(Review originally written at 31 January 2006)
Never has there been- and most likely there will never be again, such an entertaining movie as "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Even though I still regard "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" a better movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" remains the most entertaining one of the Indy movies.
The movie is a wonderfully constructed old fashioned adventure movie, with lots of action and comedy elements. Lots of traveling, exciting chase sequences, an imaginative story, fun fights, a good main character, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has got all the elements in it to make a movie entertaining.
But really what makes this movie such a good one, is thanks to all the talent involved. Spielberg is a great entertainment director, George Lucas is a great imaginatively storyteller and Harrison Ford is a great perfect 'hero'. The three form a golden trio. You can tell by looking at this movie that the three by working together excel themselves and puss and motivate each other to a level of greatness. But it of course were not just those three that made those movie. Also kudos has to go to of course the musical score by John Williams, who created one of the most recognizable themes out of motion picture history. But it's not just the main theme that is great about the musical score, it's the entire piece of work. Other persons who deserves credit are production designer Norman Reynolds and director of photography Douglas Slocombe. All the talent involves makes this movie the ultimate entertaining movie. The movie also has some good and convincing 'early' special effects.
The movie is also very well cast. Who would had ever known that after Han Solo Harrison Ford would ever portray a memorable and good on his own character that everybody around the globe knows. Paul Freeman is great as Indiana Jones darker shadow. He's a good villain but one with class. Karen Allen is a good leading lady and she and Harrison Ford have some good chemistry together. Also memorable are John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott and Ronald Lacey as the ultimate Gestapo officer Major Toht. Nazi's always make such great movie villain in movies like this. Why? Because these guys need no introduction. When you see a Nazi you know he's a bad guy and you know he is very bad because everyone knows what those guys did in WW II. Plus of course the fact that they always wear this great looking costumes. Also now well known actor Alfred Molina shows up in a small role at the beginning of the movie.
The great adventurous imaginative story provides the movie with some unforgettable moments. Especially the big action sequences are memorable. We have the market fight, which is mainly fun to watch, we have the fight in the bar, we have the airplane fight with the great indestructible Pat Roach and than we have the wonderful truck chase sequence that is very well filmed. The movie is truly action packed, which keeps the pace high, even though there also are some slower moments in the story.
It's pointless to recommend this movie or not, since this is one of those movies that everybody already has seen at least once. If you're one of those rare cases that hasn't seen this movie yet; What are you doing here reading users comments? Go and watch this movie and be entertained by it. This is a movie that remains good, powerful and entertaining, no matter how often you watch it. It's absolutely perfect!
10/10
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