Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

"I hate snakes, Chuck! I hate them!"

This fun and adventurous spectacle is another of Lucasfilm's triumphs. A typical, swashbuckling adventurer uncovering the worlds mysteries while fighting bad guys along the way. Seems standard right?

Well you would be correct, but Indiana Jones became a household name in pop culture due to this classic film, and gave birth to treasure hunting adventure projects such as Tomb Raider and Uncharted. Every film nerd know all about Indy and this is the film that put his name out there and became one of the most profitable franchises of all time and Raiders of the Lost Ark is incredible fun for all the family, other than the end when it becomes a full, fledged horror movie.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is considered one of the best films ever made, thanks to its creative approach to mystical legends and iconic characters and scenes. Its immense success helped develop a brand new genre of film that would grow to become not only profitable, but a fan favourite culture.

Every little boy (and girl) wanted to be Indiana Jones and go on crazy adventures and find powerful treasures because it was exciting watching Indy battle his way through enemies and booby traps to find hidden treasures, and get the girl in the end. Its a film that still sits in the hearts and minds of every film nerd out there and its extremely doubtful we will see anything of the like again.

The Lost Ark revolves around the Ark of the Covanent, a sacred and highly religious artifact rumoured to house the power of god, and its a race against time to find it before the villains do, who just so happen to be Nazis. No I mean literal Nazis!

The Ark is supposed to be an artifact lost in time and is not supposed to be tampered with by any human being, it houses the original 10 Commandments and was carried by Moses as he and the Hebrew population fled Ancient Egypt. The Ark is a source of great mystery that holds the interest of not only archaeologists and treasure hunters, but also high ranking politicians that seek to use its power for their own gain.

That's where the film starts, Indy is recruited by the US government to find the Ark before Hitler does and bring it back to be "studied". Obviously its not a simple snatch and grab operation with an artifact of extreme historical and religious significance, there are side quests with finding an ancient map, an ancient key, fighting bad guys and a thrilling car chase to steal the Ark.

The film goes everywhere to make it as action packed and fun for all the family to enjoy but also to make it a serious film and not a ridiculous treasure hunt. The inclusion of the Ark is also what makes Indiana Jones so iconic, they include actual myths and legends and intertwine them into the film to make it more epic and relatable to the main theme, which is history.

The film houses many iconic moments and lines that film nerds can remember off by heart, such as the "I hate snakes!" phobia, the "Don't bring a knife to a gun fight!" scene and, of course the thrilling opening sequence. That's probably the best part of the film, for me, because it throws you right into the action and the narrative, by the time it finishes you know what to expect in the film.

Its a perfect way of introducing an iconic character to the screen for the first time and seeing his expertise and adventurous style makes you excited for what happens next in the film. You see a typical American traveller get thrown into all these cultural traps and situations and Indy just pulls some hilarious and simple ways of dealing with it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is so much fun to watch because of all the quirky and action packed moments in the film that make it truly worth watching. It was something the audience had never seen before and they loved watching Indy and his crew get themselves into all kinds of havoc in the name of adventure.

After the success of Star Wars, Harrison Ford became Lucasfilm's top pick to play the titular hero and he cements himself into the role and becomes more popular than Han Solo. He was just born to play the role, he had the quirkiness, the attitude, the knowledge and the fight to play a trekking archaeologist.

The film also introduces Marion Ravenwood, played by Karen Allen, as a brilliant and fierce love interest and, of course, Sallah, played by John Rhys Davies, as Indy's trusty sidekick and comedic relief. Both these characters play a pivotal role in the film, with Sallah helping Indy recover the Ark and Marion possessing the key to locating the Ark, and they also help Indy develop as a character.

Indy is a very stubborn man who doesn't believe in "hocus pocus" and myths and legends and the film is about proving what you actually believe. The Ark is said to possess the power of god and this has no effect on Indy until he sees it for himself, even Sallah is frightened by the artifact.

By the time the film finishes, we see a different side of Indy, where he is no longer sure what he believes and accepts that there are treasures that should never be found nor used. Its an incredible character growth throughout the film and it shows the magic of the films main focus which is how much you actually believe in such tales.

As I mentioned before, the main villains are Nazis, seeing as this is set in the 1930s, and they are out to get the Ark and use its power to combat its enemies and take over the world. A lot of it is based of Hitlers true ambition of collecting historical and religious artifacts, but the main villain, Belloq (played by Paul Freeman), wanted to use it to communicate with god himself rather than for fame and fortune.

The villains are incredibly iconic, particularly the German spy, and provide a conflict for our hero to contend with, both Indy and Belloq are gifted historians and ambitious and it quickly becomes a contest of who is best. He eventually gets his comeuppance at the end when he experiences the full power of the Ark, then gets burnt alive along with everyone else.

Spielberg shows the ferocity and ruthlessness of the Nazi power in all the action scenes there is, from the plane fight scene to the car chase, they display a powerful presence of war criminality in the film and that makes them a powerful adversary for Indy and the crew.

The film uses a lot of historical facts to keep the audience informed on what's going on, its easy to get lost in this film, but Spielberg keeps the flow of the film smooth and paced, which gives us time to know more about Indy and the Ark and keeps it as entertaining as it can. This is an action adventure film, so it is important you keep the momentum of the film going while delving into the narrative and outlying all the important stuff.

The cinematography and visual effects are as good as they could have been in the 1980s, which is a struggle given all the supernatural elements in the film. The filmmakers main struggle was showing the Ark as this powerful and supernatural artifact and we see its full power once it kills Belloq and the Nazis in a spectacular gory fashion!

That's what set this film apart from so many other action adventure flicks, the use of horror at the end to demonstrate the artifacts true power fills us with dread and helps flush out Indy's character. I still have nightmares of the exploding Nazis and brings out that same theme of belief, the belief in the power of god and the Ark and it leaves Raiders on a high and dreaded note once we see the Ark being stored away with all teh government secrets.

This is a timeless classic that everyone should watch at least once to appreciate the true majesty of films, they don't make films like this anymore because they don't believe there is a market for them. That's where they are wrong, I would love to see something like this grace our screens again because its a fun adventure.

There's thrill in treasure hunting and Raiders shows you can make a good film out of it, as long as you have iconic characters and relics for them to find of course. It also gives you appreciation of the past and makes you wonder what did happen back in the day, its a very philosophical film that you can reflect on and it doesn't matter what you believe, you will always come back and watch this because its exciting and wonderous.

Indiana Jones will always have a place in film culture and this film will always have a place as one of the best films ever made. I watch this again and again and that's what you want from a film, otherwise what's the point.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is available for streaming on Disney + and on DVD.