Exhilarating movie that is still fresh 30 years on!

Rating: 10/10 (2 October 2010)

This is a film that despite being made nearly 30 years ago, hasn't aged and is still far more entertaining that most of the big budget tent pole movies being churned out today. Credit has to go to creators George Lucas and Larry Kasdan, but the real kudos have to go to Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford for creating an new iconic action hero, and to holding the viewer spellbound with a exciting, amusing and emotionally involving movie, while at the same time paying homage to the Republic serials of the thirties, and elevating the action movie making spectacle much higher than the Bond movie franchise, which was the major action movie brand at the time.
The plot moves quickly, thanks to a sharp and witty script by Larry Kasdan, based upon ideas from Lucas, Kasdan, film-maker Philip Kaufman, and Spielberg himself. The film's opening sequence is mirrors the Bond pre-credits sequence, with the viewer thrown straight into an action/thriller sequence with little explanation, followed by a dialogue driven sequence to flesh out the plot. It works extremely well and involves the viewer in the story very quickly. Harrison Ford understands the role perfectly, and the character having moments of fallibility and things going wrong, and having to adapt to the ebbing of success and failure for the character in the story is fun to watch. Ford doesn't play to the character too broadly, and the Indiana Jones character is more fleshed out than Han Solo in Star Wars Episodes IV to VI. Gravitas is provided by an excellent performance by the late Denholm Elliot as Dr Marcus Brody, and a strong performance by John Rhys Davies as Salah. Most of the other parts are very theatrical in nature and are clearly driven by Spielberg's and Lucas's view to have a performance style similar to the Saturday matinée serials of the 1930s, and while work well within the context of the film, weren't memorable.
Spielberg as the director is on top form here, and for me is still his second best action/adventure film (after Jurassic Park). He understands what is needed for an entertaining and enthralling story, and keeps the interest and suspense levels high throughout the film. No scene or sequence is wasteful and everything you see, no matter how spectacular, character based, funny or frightening is there to serve the story and move it along very briskly. Spielberg orchestrates the action sequences with style, humour and panache, but most notably emotional involvement. He gets the audience to follow the character(s) within the action sequence, rather than just show an action sequence for the technical achievement's sake. The stunt-work is still impressive by today's standards, with able support from George Lucas and Michael Moore as the film's 2nd unit directors. Spielberg's editor Michael Kahn edits the footage perfectly to produce and wonderfully entertaining movie, and deservedly won an Oscar for his work. Spielberg's collaboration with veteran photographer Douglas Slocombe was outstanding and gave the film a stylish yet real feel, and they would work together on the subsequent two sequels.
The film is also first rate in other technical areas, that also serve to highlight the excellent story and support Spielberg's outstanding directing. Star Wars alumni Norman Reynolds, together with his art direction team won an academy award for the production design. ILM veterans Richard Edlund, Bruce Nicholson and Joe Johnston all won Oscars for the near seamless blend of visual effects into the live action. Richard Edlund had already won Oscars for his work on Star Episodes IV and V would go on to win again for Episode VI, before heading up a highly successful visual effects company (Entertainment Effects Group, which became known later as BOSS film) and overseeing fx a work on a series of high profile films including Ghostbusters, 2010, Die Hard. Air Force One and Charlie Wilson's War. Bruce Nicholson was responsible for the excellent compositing of the visual effects, and has a very successful career in this field, working on many high profile films, including the Matrix and Spiderman sequels. Joe Johnston went on a very successful career as a film director of films such as Honey I Shrunk the Kids! Jurassic Park III and more recently, the Wolfman. Kit West was responsible for the mechanical effects on the film, and has worked on a large body of films since, including Stargate and the Bourne Supremacy. The sound team of Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Roy Charman, Ben Burtt and Richard Anderson and did outstanding work and deservedly took home Oscar accolades.
Spielberg already had developed a very successful collaboration with composer John Williams, and it was this experience that led to George Lucas working with Williams on the Star Wars films. Williams continues this tradition of old fashioned, rousing scores with another outstanding score. The Raiders March has become almost as iconic as Star Wars in the movie history and popular culture. The music works brilliantly throughout the film, enhancing it wonderfully, and building brilliantly to a superb climax and a gentle but mysterious coda. It is a key part of making this film one of the best action/adventure films ever.
Concluding, congratulations must go to Mr Spielberg for delivering a remarkable and piece of all out escapist entertainment, that has stood the test of time remarkably well, and has never been bettered by any of the sequels, even though Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade comes very close.