RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

"But why does there have to be snakes?!"

Being sixteen years old, I wasn't around when Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. I know thought that it has been in circulation for nearly twenty-five years, and in another twenty-five years it will still hold the reputation as the best adventure ever made.

There is something timeless about Raiders. It could be its all-American hero, a dashing, good-looking, fearless man's man who does anything it takes to save the world and get the girl. It could be the rousing soundtrack that never ages and always inspires excitement. It could be how Steven Spielberg and George Lucas set their tale in a period where there was still some mystery in the world, still a sense of wonder and awe, when it was not completely implausible to believe a story as epic and wild as Raiders’.

Whatever element of combination of these elements are the correct answer, they mesh together to make perhaps the greatest adventure film ever made. There is nothing more American than a fun, action-packed adventure in which the hero gets the girl, and Raiders of the Lost Ark is the model to which all other films similar to it are compared. There has never been a more thrilling hero on-screen than Indiana Jones, and nobody could play him with the swagger, confidence, and cunning that Harrison Ford does. From the first time we see him in Raiders until he rides away on horseback in The Last Crusade, his presence is electrifying.

One can not review this film without speaking about its director. Many argue that Steven Spielberg is the greatest director to ever make film, and I for one don’t disagree. It is a testament to this film to say that it is his masterpiece, a piece of direction so fluid and so assured it is no wonder that one of the most timeless, acclaimed films of all-time was the result.

A+