Raiders of the Lost Ark

Archaeology was never like this

The movie that started the Indiana Jones series, this is almost a thrill a minute type of movie as opposed to more of a traditional movie. Indiana has all the luck he needs to escape every situation, and even possible capture or worse.



Indiana is introduced to us running through a booby trapped gauntlet in the jungle, he is after a gold statue which he does manage to find. However, he then looses it to his rival, this is a reoccurring theme in all the Indiana Jones' movies.

After escaping from his rival we find him back in civilization teaching archaeology, he is a professor at a university, and isn't dressed in his "adventuring" gear which includes his whip, and hat. It is while he is at the university that he is persuaded to find the lost Ark of the Covenant.

Part of his motivation is to keep it out of the hands of the Nazis, who are looking for it in order to make their army invincible due to its powers. While searching for the Ark he has quite a number of action packed adventures and manages to survive all of them with only a few minor bumps and cuts.

As indicated before, he does find the Ark but then looses it to the Nazis, oops. The Nazis however make the mistake of opening it and looking at it, which kills all the bad guys and leaving Indiana alive and well.

This is one of those movies where you sit back and enjoy the ride, not too much to the plot, and we always know the good guys will win. It is a Hollywood movie after all, the special effects are quite good, not brilliant by today's standards, but it was made back in 1981.