor. Indy races the Nazis across the globe to find the Ark of the Covenant, a holy artifact from ancient Israel that bestows almost unlimited power on its possessor. Raiders abounds with iconic images, and the action scenes—from the boulder chase to the saber duel—surprise, amaze, and zoom across the screen thanks to the Academy Award-winning editing of Michael Kahn. The special-effects wizards at George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic also won an Oscar for creating Egyptian tombs and the wrath of God, among other stunning visuals. Raiders of the Lost Ark set a new standard for action films. And while other films have pushed the action envelope, RAIDERS remains film’s ultimate funhouse ride. Ben Wolf
