Raiders of the Lost Ark

I was lucky enough to see this film for the first time as a little kid at the Czech premiere in a completely packed cinema (people were sitting on the stairs), during the deep totalitarian era, when everybody was happy to see something other than a Soviet film (despite the many years of delay). The audience togetherness and the incredible burst of laughter of the whole cinema during Indy's duel with the swordsman is something I will never forget. Beautiful fun. (13/04/2003)

The film that forever changed the adventure genre and added more mystery to it than ever before in this first installment. However, even after many, many screenings, I still have a problem with its restrained pace and I will never include it in the group of the best films in history. Not that Ford's star doesn't shine like never before, but both Raiders of the Lost Ark and later Temple of Doom will always be in my eyes mainly warm-up acts to The Last Crusade. That doesn't change the fact that Indy is one of the most charismatic and likable movie heroes. (30/04/2006)

Anyone who doesn't take this brilliant ride through the history of adventure and stylistic tropes as an absolute gem is ripe for a psychiatrist. Spielberg and Lucas created a new form of entertainment that, with any luck, won't get old even after 1000 years. An example of a fully effective application of outdated genres and references to a dominant and entertaining filmmaking style, a playful and engaging combination of myth with real thematic background. Excellent music and camera, an awesome Harrison Ford and very possibility the most iconic character in cinema history, and so on, and so on… (31/01/2022)

If you're seeing the movie for the 100th time, you can peel off any piece you want and still enjoy it. Last time we watched the movie we watched it through the lens of when is the last time Indiana washes up throughout the entire movie. If we assume he showers at Omar's after he's learned the length of the cane from the old man, the last time we see him smelling good (apart from the Washington epilogue) is when he and Omar infiltrate the Nazi camp in disguise. We can't blame him, of course, for not showering in that camp, or during the all-night dig, the subsequent escape from the closed crypt, the battle at the airplane, or the subsequent car chase (so far a pretty intense 2 days), but the fact that he says the hell with it even in the safety of a friendly pirate ship and then just takes a sporadic sea bath while chasing a submarine only to continue chasing Nazis to the center of the island gives the film a whole new reading. The most nerve-wracking scene in it is the one where Indy climbs into the white linen bed in his disgusting sweaty shirt, and Marion's silent agony at the final ritual is definitely grounded in who she has to be chained to the same bedpost with. Yuck. Well, as the popular rapper Tyler Durden says, "I wonder what we're gonna learn tomorrow." (30/08/2021)

I didn't get to the first Indy adventure until 42 long years after the film's premiere, and my average rating is based on that. I didn't grow up on Spielberg's film, nor do I have a nostalgic attachment to it, and now that I've seen it for the very first time, I have to say that the ravages of time are quite visible. It's most noticeable in the special effects scenes, which is understandable given the year it was made, but the same can't be said for the action and fight scenes, which look laughable (in the negative sense) to the point of being artificial. The scene with the snake's lair or the final confrontation with the Ark of the Covenant had a solid atmosphere, I don't deny that, but for most of the film I felt like I was watching some kind of still undeveloped Indiana Jones prototype. (01/07/2023)