Rewatched: Indiana Jones & The Raiders of the Lost Ark

Having caught the last ten-minutes of “The Last Crusade” not too long ago (on television), I’d been gagging to rewatch the first trilogy (nope, I never do count “Crystal Skull” as part of the “Original”), ut never did manage to dig out my DVDs … BUT managed to very randomly catch RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK in full Saturday morning (again on the telly), and enjoyed it thoroughly!

WHAT-IS: "Raiders of the Lost Ark (later marketed as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan from a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. The film originated from Lucas's desire to create a modern version of the serial films of the 1930s and 1940s.

The first installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, the film stars Harrison Ford as archaeologist Indiana Jones, who battles a group of Nazis searching for the Ark of the Covenant." (Wiki)

And while some scenes were very familiar (from my past viewing and etched into pop culture infamy), seen as part of the entirety of the film, I’d forgotten how fabulous the film(s) had been - the sense of adventure and story-telling (before the current need to be utter-“realistic”), and the verve and spirit the, which no longer resonates as much these salad days of cinema, IMHO.

I personally enjoy cinema that provides me with an “escape” from “reality”, a “reel world” that gives me hopes, dreams and faux emotions even for an hour, three hours tops … and I’ll come back to the real world soon enough, and need to quite literally and spiritually LIVE in it, innit?

I loved that we only see Indiana’s face 3 minutes into the film!

For films like “Indiana Jones”, it affords me a manufactured experience of being a adventurer, who is navigating in a period which I have not lived in, nor an identity I’ve never and will never experience, and that’s the spirit of good films (IMHO) which I appreciate and perhaps even cherish.

The “Steven Spielberg” pedigree is very real, and this 1981 film, and the subsequent "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984), and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), is quite literally an essential viewing for pop culture from the West.


And thanks to the recent Honest Trailers-video as well, I am invigorated to find TEMPLE OF DOOM and THE LAST CRUSADE for a watch (moreso the latter film, which I remembered to be my favourite of the trilogy)…!


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