Unmissable Slam-Bang-Wallop Globetrotting Action Adventure

Rating: 9/10 (14 August 2005)

In 1936, Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer, is hired by the US government to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, rumoured to be buried in a hidden vault somewhere in Egypt. His quest takes him first to Nepal to recover a key artefact, and then to Cairo in a desperate race against time to find the Ark before Nazi agents also hunting it.
For me, this is simply the best action film ever made. This film just roars along at an incredible speed, and it has everything in it - secret temples, tarantulas, Injuns, bar brawls, romance, Egyptology, Nazis, pompous Frenchmen, street fights, monkeys, buried treasure, snakes, car chases, pirates, submarines, the wrath of God and government coverups. I mean, what more could anybody honestly want ? The screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, from an original (well, sort-of) idea by George Lucas, is just terrific but it's the sheer frenetic pace of the film that just sweeps you along - the story never stops for anything. It's a textbook model of how to cut all the flab out of a movie until there's just the good stuff left. The genius of the film is of course the genius of the great Steven Spielberg, with his unique combination of absolute technical mastery of the medium and his amazing capacity to entertain, but the sheer talent of the people behind him are what make this arguably his best film. John Williams' score is perhaps his best, with the most memorable of any of his great themes and entire sequences (the map room, the truck chase, the final ceremony) just awash in marvellously atmospheric music. The stuntwork (Glenn Randall, Peter Diamond, Terry Leonard, Vic Armstrong) is the best I've seen in any movie, and Deborah Nadoolman's wonderful costumes, Ben Burtt's sound effects and the special effects by Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson and Chris Walas are simply fabulous. You can't have a great movie without great performances, and the entire cast bring such a sense of fun and enthusiasm to their characters that they are impossible to resist. This is Ford's classic hero performance - he fits into Indiana Jones seamlessly and somehow manages to be lovable, heroic, scruffy and noble all at the same time. Allen punches and kicks her way through the film with terrific aplomb and still manages to also be a classical romantic heroine. Freeman, Davies and Elliott all devour their roles with gusto and Lacey is indisputably the best, and I mean the best, Sinister Nazi ever to grace the screen. Despite what any critics might say, movies always have and always will be about one main thing - telling a story in pictures. This movie is a deliriously brilliant piece of visual storytelling with an unbeatable capacity to entertain. Outstanding.