Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost Ark was a 1981 blockbuster hit. The story written by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, directed by Steven Spielberg this was bound to be a success. With a budget of 18 million, the movie grossed $389 million worldwide a success with the mainstream audience. This movie appealed to both young and old audience and still entertains people today. The movie was nominated and won for multiple awards including best picture. The music was composed by the famous John Williams who has done many hit movie soundtracks including Star Wars. The music in the movie is so well done it creates feelings of drama, excitement and romance.
Harrison Ford who had a 1980 recent hit with Star Wars starred as Indiana Jones. Tom Selleck being Spielberg’s first choice for the part had no problems transitioning from Solo to Jones. Here is a video clip from 1982 David Letterman show. Harrison Ford is interviewed and talks briefly about working with Lucas and how he was not the first choice for the Lost Ark, Tom Selleck was. This movie would have not been the same without Harrison Ford.
Harrison Ford on David Lettermen show
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark is about an archeologist in the 1930’s who is approached by the government to find the lost religious ark of the covenant before the Nazis find it. Indiana Jones accepts the challenge and the adventure begins. He finds himself re- acquainted with an old girlfriend who joins Indiana on his journey. Action everywhere in this movie. Indy finds himself running from giant boulders, dodging spears, face to face with many snakes and fighting Nazis. This movie is thoroughly entertaining with excitement throughout.
I could not find any mixed reviews about this movie. This review I have chosen is from Cinema Autopsy in 2012. This review is a good one but is a little different. They point out Jones character as being masculine but not like the other typical masculine characters of the 1980’s Schwarzenegger and Stallone. They also point out that his character steals for a living. Although I feel that archaeology is more excavation then theft this is a very interesting viewpoint of the film.
CinemaAutopsy reviews Raiders of the Lost Ark
The next article if from Roger Ebert in 2000. He describes the movie as just plain fun and describes Harrison Ford embodying the character. He also says’, “I make these points to place it more firmly in the mainstream of Spielberg’s work, since “Raiders” is widely enjoyed but just as widely dismissed as something Spielberg tossed off between more important films.” This is an interesting point to think this huge success of a movie was just an in between project.
Roger Ebert reviews Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
The next article is from June 1981 Rolling Stone Magazine. This article describes Indiana Jones as the ultimate Saturday Matinee. This is a nice article it talks about Lucas and Spielberg vacationing in Hawaii and Spielberg mentioning he’d always wanted to do a James Bond like movie and Lucas said he had something better then Bond.
Hello Melisa,
I found it very interesting that the movie viewed archeology as theft more so than a career. I had never previously thought of it that way but it definitely makes sense looking back at the Indian Jones series. Although it seems as if it may not have necessarily been theft, but that other people had the same interest in these valuable artifacts, just not for their preservation. I also found it extremely interesting that this film was simply just a toss aside project that ended up becoming a blockbuster. This truly shows the talent that Spielberg has through his developmental process in all of his films. Lastly, it is no surprise that Ford made an easy transition from his work with Star Wars to personify a better James Bond, the great Indiana Jones.
Hey Melisa,
Indian Jones is an awesome movie, I grew up watching all of the Indian Jones and it was fun to learn more about the ‘behind the scenes’ of the movie a little more. When I was younger I never realized that Indiana Jones was competing with the Nazis for the lost ark, so this was definitely interesting to read about. I also thought it was interesting how some people thought that the movie was a ‘placeholder’ of sorts in between Spielberg’s more important movies- but I would argue that it is one of the most popular today. I liked how you described the plot of the film and how the soundtrack had effect on it, I will think about doing this in the future.
Hi Melisa,
I always appreciate when two people cover the same movie in one week, because you really start to understand how individualized film experiences can truly be. Though this blockbuster did stay true to many of the classical elements for this film type, you are right to say that Harrison Ford did not portray the classical “macho man” aura we had become so used to with actors such as Sylvester Stallone. Ford still provides some level of familiarity to viewers as he displays certain characteristics of traditional masculinity, but still has his own unique edge. I hope to notice dynamics such as this in my future writings.
Hello Melisa,
I really enjoyed reading your post for last week. I thought that our blog posts tied together nicely and that your post also covered some aspects of blockbuster films that I did not talk about. Together I believe that we did a great job a discussing the many reasons why Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark was a perfect fit for last week’s requirement of a blockbuster movie. Ultimately, I did learn some things from your post as well, I liked how you divided your actual writing into smaller categories and I will probably due something like that from now on.
Hello, I always think a strong post starts with good background information about the film, which yours does. Indiana Jones is a well thought after classic movie, however, not as much as my two films. E.T. is a classic film but doesn’t still have an impact on film today. This does connect to mine because it has a good story line followed with adventure and action. One thing I learned was that Harrison Ford was the main actor in this in the 1980’s and in starwars. One thing i will start doing is creating a format similar to yours, it is easy to follow and looks very professional. Good Job!