Hard-to-beat entertainment

Rating: 9/10 (28 July 2006)

Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg created this motion picture in an attempt to tap into the excitement and spirit of the old adventure serials they watched as young children, and they ended up topping the even the very best of the very series they were emulating in every conceivable way. Easily one the ultimate adventure films of all-time, RAIDERS is an enormously entertaining, sometimes breathtaking roller coaster ride that became watershed classic in it's own right. Lucas and Spielberg manage to find the pitch-perfect balance of updating and revitalizing serial clichés without sub-coming to them, and the commutation of the efforts are right on the screen. From it's very first scene onward, RAIDERS is an absolute blast that keeps getting better and better.
Obviously, much of the film's success can be attributed to Harrison Ford, who (not only in this film, but also in 1977's STAR WARS and 1982's BLADE RUNNER) always manages walk the thin line between straight-faced sincerity and knowing campiness. Although I think Ford's later ventures into straight drama have been extremely uneven, there is absolutely no denying that he is perhaps Hollywood's ultimate pulp idol. The long underrated Karen Allen is great fun as the film's progressively feisty heroine, and the remainder of the cast is also expertly used. Above all else, however, it is Lucas and Spielberg who continually surprise and delight the audience again and again in this box office smash (it was the top grosser of 1981), and it arguably remains the finest joint achievement from the pair.