This might be a series, as I showed this movie to my daughter for the first time over the weekend, and I will share her reaction in a follow up post.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action movie. Even though I knew about the movie from my older brothers telling me about it, and seeing clips on TV, I didn’t see the whole movie until it was on cable; I’m sure it was a free preview as my parents didn’t get the extra movie channels. I know I saw it before Temple of Doom came out, which would means I saw it before the summer of 1984, so I was either 6 or 7. What I can remember about watching it for the first time, was the feeling of having no idea what would happen next! Just being totally sucked into that movie.
And that has become the bar that I judge all action movies by. The older I get, the lest often it happens, but when I land on a movie where I can’t figure it out, or I get sucked in to the point that I don’t know what will happen, I get to relive that experience of sitting on the edge of the couch wondering how Indy will stop that truck full of Nazis and get the Ark back.
Much has been written about Raiders, but I think it is important to point out that this movie was still early in Spielberg’s career, which I feel like he still had something to prove, With the help by the great cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, there are shots using lighting, shadow, and depth that are pretty arty for an action movie. Sadly, action directors seem to have moved on to prefer spectacle, I am sure due to the success of Raiders, and have lost touch with using image, through action, to forward the story. If you can remove an action sequence from a movie, and it doesn’t change the plot, then your action scene is meaningless.
As I watched Raiders again this weekend, which was like visiting an old friend, I put my focus on the stuntmen. All of those guys hanging off trucks, being set on fire, climbing, jumping and throwing punches. The practical effects that had a human connection. It’s an authenticity that movies struggle to have today. Don’t get me wrong. I like that planets can collide, and worlds can be dreamed up that are breathtaking in their artistry. But, if you are going to have a guy get dragged behind a truck, I want to see a stuntman do it.
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