Written by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spi...

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2003)

Written by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first of the classic Indiana Jones series, is a story about a man, Indiana, who is hired by the government to find the Lost Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do. The Ark holds the original Ten Commandments. Jones is an archaeologist and adventurer. He teaches by day, but when an adventure comes along, he will stop at nothing to get his treasure. Indiana is portrayed as a near completely fearless leader with merely one fear: snakes. As he goes about his journey to retrieve the Ark, Indiana braves nearly impossible challenges. However he is always either aware of the traps set for him, or somehow lucks out when he falls into them. The main catch of this movie, as well as the rest in the trilogy, is the awesome suspense, keeping the audience's attention at all times. The suspense is kept by placing Jones in ridiculous situations in which he always manages to narrowly get out of. For example, in the beginning of the movie Indiana finds himself fleeing the cave from numerous traps. At on point he is hanging from a ledge while a door begins to seal shut nearby. The door closes almost all the way and Indiana is still hanging. It looks as if there is no way he will get up in time, but of course, he makes it just in time to slide under the door and reach back under to retrieve his whip and pull out from under the very second it seals shut. Just after that, in one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, he finds himself being followed by an enormous boulder getting closer and closer with every step. In this scene, he manages to fall into a hole as the boulder rolls over, leaving him unharmed. He falls through the whole into more trouble, but still managed to escape the inescapable. These types of situations continue throughout the duration of the film. Though the outcomes of the situations are rather predictable, they never seem to get old or boring. Know-it-all, fearless, confident Indiana Jones keeps suspense high in every way, at all times, making this and the rest of the series classic films.