The year is 1936, and Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich are closing in on the lost ark. This ancient technology is capable of wiping out an entire army, or at least that is how it is known by legend. Indiana Jones rushes to beat Adolph and his endless ranks of henchmen to prevent Nazi success in World War Two. With a net revenue of $330 million since its release, what style of movie does this sound like? The answer to that question is a mainstream blockbuster.  But, what qualifies this film as a blockbuster? Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is comprised of many theatrical and mainstream components that go about qualifying it as a blockbuster. Some of the more obvious components are a Caucasian male used as the main character and the classic struggle for love that Jones faces throughout the many movies in this series. Additionally, the fact that the movie is jam packed with action, animation, and sometimes cliché escapes by Indiana Jones out of often fatal situations are also tell tale signs of this style of filming.

Mainstream filmmaking is often designed to attract  the largest number of viewers available, and in doing that they appeal to these groups using similar techniques and styles that have been used since the creation of the first blockbusters. These techniques include but aren’t limited to a white male playing the main character or protagonist, a token character (generally ethnic) that has more skills than the other characters but often dies early or isn’t that important to the progression of the storyline, a love story, and as discussed before, lots and lots of action or drama. After defining the common attributes of mainstream filmmaking, we see that the film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark uses nearly every one of these theatrical components and adheres to the definition of a mainstream blockbuster in nearly every way. I have attached two links to online movie reviews done by Rogerebert.com and YouTuber ramboraph4life. These links provide an excellent in depth description of the movies plotline as well as a look into more of the theatrical components the director used to ensure this movie hit its mark and target audience. Robertebert.com movie review YouTube movie review

Originally directed by Steven Spielberg in 1981, this film inspired the creation of several other Indiana Jones movies after its release and has additionally has gone on to serve as the definition of blockbuster movies for any producer looking to create equally enticing action films. Overall, this film is widely honored and acclaimed, has great reviews, and is still readily available for streaming today, which serves as proof of its popularity. However, despite all of this positivity, the techniques we see used in this movie that were once considered new, modern, and edgy are slowly becoming techniques we consider to be cliché and outdated. While today this movie is still considered a staple of the industry and a very memorable film, I look forward to seeing the next generation of blockbuster movies and how the ideas in the film and techniques surrounding the filmmaking change with the times and the political climate.