AFI Movies: #60 Raiders of the Lost Ark
Sorry it's been so long. But: duh-duh-DUH-DA-duh-duh-DUUUH!
If you missed my first post where I explain what this is and how I’m scoring things, here you go.
Ok, stop what you’re doing. This one needs some music.
Did you click it? Good. Now we can begin.
The whole point of this project where I watch the entire AFI 100 Years…100 Movies list is so that I could familiarize myself with classic pieces of cinema that I have missed out on up until this point of my life. It’s truly been fun to check out some movies that I probably would never have seen if I didn’t seek them out for this list. With this movie, though, we are throwing all of that out the window. It’s Indiana Jones! Of course I’ve seen this movie before, there’s a ride based off of it at Disneyland. In my house growing up, that made this required viewing.
When I watch things to write about them, eventually I have to get critical and point out the things that didn’t age well, or I have to really spend a lot of time talking about one specific thing because I don’t know what else to write about. Both of these things, while necessary for what I’m doing, can sometimes take away from how fun a movie is to watch. Raiders of the Lost Ark is fun. Sure, there are a lot of things that go into why it’s fun, but I just feel like I wouldn’t be satisfied with my writing on this movie if I didn’t emphasize that it’s just a really fun experience to sit and watch this movie. Generally speaking, it’s probably a bad idea to filter people from your life based on silly things like what movies they enjoy, but I think I can get a pretty good grasp on how my relationship with someone will develop based on if they do not find this movie fun. Raiders of the Lost Ark has one of the easiest sales pitches of all time. Seriously, here is the premise in one sentence.
“An archeology professor, played by Harrison Ford, travels around the globe, with the help of people from his past, and attempts to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do.”
What more do you possibly need from your action/adventure film? Good action? Done. Engaging characters? Not a problem. Funny moments? You bet.
This movie is great, but let’s see what the grade is:
Entertainment Value- 2/2
Raiders of the Lost Ark is super entertaining. I think I’ve covered that, so here, I’m going to list what I think are the five most entertaining moments of the film:
The opening scene where Indiana Jones has to run away from the boulder. Iconic.
Knowing that Indiana Jones is a college professor, and yet none of his adventures seem to correlate with any sort of academic calendar, and imagining what my bosses would say if I asked to leave in the middle of the school year to go on a trip to Egypt1.
When Indy is about to fight the guy who swings his sword a lot, but instead he just pulls out his gun and shoots the guy.
When you hear the story that Harrison Ford improvised shooting the guy because he had diarrhea and needed the scene to be over but they kept it. I’m actually not even sure this is true but I’ve heard it more than once and want to believe it, so I’m not even going to look it up.
The Nazis open the Ark and their faces all melt off. I mean, come on.
Correctness- 0/2
Even if I could excuse the Welsh actor playing an Egyptian2, or the implied age inappropriate relationship Indy had with Marion3, this movie still has a Nazi monkey.
Influence- 2/2
I bet as soon as you saw Indiana Jones when you opened this, your brain started playing the theme song. That right there is enough for me.
“Rewatchability”- 2/2
I had seen this movie a number of times before I watched it as a part of this project. I still watched it twice in a week to prepare for writing this, and enjoyed it both times.
Technical Score- 2/2
Obviously this is a two out of two for all of the reasons I have already talked about, but I want to talk about the people who made this movie. George Lucas came up with the idea for this movie after he made American Graffiti, but put it off to make another movie, Star Wars. After Star Wars came out, Lucas apparently wanted to get away and go on vacation, where he invited his friend, Steven Spielberg along. Lucas shared the idea, and Spielberg agreed to direct. Spielberg recommended Lawrence Kasdan4 to write the script, even though he had only been working as a screenwriter for a month. They then got John Williams to do the music, and the rest is history.
Overall- 8/10
As I’m writing this the school year is coming to a close and I will have much more time to watch movies and we started off with a great one. Oh, and if you’ve for some reason never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, I’m begging you to do it right now.
You can watch Raiders of the Lost Ark on Disney+.
Hasta luego,
Josh
Up Next: #59 Rebel Without a Cause (available to rent)
This may be entertaining to just me specifically, but it’s my list.
You know I can’t.
Also, not great.
Who Lucas then hired to finish the script for The Empire Strikes Back.