Raiders of the Lost Ark Review
Medium: Film
Release date: 6/12/1981
Review date: 12/15/2024
Score: 10/10
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” is one of those films that has become just so ubiquitous that it's a little difficult to review. “Raiders” was so good at what it did that after its release, every project looking to emulate the pulp World War II adventures of the 30s and 40s stopped ripping off Indiana Jones’ inspirations of Buck Rogers and Doc Savage and just started ripping off Indiana Jones instead. In fact, I would go as far as to baselessly claim that any piece of art or entertainment these days looking to write a World War II era film that still manages to be upbeat and fun immediately goes to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” for their primary inspiration, which is quite the artistic feat. Talk as much shit about George Lucas as you want (I certainly have and will continue to do so), but the man managed to helm two of the most culturally significant films of the last 100 years, which certainly isn’t nothing. Is “Raiders of the Lost Ark” a 100% frame perfect film? No - the whole submarine sequence doesn’t really make any sense if you think about it for more than a minute, John Rhys-Davies running around in brownface the whole time isn’t great, and the film seems to have borrowed directly from the British Museum’s playbook of artifact preservation, that being to steal beloved cultural objects from a native population to throw on some white guy’s bookshelf five continents away. But in terms of influence and just being an absolute romp, “Raiders” is basically perfect, no notes. Indy beats up the Nazis, solves the puzzles of the ancient past, and gets the girl; what more could you want? Harrison Ford and Karen Allen became icons after the film’s release, and rightly so, as they both give fantastic and instantly memorable performances. The Ur text for all subsequent Indiana Jones’ projects, and essentially all pulp emulating media following its release, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is a classic for a reason, and I’m not so contrarian as to try and argue against its well earned status.