When I had the idea of launching the “On My Shelf” column, I hesitated because I was not sure what I could write about some movies. You know, the ones everybody has already written about during the last decades, movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark!
Strangely, I started with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and then wrote about Ridley Scott’s Alien, so I probably can tackle this masterpiece of adventure cinema by Steven Spielberg.
When Dr. Indiana Jones—the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist—is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.
When the movie ended, I was filled with the kind of joy you get when you just spent two hours having great fun. This first Indiana Jones movie is pure entertainment. From the iconic opening sequence to the opening of the Ark of the Covenant, it’s just scene after scene of action, comedy, adventure, romance, and even a bit of horror.
I’m probably not stating anything new here. Raiders of the Lost Ark feels like Jaws, the elevation of a pulpy concept to a level that changed the way we look at movies. It first came out the same year as I was born and I feel like I watched it all my life, probably because I mostly did. Every few years, I put the disc in the player—back in the days, it was the VHS, then the DVD, and now the Blu-ray. New format, newly restored copy, and yet, this movie has always been beautiful to watch.
I particularly adore the way Spielberg used shadows to compose some of his shots. How he blocked some scenes to be playful or the way he planned the action so well it feels like a dance—the scene with the nazi plane is simply perfect.
Sometimes, it feels like it’s not necessary to do it that way, but he went there and just delivered perfect shot after perfect shot.
Talking about perfection, the casting. Harrison Ford inhabited Indiana Jones completely to the point you forgot he was Han Solo—for younger viewers, this may not have been difficult, but as I said, I’m over 40 now.
Sallah: “How?”
Indiana: “I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go.”
This quote is the essence of Indiana Jones. He always acts like he is in control, even if it’s rarely the case. He’s too easily proud of himself and rarely seems to learn from his mistakes. The archeologist is in over his head but nothing can stop him. The writing is one thing, but watching Ford being cocky one second and taking a punch in the face the next is simply art. He plays it like a nerd cosplaying as a hero and ends up navigating between the two extremes so naturally it’s like he was born to be Indy.
Paul Freeman as his Nemesis, the French archeologist Belloq is, in a way, the mature version (and scummy) of Indiana Jones. But like Ford, Freeman didn’t play the part as a simple archetype, he added nuances, emotions, and the right amount of sleaze.
In the middle, Karen Allen as Marion is also not the classic damsel in distress, even if she spends plenty of time in distress (when she’s not drinking). She had spunk! And let’s not forget the great John Rhys-Davies as the friendly Sallah who’s a real friend, not just a narrative mechanism that helps the story to move forward almost too easily.
All those characters were relatable and fallible in their own ways. That’s what made them fun to watch. That and the incredible situations they are put into. The car chases, the tomb full of snakes, the daring escapes, the gun fights… Raiders of the Lost Ark is a grand adventure. One that still feels like watching lightning in a bottle.
What can I add? Maybe some of the visual effects at the end are not too good-looking, but I love that style, they look like the ones in Poltergeist, it’s of the time and I wouldn’t want them to be updated.
That’s it. Indiana Jones will be back in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!
THE ON MY SHELF COLUMN LOOKS BACK AT ALL THE MOVIES IN MY BLU-RAY COLLECTION.
