Raiders of the Lost Ark movie review (1981) | Roger Ebert (2024)

Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" playslike an anthology of the best parts from all the Saturday matinee serials evermade. It takes place in Africa, Nepal, Egypt, at sea and in a secret submarinebase. It contains trucks, bulldozers, tanks, motorcycles, ships, subs, Pan AmClippers, and a Nazi flying wing. It has snakes, spiders, booby traps andexplosives. The hero is trapped in a snake pit, and the heroine finds herselfassaulted by mummies. The weapons range from revolvers and machineguns tomachetes and whips. And there is the supernatural, too, as the Ark of theCovenant triggers an eerie heavenly fire that bolts through the bodies of theNazis.

The Saturday serial aspects of "Raiders of the LostArk" have been much commented on, and relished. But I haven't seen muchdiscussion of the movie's other driving theme, Spielberg's feelings about theNazis. "Impersonal," critic Pauline Kael called the film, and indeedit is primarily a technical exercise, with personalities so shallow they'relike a dew that has settled on the characters. But Spielberg is not trying herefor human insights and emotional complexity; he finds those in other films, butin "Raiders" he wants to do two things: make a great entertainment,and stick it to the Nazis.

Weknow how deeply he feels about the Holocaust. We have seen "Schindler'sList" and we know about his Shoah Project. Those are works of a thoughtfuladult. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is the work of Spielberg'srecaptured adolescence, I think; it contains the kind of stuff teenage boyslike, and it also perhaps contains the daydreams of a young Jewish kid whoimagines blowing up Nazis real good. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan,based on a story by Philip Kaufman, George Lucas and an uncredited Spielberg,whose movie is great fun on the surface -- one of the classic entertainments --and then has a buried level.

Consider.The plot hinges on Hitler's desire to recapture the long-lost ark."Hitler's a nut on the subject," Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) istold by a government recruiter. "Crazy. He's obsessed with theoccult." But not just anything occult. The ark, if found, would be themost precious Jewish artifact imaginable -- the chest that held the Ten Commandmentsthat God gave Moses on the mountain top. "An army which carries the arkbefore it is invincible," Indy says; Hitler wants to steal the heritage ofthe Jews and use it for his own victory.

Throughoutthe film, there is a parade of anti-Nazi symbolism and sly religious satire, aswhen a desperate Indy grabs the hood ornament of a Mercedes truck, and it snapsoff. And when a Nazi torturer grabs a sacred relic and it burns a stigmata intohis hand. When the ark is being transported in the hold of a Nazi ship, insidea stout lumber crate, the swastika and other Nazi markings spontaneously catchfire and are obliterated. A Nazi officer, uneasy about opening the ark, says:"I am uncomfortable with the thought of this Jewish ritual." And of coursewhen the spirit of the ark manifests itself, it's as a writhing column of firethat skewers the Nazis. ("Keep your eyes closed," Indy desperatelytells his sidekick, although one assumes the holy fire would know friend fromfoe.) There is even a quiet in-joke in the character of Belloq (Paul Freeman),the Frenchman who tries to play both sides against the middle, just as OccupiedFrance did.

Naziswere favorite villains of Saturday serials, prized more for their costumes andaccents than for their evil beliefs. Spielberg here makes manifest theirvalues, and then destroys them: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has all thequalities of an exuberant serial, plus a religious and political agenda. ThatSpielberg places his message in the crevices of the action makes it all themore effective. "Raiders" may have an impersonal superstructure, butit* foundations are personal, and passionate.

Imake these points to place it more firmly in the mainstream of Spielberg'swork, since "Raiders" is widely enjoyed but just as widely dismissedas something Spielberg tossed off between more important films. It comesbetween "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "E.T.: TheExtra-Terrestrial," films Kael compared to "a boy soprano singingwith joy." That voice couldn't be heard in "Raiders," she felt.I think I can hear it: not singing, but laughing, sometimes with glee,sometimes in triumph.

Themovie is just plain fun. The Kasdan screenplay is a construction of one damnthing on top of another. As the movie opens, Indy brushes aside a web tallerthan a man, is assaulted by giant spiders, narrowly eludes a booby trap andthen another, leaps across a bottomless pit, is nearly crushed by a loweringslab, is betrayed by his companion, leaps the pit again, is pursued by agigantic boulder that rolls behind him, is surrounded by natives with spearsand dart guns, leaps into a river, crawls into an airplane and finds a giantsnake in the co*ckpit. "I hate snakes," he says.

Themovie hurtles from one crisis to another. After the struggle for control of theflying wing, for example (after, that is, a fist fight, gunshots, gasolineexplosions and a villain who is made mincemeat by a propeller), Indy isabruptly told, "The Ark! They're taking it on a truck to Cairo!" Indyreplies, "Where is it?" And that's all the exposition necessary toget us from the flying wing scene to the famous truck chase.

HarrisonFord is the embodiment of Indiana Jones -- dry, fearless, and as indestructibleas a cartoon coyote. The correct casting was not as obvious in 1980, when thefilm was being prepared, as it is now. He had starred in "Star Wars"and "The Empire Strikes Back" as Han Solo, a laconic man of action,but his other credits were a mixed bag. What he proved in the "StarWars" movies, and went on to prove again and again, is that he can supplythe strong, sturdy center for action nonsense. In a scene where everything ishappening at once, he knows that nothing unnecessary need be happening on hisface, in his voice, or to his character. He is the fulcrum, not the lever.

KarenAllen plays Marian, his sidekick, a gutsy broad who has the duty of followingthe hero from one side of the globe to the other, while in constant danger.(She is nearly burned alive twice, shot at, faces down a King Cobra and is lefttied to a stake by Indy because "If I take you out of here they'll startcombing the place for us.") The female lead in an Indiana Jones movie issort of an honorary boy, no more sexual than the girls in boys' adventuremagazines, although Marian can more than take care of herself and is nothelpless in the face of danger.

Thespecial effects, astonishing at the time, now look a little cheesy; accustomedto digital perfection, we can see when model planes are being used, when darkclouds are being put in the sky by an optical printer, when the deadly rays ofthe ark are being superimposed on the action. Lucas of course went back andtidied up the effects in "Star Wars," but I hope Spielberg nevertouches "Raiders" because the effects, just as they are, help set thetone of the movie. A serial should look a little hasty. It's a Boy's OwnAdventure, a whiz-bang slamarama, a Bruised Forearm movie (you squeeze the armof your date every time something startles you). It's done with a kind ofheedless joy. Spielberg was old enough (34) to have the clout to make the film,and young enough to remember why he wanted to. All of the reasons why he wantedto.