All The Right Moves

Rating: Null/10 (20 July 2008)

A globe-trotting American archaeologist travels to Egypt in search of the ancient Ark of the Covenant, in this adventure epic from director Steven Spielberg. It's a big-budget popcorn flick aimed mostly at kids. There's lots of heavy-duty action as our hero, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), makes all the right moves to escape dreaded Nazis, a bed of snakes, knife-wielding Egyptians, fiery explosions, poison food, human skeletons, bullets, airplane propeller blades, and assorted other dangers. Since there's nothing subtle about the story or the characters, and since the action plot zips along at the speed of light, viewers need not engage in any thinking.
With Jones as a surrogate for American virtuousness, "foreigners" in this film seem inept and villainous for the most part, a politically correct view for the era in which the film was made. American stereotypes aside, non-Americans are portrayed in the film mostly as clutter, film props for our hero to knock over.
It's all a bit much, a bit over-the-top. Not only is the story not believable, the story's theme is rather condescending. I despised the background music, annoyingly loud and manipulative. Acting is largely irrelevant, not surprising, given the film's genre.
In its defense, there are some good visual images. For example, I liked the scene of Jones, wearing his trademark hat, in silhouette, on a hill, back-lit by an orange sun. The film's color cinematography probably is its best element.
Otherwise, "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" is just one more in a long series of "action" movies for kids to drool over, a two hour cinematic ... cartoon. The script concept is silly; the characters are poorly defined; the plot is ridiculous; the score is annoying; and the American hero theme is very irritating.