In my younger years and really all my life there have been three films I can think of that exemplify the true no hold’s barred spirit of Hollywood, in it’s most swashbuckling escapist glory. They are in no order:
1. The Adventure’s Of Robin Hood (1938)
2. Total Recall (1990)
3. Raider’s Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Of those three films Raider’s of the lost Ark and Total Recall MIGHT be neck and neck in my pantheon… purely out of nostalgia. But what inches The Lost Ark to the top is two things:
1. Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is the USA’s most Hollywood of modern era directors a man who knows what movies, as opposed to cinema, are all about. That old school studio system magic. Entertaining the audience at a primal base sensory level. And with Raider’s Of The Lost Ark he achieves that so perfectly while having the added fun of sticking it to the nazis (and kicking the French on the way out). And we all love a film that sticks it to the nazis!
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark is pure entertainment start to finish on primal level that just works. But if you want to overthink it, everything in the film is there with intention and purpose. The shots, the score, the scenes and bit players…. And I don’t mind overthinking and reaching with theories and ideas in a film like this because, again, at the end of the day you can just ride the ride. But if you do overthink it this is a film that turns some swashbuckling tropes are their head. For example there is a shot late in the film where Indiana has to put on a nazi disguise and so he knocks out a soldier in the island military base to steal his uniform. But in a humorous twist discovers the shirt doesn’t fit him.
I don’t recall if I saw this film before or after Star Wars or if I even saw in theaters as a child. But I know it was on TV at some point. However I saw it though, it stuck with me because it was such a simple action story yet had such bravado and humor I had never seen before. And I know that as much as I LOVED the original Star Wars trilogy I keep coming back to Raider’s Of The Lost Ark more. Possibly because it is grounded on Earth while still dealing with magic and the unknown that is out there. And as I got older into my teens I came to love the feminism in it and the bittersweet ending where the hero’s “save the day” but don’t, ultimately, get the prize.
And the title of the film itself is in a way stating there are no “good guys”. The “raiders” could be anyone; some old ancient Egyptian civilization, the nazi’s, the french, and even the USA. And proof of that is while everyone seeks the ark they more or less have total disregard for any of the other astounding and ancient treasures they come across. The ego and hubris of seeking the ark at the expense of a nations other cultural artifacts and wonders. Now, it is true Dr. Jones was hired by the US government to do a job but we saw him throw ethics out the window in the opening scene where he snatches the golden idol, knowing the ancient cave should also be studied and examined.
But so what? Were not watching this for an ethics lecture. Were not even watching this for a humanities lecture on ancient Egypt or the Jews or christianity. And so for me Raider’s Of The Lost Ark did in one film what Stars Wars tried to achieve in three, that Hero’s journey. But again with a slight sour aftertaste. I think that is another reason why I prefer it to Star Wars because it doesn’t wrap up so nicely. That frustration of all the work (and near death experiences) only to be stonewalled by bureaucracy to the point you need a drink. And yet you know the characters still go on with their lives because they have a drive that will not let them quit life and their passions.
Also despite the sequels with their varying quality Raider’s Of The Lost Ark really did try to make all the mystical and fantasy as real as possible and maintain that this was in fact Earth in the 1940s. Meaning, it tried to adhere to SOME sense of reality that later installments, for me at least, left behind, especially with the action scenes.
Every cast member in it this just perfection. Even the scheming Monkey! And where characters like Sallah and Marcus Brody were reduced to comedic buffoonery in future adventures, in the first installment they have value and integrity.
It has great set pieces and comedy of course. But also has some intellect, as in an early scene where Dr. Jones is giving a mini lecture on the ark and occult history to government officials. I could’ve sat through a full hour of that lecture and not been bored. The way the government officials sit back in their chair in awe and also acceptance that they are out of their element is one of several great acting (or directing choices) that often gets lost in the mix of this explosive romp. And makes the ending “twist” sting even more.
And then of course you have the arch enemy in the nazis but also as a double shot the French with Belloch his competitor. I am sure Belloch was a not so subtle dig at those who sided with the Nazis to save there own skin in WWII. And the fact that this all centers around the ark, an unknowable mystical object could be taken as mere fantasy but I think speaks to a part of the hero’s journey that is not much spoken on. The fact that the hero’s journey doesn’t actually end until we take our dirt nap. That, until we die, there will always be things we can never know and questions not answered. Still, we keep getting up and riding out on the horse or the jeep or the yacht anyway to try and get the answer and acquire new knowledge. That is what the ark represents in the film, new knowledge.
And the fact that the government officials seal it in a crate and lose it in a warehouse cannot be accidental it must be clear dig at the power structures of the US not wanting to be challenged or lose their power or even look in a mirror. They literally shut out any questions or new thinking.
And the twist of irony in the fact that it ends with one of the officials saying, “We have top men working on it right now,” is another one of the funny moments that is just so much deeper because wasn’t Indiana Jones the “top man” for the job? That’s why they hired him in first place!
But even before we ever get to the ark the opening shot fading from the iconic Paramount logo into a mountain in South American is brilliant acknowledging that this is in fact a mainstream studio produced fantasy and alternate history. So everyone knows what they are making here and why. Also the opening set piece in the cave foreshadows the ending. There will be no winner in this story.
