Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas, who also wrote the story on which the script is based. The movie was a huge box office and critical success and won numerous awards, including five Academy Awards. It has inspired a variety of filmmakers and spawned a highly successful franchise that includes three film sequels, a TV series, comic books, novels, toys, theme park attractions, and video games. It had a significant impact on popular culture and is considered one of the best action-adventure films ever made. The film is regarded by critics as pure entertainment, but, on a deeper level, it can be viewed as a manifestation of the director’s feelings towards Nazism and an exercise in playing with the political and religious agenda. The plot is set in 1936 and follows the adventures of Indiana Jones, a treasure hunter and archeologist, hired by the American government to find the lost Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do. Adolf Hitler, who is obsessed with the occult, believes that the artifact, containing the original stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, can make his army invincible. Teaming up with his former lover and the daughter of the fellow archaeologist Marion, Indiana Jones races to stop the rival treasure hunter Dr. Rene Belloq from guiding the Nazis to the Ark and its power. The film is generally viewed by critics and the audience as a pure adventure, filled with dazzling high-paced action, light humor, and a well-balanced blend of fantasy and romantic elements. In his review for Variety, Steven Klein claims that The Raiders of the Lost Ark, “steeped in an exotic atmosphere of lost civilizations, mystical talismans, gritty mercenary adventures, Nazi arch-villains, and ingenious death,” is “an exhilarating escapist entertainment” (Klein). It includes a number of remarkable action scenes and gags, one of which features Indiana Jones shooting an Arab swordsman, who appears before him, swinging his weapon and vigorously inviting Jones into an epic duel ( Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) . It is a consummately entertaining adventure that blends action, fun, and romance into a mix that has not lost its appeal since the 1980s. However, while the movie’s action-adventure value has been much commented on, there are themes touched in The Raiders of the Lost Ark that are often overlooked. Its conflict is centered around the main characters’ confrontation with the Nazis, and the movie itself can be seen as the manifestation of the director’s feelings toward Nazism. Steven Spielberg grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family, feeling embarrassed “by the outward perception of the parents’ Jewish practices,” and suffering from anti-Semitism at school (Jungreis-Wolff). In 1993, he directed Schindler’s List, a movie about a man who risked his life to save 1,100 Jews from the Holocaust, which became Spielberg’s attempt to embrace his Jewish heritage. In The Raiders of the Lost Ark, shot twelve years earlier, the Nazis are also the main villains, but the theme is approached from a different perspective. The plot is set in 1936, five years before World War II, and features the Nazis in the search for the lost Ark of the Covenant. The order is given by A