One of the great movies undoubtedly

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2002)

Raiders, the original, classic Indiana Jones adventure, is one of those films that when you revisit makes you realise how hardly anything so fresh, exciting and superb comes on our screens these days. Following on from his only flop (1941), Steven Speilberg and George Lucas' all-stops homage to the old Saturday morning serials introduced us to the whip-cracking Dr Jones who would quite happily confront sword-windling Arabs and stowaway on a Nazi submarine but think twice about sharing a plane seat with a snake.

In his first and greatest adventure, Indy (Harrison Ford) goes out in search of the Ark of Covenant when he is told that Hitler is out looking for the very same thing. What follows is a non-stop array of spectacular action, death-defying thrills and ultimate tongue-in-cheek humour but its not all down to Speilberg's handling of the action that makes Raiders a classic among classics. Ford is just as perfect and superb in the role as Connery was as Bond and the whole experience would not be the same without his thick sweat or ice-breaking smile. Karen Allen also gives an endearing performance as the fiesty heroines whilst Paul Freeman and Ronald Lacey make terrific villains. The film was an overwhelming success and Speilberg kept the magic perfectly in two equally successful and classical sequels.