Every scene and shot has a purpose even in the jungle scene when Indiana finally escapes with his hired pilot and there is a snake on the plane (insert your own Samuel L. Jackson voice here)… And snakes will show up again of course. The snake being of the garden of Eden, tied to the tree of knowledge which in some ways the ark represents. Also the shedding of skin where Dr. Jones goes from a professor teaching students crushing on him to working on assignment for the US government as a more of less lone wolf.
As many know the film was inspired buy all the action serials Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola , Lawrence Casdan and others grew up watching in cinemas. But Spielberg’s brilliance is to take all that Saturday morning surface escapism and give all these wonderful deeper hidden little themes and images for those looking. Just like the best poetry does. Like I said above you can ride the ride and have a great time and then if you wish you can overthink it.
Maybe my favorite shot in the film is when Marion Ravenwood is cleaning up in her bar in Nepal after a drinking contest. She is facing the camera framed on the left side of the shot. Her hands and shot glasses to her ears like she has a headache but also like the Monkey doing a, “hear no evil” gesture. This signifies that Indiana was some painful part of her past. And that whatever excuses he has for entering back into her life and being in her bar, she does not want to hear them.
The shadow of Indiana Jones in the shot is looming over her on the wall with nothing else in frame but a small lantern on the left. And his shadow swallow’s hers. She drops the shot glasses as she realizes her life is about to be altered once again by this man she used to love. Indiana’s shadow is almost like a curse she can’t escape. You can feel it the way Karen Allen delivers the lines:
Indiana Jones. I always knew some day you’d come walking back in my door. I never doubted that. Something made it inevitable.
It shows that she knew this time would come eventually. But his shadow is also a shadow of Marion herself and represents her own journey.
Not for nothing Marion sounds too similar to Marian as in Maid Marian of Robin Hood Fame to be a coincidence. But the Maid is somewhat a damsel in distress who ultimately needs rescue by Robin. Marion will prove cunning and perfectly able to stand on her own even as her bar burns down and even after several shots of alcohol.
And this is proven well before she gets into any action set pieces when she clocks Indiana in the face and orders him to get out of her bar.
Marion: I learned to hate you in the last ten years
Indy: I never meant to hurt you.
Marion: I was child. I was in love. It was wrong and you knew it!
Indy: You knew what you were doing.
Marion: Now I do. This is my place. Get out!
And the of course we get the fabulous bar shootout with some nazis where at the end she exclaims, “I’m your goddamn partner!” Once again asserting herself.
Even at the end of the film, in it’s final scene she is the one who saves Indiana from his own bitter mood offering to go buy him a drink, “You know, a drink?” I claim Marion Ravenwood as one of great female action heroines of all time maybe one of the greatest female characters on film of all time period. She starts strong, stays strong, and ends strongest of all focused on her circle of control and unbothered by the power players and gate keeping.
But in-between Nepal and that final scene so many glorious and wonderful delights occur in the exotic locale of Egypt. All with a back forth between who has the upper hand, the nazis or Dr. Jones?
I can imagine as a young person I really enjoyed the hand to hand fight on the plane and the tarmac. But older me just ADORES the scene where the sleaze Belloch tries to seduce Marion with a dress and some liquor. And of course Marion out drinks him handily. But as she is planning to leave the nazi’s interrupt her escape. Which leads to… more snakes and further destruction of buried Egyptian treasures. There is the now famous “sword fight” that ends with a gun. There is a car chase involving Indiana on a Horse. The aforementioned hand to hand on the wings of a plane. So many delights.
And I have not even talked about the score by John Williams which, takes all that pomp and circumstance he used in Star Wars and washes it in an almost an Elmer Bernstein western flavor. Making the title theme almost like a US national anthem where one should stand up and salute the flag. I can listen to that score and know exactly where I am in the film. It add just that nice extra dash of filet to the adventure gumbo.
But I think the film is best summed up in one of the most iconic shots and lines in the film that involves a nazis spy doing the and salute. And the spy in question is in fact a Monkey. Run with that metaphor as you please. But it is that Monkey the sets in motion the chase through the streets of Cairo giving the film probably my favorite line in the entire movie. And one that I think is the most important for the themes the movie is trying to tell.
Marion Ravenwood, being hauled around the streets of Cairo kidnapped in a giant basket shouts, “You can’t do this to me I’m an American!”
Kudos to Kasdan for dreaming that one up. It works on SO many great levels of humor and truth about US ego and exceptionalism. We first met Marion in Nepal where she had been living for who knows how many years. And yet when she gets captured by the enemy she shouts that comedic line as if it might have some cache in a foreign country like Egypt (let alone be understood by the natives). But the real irony only comes at the end of the film when we see that for all the life or death situations Indiana and Marion got into to claim the ark and bring it back to the US. It is in fact the US government that ultimately screws them over. Not the nazis. It is those at the top in the US giving the shaft to those beneath them (AKA business as usual).
It is such a perfect ending in so many ways. And says so much about the values of the USA system in such a subtle way. Unless your are overthinking it like me you might not even notice that maybe what the film was ultimately trying to do all along was put a mirror up to our own hypocrisy.
But I’m overthinking it for sure. Just ride the ride and, c’mon, let me buy you a drink… You know, a drink.
