Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)

After giving us gems such as "Jaws," "Star Wars," "E.T." and "Close Encounters," Spielberg and Lucas have teamed up for their 30s serial homage, "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

To say that this movie is implausible is an understatement at best. The supernatural element -- the Ark of the Covenant -- is at the center of this wild chase, which involves an apparently indestructible adventurer pitted against poorly-drawn stereotypes including cartoon Nazis.

What the viewer gets is two hours of material that is simply unbelievable.

The movie begins with the hero attempting to take an idol from an ancient temple whose traps apparently work as well in modern times as they did when they were rigged hundreds of years ago. With a GREAT amount of disbelief suspension, the viewer sees Indiana Jones escape not only the temple, but hundreds of angry Peruvian warriors. And not one of their poisonous arrows even hits him. And yet, when Jones's partner takes the idol from him and disappears around the corner -- only to be impaled by large spikes -- there's not so much as a scream to be heard. Also, he would have been hit sideways by the spikes, yet when Jones finds him, he's been hit from behind.

The action then moves to the search for the Ark of the Covenant, the gold chest which contained the ten commandments and from which God communed with the Israelites. At this point, the plot reveals itself to be utterly devoid of any higher thought and becomes simplistic. All Jones has to do is take a headpiece that harnesses the sun's rays into a buried map room to show the location of the ark, which begs the obvious question: "Why, before there was a sandstorm that covered the city of Tanis, was there a need to make a map room, when all one had to do was go through the town looking for the ark?"

At one point, in a chase through the town, Jones is confronted with a sword-wielding man. Exhausted, he simply looks him over and shoots him dead -- right on the spot! Was he seized and arrested? Of course not! Because this film operates outside the bounds of any reason.

*** WARNING -- SPOILERS!!! ***

So, after not only narrow escapes including hundreds of submachine guns, children, poisoned dates and Hitler-saluting, Nazi monkeys (I kid you not!), Jones eventually finds the Well of Souls -- the resting place of the ark, which is filled with thousands of poisonous snakes. But the ark is soon captured by the Nazis, assisted by Belloq, Jones's arch-rival. Jones and his love interest, Marion Ravenwood (who is thrown 100 feet into the pit with hardly a scratch!), escape within 15 minutes and live to fight another day in their quest for the ark.

One part of the movie that especially strains credibility is when Jones goes after the ark, which is being transported via truck. He not only singlehandedly throws all the Nazis off said truck, but gets himself thrown off the truck and actually goes UNDERNEATH THIS TRUCK, which is presumably traveling at least 55 mph over hard gravel, and comes back aboard, AFTER BEING SHOT! And his jacket isn't even torn! It really stretches the bounds of believability, not to mention the fake special effects when a carload of Nazis goes over a 300-foot-high cliff.

In the end, the Nazis get the ark and Jones makes one last stand to capture -- not the ark -- but Marion, in yet another of the many cliches this film offers up without shame. At this point, Belloq tries to reason with our hero and a FLY -- YES, A LIVING FLY -- lands on Belloq's face and crawls into his mouth. AND HE DOESN'T EVEN REACT! Didn't ANYONE see this obvious error?? Has Spielberg not heard of "Take Two?"

The ending is an obvious cop-out, where all the bad-guy Nazis as well as Belloq are destroyed in an SPFX extravaganza. These special effects -- from the melting faces to the spooky angels -- are extremely fake-looking. These effects would perhaps have been better rendered in CG, with a computer.

One last issue I have is with the plot device -- the Ark of the Covenant. Although featured to a good extent in scripture, it's not a supernatural object that I think most folks can really relate to -- especially people without a fundamental knowledge of the Bible. I mean, many people have never even heard of it!

Perhaps a UFO, or aliens -- something EVERYBODY has heard of -- would be better suited as an "everyman" MacGuffin. Roswell, Area 51 or something. Spielberg has done UFOs before -- he could have done it this time. Oh well... maybe in anther Indiana Jones movie. One can hope.

Anyway, all this is topped off with poor dialogue throughout:

Indy says to Marcus, "I don't believe in magic -- a lot of superstitious hocus-pocus." Well, we know well that he MUST believe in all that, after what he saw in the Temple of Doom a year earlier!

Other examples:

Marion: "Indiana Jones. I always knew someday you'd come walking back through my door. I never doubted it. Something made it inevitable." (Who uses "inevitable?")

Marion, to the Nazis: "YOU BASTARDS! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!!!" (after being thrown 100 feet down into a pit of snakes. Not, "HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE SNAKES EVERYWHERE!!!").

And to top it off:

Sallah: "(The ark) was not something man was meant to disturb. Death has always surrounded it. It is not of this earth." (Of COURSE it is "of this earth!" The Israelites built it out of gold and wood, as per God's instructions, as recorded in Exodus, Chapter 25!)

