Hurrah!

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2001)

Here's a sordid confession - when I was twelve or so, I preferred "Indianna Jones and the Temple of Doom". A few years later, when "Last Crusade" was released, I thought that IT was the best in the trilogy. Yes, that's the kind of fool I was. I even thought that sections of "Raiders" were just a trifle dull. THAT'S the kind of fool I was.
But I grew up, and, as you would expect, my admiration for the first Indianna Jones film has done nothing but increase; it's now clear as day to me that it's the best thing Spielberg has ever done. (Not quite clear as day. In order to be sure I'd have to see "The Sugarland Express".) For this film alone Spielberg deserves a place at the High Table with the great directors. It's one of the most purely pleasurable cinematic outings of all time. Perhaps we can't credit Spielberg for the perfectly cantilevered script (what a pity it was to spoil its perfection, by making other Indianna Jones films, good though the second one was), or for the tub-thumpingly terrific musical score. How lucky Spielberg was to find John Williams, a composer not afraid to write actual music, as opposed to mood noises; nor afraid to take everything seriously, even as he underlined the humour. Like Spielberg himself. And I suppose Spielberg was lucky to make the film in 1981. Made today, it would be arch and hip and flippant, it would showcase inferior special effects, and the soundtrack would be poorly recorded.
But good fortune is a tiny part of the story. This is CLEARLY a film made by a director with eagle-eyed quality control: it contains not a weak shot, nor a dead scene, nor an uncommitted performance, nor a dud line. (Whatever happened to that director?) You may START, as I did, thinking of it as a slightly-too-slow-but-still-fun adventure yarn ... but as you watch it again and again (and you will), you'll come to realise that it's a cinematic masterpiece.