Pitch: For nearly three thousand years, man has been searching for the Ark of the Covenant. It’s not something to be taken lightly. No one knows its secrets. Meet Indiana Jones, part-time professor and full-time adventurer, who’s just been hired by the US government to find it. On his tail? Nazis, a French archaeologist, and lots and lots of snakes.
Amblin’ Man: By 1980, Spielberg had already proven he had a signature style and vision, thanks to 1975’s Jaws and 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but his sense of adventure was cemented with Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Map Room. The Well of Souls. Hell, even the entire opening chapter in Peru. You could pick any scene in the film and come up with a shiny, golden idol, but the film’s most influential sequence is without a doubt the eight-minute truck chase in the third act.
Expanding upon the age-old tropes and heroics of Western cowboy epics, Spielberg takes something so rudimentary — in this case, a truck carrying the film’s spooky MacGuffin — and goes H.A.M. by throwing his star through the ringer. Really, the entire scene is like a video resume for Jones’ character, proving how resilient and resourceful he is as a hero. He’s dragged, he’s punched, he’s shot, he’s punched again (this time where he was shot), so by the time he succeeds, you have to applaud.
Decades and decades later, it’s impossible to count the number of times it’s been imitated. Though, what separates this particular scene from its clones is Spielberg’s comfortable showmanship. He makes The Spectacle look so easy and has no problem having fun in the process, as evidenced by the palpable humor amid the action. It’s a slog of a task, alright, but we get a sense that Indy lives for this shit, especially how he reacts to every step of the way. That boyish smile of his … sells all the magic.
Williams’ Wonder: If Williams were to look back on his long, remarkable career and pinpoint when things were not just great, but out-of-this-world spectacular, there’s probably no better place than Raiders of the Lost Ark. Only a year prior, he had turned in his elaborate, mystical score for Irvin Kershner’s equally elaborate, mystical The Empire Strikes Back, and he was another year away from taking children to the skies with Spielberg’s next opus, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Needless to say, this was an exciting chapter for Williams, and the guy was on a wicked creative spurt.
What stands out most from the maestro’s Raiders score is how classical it all sounds. He’s like a peppier Bernard Herrmann, a lighter Franz Waxman, or a more moderate Max Steiner. It’s a very romantic score, swelling with varying degrees of passion that parallel Indy’s at-times understated feelings toward history, adventure, or Marion. Later Indiana Jones installments would try to capture the enchantment of “The Map Room: Dawn” and some would come close — see: Last Crusade’s “The Penitent Man Will Pass” — but nothing would ever sound so grand and pure.
Traces of his melodies on Empire admittedly bubble up on Raiders — for instance, “Marion’s Theme” sounds curiously close to “Han Solo and Princess Leia (Love Theme)” — but these similarities never last very long. To be fair, that’s always been the case with Williams, who has a clever tendency to weave his own leitmotifs in and out of his future works. Hell, the unforgettable “Raider’s March” even has echoes of his triumphant “Superman Theme” from three years beforehand. Purists might shake their heads at this, but they’ll also likely be whistling them minutes later.
Indiana Selleck: Somewhere in an alternate dimension, Three Men and a Baby star Tom Selleck skipped out on Magnum, P.I. and donned the fedora. But not in this one. True story: When Ford’s name was brought up for the titular role by Spielberg, Lucas initially balked at the idea, worried critics and fans would dub the actor his own “Bobby De Niro” — ahem, Martin Scorsese’s go-to actor — so they looked towards other names. Of the alternates were Animal House hunk Tim Matheson, theatre actors Peter “Keys” Coyote and John “Lex Luthor” Shea, and, yes, Mr. Selleck. The mustachio’d bruiser was actually offered the role, but had to drop out due to his prior commitments to the small screen.
Nevertheless, here’s a peek of “what could have been…”
The Adaptation: Shortly after the film’s release, three incredibly imaginative kids from Ocean Springs, Mississippi — specifically, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb — set out on an Indy-sized adventure of their own. For seven straight summers, so roughly 1982 to 1989, they pieced together a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Over time, the tape made its rounds, eventually falling into the hands of Belloq himself, director Eli Roth, who helped share it around Hollywood with pop culture’s own Toht, aka Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News.
What once was urban legend is now cinematic gold, thanks to directors Tim Skousen and Jeremy Coon. Last year, the two released a fascinating and heartwarming documentary about the three boys titled Raiders!, which not only captures the DIY remake but finishes it — specifically, the explosive flying wing battle. Watching the boys and their cast reunite decades later, reminiscing on their upbringing and love for the film, is perhaps the greatest commemoration of Spielberg’s legacy, a real-life parallel to the themes and worlds he earmarked years ago.
Analysis: Raiders of the Lost Ark is the rare action film that’s not afraid of being both sophisticated and fun. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan toed the fine lines of the 1930s and 1940s serials, grappling with their dated tropes and story beats to deliver a multi-faceted narrative that never feels dusty and nostalgic, only fresh and smart. Spielberg’s sense of pacing allows for genuine drama in between the side-swiping chapters of adventure, which is likely one of the reasons why it was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1982.
If you look past the blockbuster sequels that followed, Raiders of the Lost Ark remains a standalone gem in not only Spielberg’s oeuvre but filmmaking altogether. Critics and historians will forever point to The Great Train Robbery or The Mark of Zorro as the respective progenitors of the action and adventure genres, but there’s reason to believe that Indiana Jones will eventually be the go-to example in the years and decades to come, if it hasn’t already. To quote the one they call Bellosh, “We are simply passing through history. This, this is history.”
Ha, ha, ha, son of a bitch.
— M. Roffman
Watch Raiders of the Lost Ark now on Disney+ and Paramount+ or on VOD via Apple TV and Amazon.
