Film and American Culture Series Introduction and Review

     In this series of blog posts I will be giving my personal reviews on some classic films that I have chosen off of either the American Film Institute's or the BBC's top 100 Greatest American Films lists. Some of these were revolutionary to the film industry or are considered classics that go as far back as 1916 with the film Intolerance, a drama directed by D. W. Griffith, through 2011 with The Tree of Life, a drama fantasy directed by Terrence Malick. I will be giving some basic information on the film itself and a personal review. Some of these films I have seen before when I was younger but it has been a handful of years if not more while others I will be watching for the first time. I am very excited for this series to broaden my watched list of classics. I also put together some of the information on these films to be handed in for my Film and American Culture course I was taking.

     The first film I am reviewing is Raiders of the Lost Ark directed by Steven Spielberg. It was produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and was released June 12, 1981. The cinematography was done by Douglas Slocombe and the musical score was written by John Williams. The film won at the Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

     The film follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) who is a professor of archeology. He also goes on excavations for items. In the first scene we see Jones go into a temple in Peru to procure a golden statue. During this sequence we see the iconic stone boulder scene with Jones trying to escape. He does successfully but his nemesis René Belloq (Paul Freeman) confronts him outside and takes the idol. The plot for this film is Jones seeking the Ark of the Covenant after conversing with Army Intelligence agents who claim the Nazis are looking for it to use as a weapon. Jones travels to Nepal to visit his old mentor and get a medallion that is used to locate the Well of Souls where the Ark is but he finds that his mentor is dead and his daughter Marion (Karen Allen) now has the medallion. After escaping the Nazis who try to take the medallion from her they travel to Cairo, Egypt. He sneaks into the diagram room to use the medallion with the help of his friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) and uses it to acquire the location of the Well of Souls. They dig to uncover the entrance but upon opening it they realize the room is full of venomous snakes. Jones and Sallah acquire the Ark of the Covenant but it is stolen by the Nazis and Jones is left with Marion to escape the Well of Souls. Jones catches up with the Nazis as they try to ship the Ark and is able to get it back and brings it to a boat to be taken to London. Unfortunately, on the way the ship is intercepted and the Nazis once again take the Ark back. Jones catches up to them just as they start to test it before bringing it to Hitler where Jones threatens to destroy it with a missile but his bluff is called and he is captured and bound with Marion. When Belloq opens the Ark he finds only sand but afterwords spirits of death start to appear. Jones tells Marion to close her eyes as the spirits destroy the equipment the Nazis where using to film the Ark's opening and start to take the lives of the Nazis. A pillar of fire closes the Ark while Jones and Marion are left unharmed. The movie ends with the Army Intelligence agents in Washington D.C. telling Jones the Ark is safe and will be studied and we see the Ark of the Covenant being stored away in a massive government warehouse among other crates.

Does this film have specific meaning to the time it was released? Or does it have a universal them we can apply to today? This film was released in 1981, 36 years after the end of World War II. So the topic of Nazis and American spirit where still probably a hot topic. Also Stephen Spielberg himself grew up in a Jewish home which might have given some context to how he directed the film. I believe there is a universal theme of power, greed, and respect in this film.

     Overall I enjoyed the film. As a Star Wars fan the Indiana Jones films are fun to watch with Harrison Ford and the John Williams scores are always brilliant. I have not seen this film in about ten years so it was fun to watch it as an adult. The effects were a little more cheesy than I remember but for the time the film was released they weren't too bad. One thing that did strike me was this film was much more violent than I remember. With scenes, for example, when Jones is fighting on the airplane and someone dies by getting caught in the propeller and blood splattering over the plane's cockpit where Marion is.