Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Hollywood's chutzpah whizzkids Spielberg and Lucas team up to bring the audiences who flocked to Star Wars and Close Encounters a replay of the innocent pleasures of Saturday serials, but done at two hours length with a much larger budget than the old cliffhangers could command. Spielberg's evasion of present day realities in an effort to recapture the sheer childlike fun of moviegoing is as perverse as was his previous film, 1941. What he offers is one long, breathtaking chase of a plot as his pre-World War II superhero, outsize and Bogartian, races to prevent the omnipotent Ark of the Covenant from falling into the hands of Hitler's Nazis. Whether you swallow it or not, see it for a handful of totally unexpected visual jokes, worth the price of admission alone.Author: RM
Cast & crew
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producer: Frank Marshall
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Alfred Molina, Wolf Kahler full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 115 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
Head trip
Fall preview: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York is one of the most mind-bending films of the season.
Kiss and tell
A director and his star use their personal lives as inspiration. And it isn't self-indulgent. Promise.
Leo rising
Melissa Leo talks about good direction, being <i>too</i> method and how to get ahead in indies.
Top of the World
Documentarian James Marsh turns a wire-walking stunt into high drama.
Harvest feast
Black Harvest reaps the best of black filmmaking, local and international.
Sibling revelry
The Duplass brothers have big plans. Hollywood, beware.
The Goode news
Matthew Goode springs to the defense of the new <i>Brideshead Revisited</i> like a superhero-in-the-making.



What do you think?
Post your review now