Oh, well. We know Lucas has a problem with dialogue. Apparently all the sharp, witty dialogue in "Star Wars" was just a fluke.

On a final note, Harrison Ford, at 39, is simply too old for this role. A younger man, in his late-20s, would have been better suited and more plausible for the physical demands. Or at least early-30s, as Sean Connery was when he first played James Bond.

Inevitably, this movie goes beyond reasonable suspension of disbelief required of the viewer. One can only conclude that Lucas and Spielberg have offered up a helping too large to digest with plausibility.

On a positive note, John Williams's score is perfect.

This movie lacks all credibility, so if you decide to see it, BE WARNED -- THIS IS TWO HOURS OR YOUR LIFE YOU WILL NEVER GET BACK, NOT TO MENTION THE COST TO SEE IT!!!



(NOTE: Before there is a mass revolt... this review was written from a 2008 perspective, to make a point. It was written as if this were a new Indiana Jones movie. It is written in the spirit of the hypercritical reviews that are leveled against so many movies nowadays, including "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," and the newer "Star Wars" movies. Go read the reviews, you'll see. That's why I gave it 5 stars; "Raiders" is actually one of the greatest movies ever made.)

Indiana Jones is now a classic hero from the 80's era. He is very smart and always knows what he's doing. With the help of Marion and Sallah, Indiana finds the Ark. It has a lot of action, comedy, and much more. I like toward the end when all the Nazis die a bloody death because of the Ark. If you love Indiana Jones, you'll love RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK!!!

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is universally considered to be an extremely entertaining action/adventure movie, so I won't waste your time reviewing the film itself. If you've already seen it, you know it's awesome; if you haven't... well, to quote Indiana Jones himself: "Trust me." It actually does live up to the hype. What's truly important for those thinking about purchasing this "special edition," however, is a discussion of the bonus material.

The extras on this disc definitely do NOT warrant purchasing this edition if you already own the previously-released Indy Trilogy DVD set. The extras can basically be summed up in a word: "meh." Each of the handful of featurettes is around 10 minutes or less, and there are no surprises. Some brief "making-of" clips from the filming of "Raiders" are semi-interesting, but are all very short. Another featurette is just a bunch of actors from the series making bland comments about how great Indiana Jones is, set to overly-familiar clips from the various movies (Watch Indy run from the giant ball! Now watch him shoot the swordsman!). The endless repetition of clips from the movie is one of the tiresome aspects of DVD bonus material, and serves mainly to make you so sick of the film that you don't want to see it again for awhile!

The best featurette is the one about how they did the "melting face," but even this is short and, really, no great shakes. Next is the apparently mandatory "for interest to fanatics only" stuff like storyboards and a gallery of production stills. Finally, there's a brief commercial for the Lego Indiana Jones video game, which actually (and tellingly) is one of the more entertaining of the extras.

Considering the importance and success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and the fact that it's being sold as a stand-alone "special edition" after having long been available as part of a trilogy set, the overall paltriness of the bonus features is a letdown. The extensive, well-produced extras on George Lucas's "Star Wars" prequel DVD's, with lengthy, thoughtful featurettes and deleted scenes, should have been the model followed here. Instead, it seems like Lucas and company were more interested in cashing in on "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" hoopla (a trailer for this latest sequel plays automatically before the main menu pops up) rather than rewarding loyal fans with something definitive and satisfying.

Buy this disc for the awesome movie, if you don't already own it; otherwise, pass. Trust me.

Dude, if you have not seen Raiders of the Lost Ark yet, you have no life. No, let me tell you this movie is perfect. Good Story, Nice Action, not a lot of gore. And who doesn't like Harrison Ford, well, after the sucess of Star Wars I'm going to say nobody. And remember, this took place in 1936, so they had a bunch of stuff you don't see now. I mean this took place before the Wizard of Oz was made. (Gasp in horror) I know that's hard to beleive but that's what you get. So, Harrison Ford starred in one of the famous movies ever! So, see it if you have it. Stick around for my next review: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!!!

I bought the original box set many months ago on sale for a bargain price. Reading all the reviews for the new Indy installment I have been wanting to watch the original 3 films before eventually seeing the new one.

Watching the original was quite fun as I haven't watched the film in years! The DVD transfer is excellent and the audio is more than adequate on the original 4 DVD box set release not the newest release. This film still holds up well and could be labeled the definitive action adventure film without any arguments.

Ford is perfectly cast as the elusive whip-cracking archeologist and Allen is great as his very capable love interest. It's a one of kind film that has been copied so much it's hard to remember when this was fresh and new! The first film is the best by a mile, but I will be reviewing all the films as I watch them!