still a lot of fun, but...

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2008)

I understand that I may be forgiven for not thinking 'Citizen Kane' is so great, but the following is cinematic heresy- I've decided I'm not that crazy about the Indiana Jones series. They're fun films, no doubt, and there are certainly worse ways to spend a couple of hours. I watched 'The Last Crusade' again not long ago, and last night I watched the first one. At the risk of stating the obvious, what 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' really has going for it is Harrison Ford and a couple of slam-bang action/special effects sequences. Well, you say, for cryin' out loud, isn't that enough? And yeah, I suppose it is. I've just found I'm not nearly as enamored of the series as I once thought I was, and each of the films has flaws that perhaps only become apparent on repeated viewings. The aspect of 'Raiders' that grates particularly each time I see it is Karen Allen's performance. I'm sorry, I don't find her funny or attractive or even interesting. I understand that the idea is for her to be a feisty tomboy, someone who speaks her mind and is "more than a match" (as they say) for Ford's Indy. But does that mean Allen's Marion has to be so utterly unattractive, in every sense? At times, she seems more like a gangly, socially-challenged thirteen-year-old who hasn't learned basic table manners yet and who snorts when she laughs. I don't know what's more annoying, her behavior or the fact that every male in the film seems to think she's gorgeous. Granted, she doesn't have any competition... that must be it. So there's that. The film of course was a trendsetter in many ways, resurrecting almost single-handedly the grand old adventure flick. The durable plot elements and (other) characters were made to seem fresh again, from the resourceful adventurer venturing to exotic lands to those most reliably evil of slimy villains, the Nazis. And there is a toughness to the first Indiana Jones movie that seems somewhat lacking in the other two. Both Sallah and Marcus Brody are real characters here, alternately serious and amusing. By the time we get to 'Last Crusade,' the two men are strictly comic relief, and Marcus in particular becomes a scatterbrained buffoon. The climax of 'Raiders,' when it finally comes, was something of a revelation (so to speak) at the time. This was the big payoff, and it didn't disappoint, though it's actually pretty brief. The face-melting and vaporous spirits (to be used to a much greater extent later in Spielberg's 'Poltergeist') had audiences wide-eyed with amazement. And then a clever little epilogue left cinema-goers feeling satisfied, that they'd really gotten their money's worth. I shared all those feelings when I first saw 'Raiders of the Lost Ark;' as I said, it's only been the last two or three times I've watched it that I haven't been as blown away.