Raiders of the Lost Ark, a tribute to the corny serial adventure films of the 1930s and 40s, would not have worked if it wasn’t self-aware. Above all, what makes it so thoroughly enjoyable and gratifying is that it’s smart enough to realize it’s transparently sensational, and has fun with that. That’s not to say it’s pure comedy -Spielberg knew better after 1941. But it channels a kind of sincere silliness that you can’t help but be swept up in. You don’t take it seriously, yet you take it with awe.
Birthed on a vacation with his close friend George Lucas in 1977 after both had ostensibly taken over Hollywood, Raiders of the Lost Ark was the answer to Spielberg’s interest in making a Bond movie or action hero flick. The core of what would become Indiana Jones though, was Lucas’ idea, with the Ark of the Covenant element contributed by Philip Kaufman. The script would be written by Lucas’ reliable scribe of The Empire Strikes Back, Lawrence Kasdan, working closely with Spielberg and Lucas to perfect the tone and personality of a film light on plot.
A reminder of that plot: In 1936, archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), who supplements his teaching position with relic hunting, is tasked by U.S. Army Intelligence to recover the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis find it and unleash its ancient power. Partnering with his mentors’ daughter and former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), herself in possession of the crucial headpiece of Ra, he tails the Nazis to Egypt where they’ve joined up with his nemesis, Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman); and it becomes a race to the Ark and the powers it holds.
The story is a very simple case of ‘good guy must stop bad guy from using plot device for evil’. But within this framework, Spielberg sees an excuse to do as much as possible to entertain the audience and enrich the movie, pumping it full of clever touches and ambitious executions that augment the plot. By the midway point the Ark’s already been found and from then until the climax, it just trades hands several times between Indy and the Nazis. However the film comes up with increasingly inventive ways to do this. Maybe Indy will have to fight Alex Louis Armstrong for a plane, or commandeer the truck transporting the Ark by climbing its underside as it’s driving. It keeps expertly challenging your expectations, and doing so with an unabashed dismissal of realism, very much like the serials it pays homage to.
Like those serials, it’s also characterized by plenty of action, and by mixing creativity with timing, good sound mixing and even slapstick, Spielberg choreographs some of the most fun action sequences ever put to film. It always involves a little more than just punching, maintaining a consistent freshness, and sometimes flat out subverts, such as the last-minute cutting of a cutlass fight sequence by having Indy merely shoot the theatrical swordsman -one of the funniest moments in the movie. Facilitating this further are sets and props that become actors themselves, most notably in the exhilarating opening sequence in Peru, largely inspired by Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge comics apparently. Booby traps, chasms, a giant boulder -they’re effects of a Warner Brothers cartoon here used to convey adrenaline and momentum. Raiders won Best Visual Effects at the Oscars, but used little CG animation, rather miniatures, mattes, and of course the graphic effects in the films’ climax: in which one characters’ face melts, anothers’ is shrivelled, and a thirds’ head explodes -still convincing and horrifying decades later. In fact so much so, that the movie was given an R-rating before a mere fireball partially obscuring Belloq’s erupting head garnered it a PG, proving that even before the dawn of PG-13, the American rating system was completely ridiculous (the censors had no problem with the terrifying tomb scene).
Indiana Jones himself though is perhaps the most responsible for the movies’ appeal. He was a very unusual hero for the 1980s –hell any decade post-50s. Sure he’s just as suave and action-ready as James Bond, but his rougher, more practical outfit and demeanour are in a way, more stylish. Also he’s an archaeologist, adding a veneer of intelligence and education to his adventurous streak, making the whole profession seem cool by contextualizing it as a treasure hunt. The classic adventurer influence of Allan Quartermain is readily apparent in Indy’s make-up, but another analogue is clearly Superman, star character of many of the film serials no doubt Spielberg and Lucas were familiar with; seen in the mild-mannered Professor Jones, Indy’s alter ego of sorts, who even wears Clark Kent glasses he somehow doesn’t need when on a quest. But you’re able to buy this because Harrison Ford is so natural in the role, even more so than as Han Solo. He’s got charisma and screen presence, however what makes the biggest difference is how he brings a human vulnerability to the part. Unlike a lot of other action heroes, Ford plays every fight scene like there’s a real chance he’ll get hurt (and sometimes he does –he can be a little clumsy), every reaction like there’s genuine stakes, and even every unexpected turn with shock, bated frustration or reflexive sarcasm –look to all of his confrontations with Belloq for example. He’s very identifiable to a mainstream audience because of this, endearing, smart, and personable, and that’s largely to Ford’s credit. When Indy tells Marion and Sallah in reference to rescuing the Ark from a convoy of Nazi trucks, he’ll make up his plan as he goes along, that’s exactly how it comes across in the following sequence. I certainly don’t think we’d have gotten that Indy had the more conventionally masculine, less relatable Tom Sellick been cast. We can thank Spielberg for bringing Lucas around on Ford.
Spielberg was also the one who cast Karen Allen off of Animal House to play Marion, and that paid off immensely as well. Of the female leads of the Indiana Jones movies none would even come close to Allen’s exceptionally clever, headstrong, proficient, slightly idiosyncratic, not to mention gorgeous adventuress. She’s a scene-stealer in the best sense, and she not only holds her own against Indy constantly, but I think could carry her own movie. Her scene with Belloq in the tent was partially improvised with Paul Freeman, who’s a delight as Indy’s rival and sparring partner. Belloq is a particularly well-realized villain because in the vein of Moriarty, he doesn’t underestimate hos hero. The scene where he calls Indy’s bluff about destroying the Ark is a great example of this. The whole cast puts in similar levels of dedication, making impressions that would last their careers. You have the boisterous, contagiously likeable John Rhys-Davies as Indy’s friend and sidekick Sallah, a wickedly grinning Ronald Lacey doing his best Peter Lorre impression, Wolf Kahler perhaps attempting Colonel Klink, noteworthy minor stints from Alfred Molina and George Harris (who can’t help but be cool in even this insubstantial a part), and Denholm Elliott lending short-lived gravitas as Indy’s colleague Marcus Brody.
The utter competence of all of these things: the plotting, action, and characters, not to mention one of John Williams’ best iconic scores, in conjunction create a grand adventure in the mould of the classics of Verne, Haggard, and Burroughs, but with enough modern renovations to feel entirely new. And given how successful they’re executed, individually and holistically, when it would have been so easy to veer into parody, take itself too seriously, or warp the sense of fun through manufactured acting or action, there’s a unique spirit of adventure to Raiders of the Lost Ark that hasn’t since been recaptured by any motion picture.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is the first truly timeless movie of Spielberg’s oeuvre. By setting it in the 1930s and avoiding elements like the distinctly 70s frat sensibilities of 1941, yet keeping it modern in its approach to tone and character, it was inevitable this film would stand the test of time. Sure, it’s simple: the hero has a very noble goal and the villains are literally Nazis (back when Nazis were unequivocally bad guys). It doesn’t care much for authenticity either. At one point, Brody says “the Bible speaks of the Ark levelling mountains and laying waste to entire regions” which is misleading at best. However this movie has the remarkable ability to get away with these things because of how it refuses to allow its campiness to be a crutch. The result is one of the most persistently entertaining and enduring movies of the last fifty years. Each time I revisit Raiders, I find myself loving something new about it, and there’s no higher praise a classic can receive. And Steven Spielberg would find himself acclimating to that reputation once more, for his next classic was just around the corner.
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