RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK A Film Review By Jesse A. Kaplan Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, Denholm Elliot, John Rhys-Davies Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is the spectacular, cliff-hanger, breathlessly-paced, non-stop action/adventure film of the early 1980s, an immensely successful summer box-office hit. George Lucas, producer, and director Steven Spielberg made RAIDERS, first of three Indiana Jones movies, as a tribute in homage to the Saturday matinee thrillers and serials of yesteryear - the 1930s and 40s. It is a thoroughly entertaining film, with some of the greatest gee-whiz technical effects, stunts, and action sequences ever filmed. The musical score by accomplished composer John Williams (famous for work on JAWS, STAR WARS, and THE EMPIRE SRIKES BACK) adds an air of excitement. I'll say it right now, RAIDERS is better then STAR WARS. There you go. I actually will go out on a limb and say it. This is the movie that led an entire decade into big budget action/adventure movies to which the films of the 1980's are now known for. Both Harrison Ford and Karen Allen give probably their best efforts right here. Who better to cheer on then an American trying to recover a peice of Jewish History against "The Armies of Darkness" (Nazis). The Plot has Indiana Jones (Ford) trying to rescue the lost Ark of The Covenant with the sacred 10 Commandments from the Nazi's who are searching for it themselves for Hitler, along with Jones' Arch Rival Renee Bollaq (Freeman). I have no idea why i'm botrhering to go over this because obviously you have been living under a rock if you don't know about the excitement, adventures, and action created by the movie. See it. RAIDERS happens to be my second favorite movie of all time (CASABLANCA) and obviously I give it my top rating of **** Excellent
**** Excellent (Air Force One, Pulp Fiction)
*** Good (Jurrasic Park, Resivour Dogs)
** Fair (Con Air, The Devil's Own)
* Poor (Spawn, 8 Heads in a dufflebag)
0 Horrendous (Batman and Robin, Congo)
Copyright 1997 Jesse A. Kaplan paladin@mhv.net
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