Movie Review by Bill Rendall

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark is worth the price of admission by itself. In the space of a few minutes the hero, Indiana Jones, discovers ancient treasure and evades booby traps, darts, spikes, spears and a gigantic rolling boulder. A good indicator of the fame of the opening sequence is that it has been parodied in an episode of The Simpsons.

The tightly packed opening action is not related to the storyline in the rest of the movie but serves to whet your appetite for plenty of thrills and adventures to come. The style of Raiders of the Lost Ark harks back to classic adventure stories and it is set in the past with a classic group of villains in the form of German Nazis.

The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg but I think George Lucas deserves credit for his creative input. After Star Wars Lucas decided that he didn't want to direct any more movies, but would provide creative ideas and scripts. Lucas was one of the writers of Raiders of the Lost Ark and there are a lot of things in common with Star Wars.

Indiana Jones is played by Harrison Ford, who shot to fame with Star Wars. The music score in both movies was composed by John Williams in the classic full orchestral style. At the time there was a trend to use fewer musicians to provide the movie score, often using synthesizers.

In both movies the sets were designed by the same production designer and art director, and the visual effects were supervised by Richard Edlund (the founder of Industrial Light and Magic.)

If you are looking for a movie that will entertain you without demanding too much concentration then I recommend Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay: Lawrence Kasdan
based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman

Music: John Williams

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