Raiders of the Lost Ark

More spectacular and intricate action sequences may have been devised since, but it’s rare to find one with this level of bone-crunching realism and intensity.

To get to the point immediately, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American adventure movies ever made.

[Raiders of the Lost Ark] grabs you in the first shot, hurtles you through a series of incredible adventures, and deposits you back in reality two hours later -- breathless, dizzy, wrung-out, and with a silly grin on your face.

There was the almost exhausting excitement of the film itself. And at the same time a second emotion, a rush of gratitude which almost brought tears for the contagious joy and -- not to be corny about this -- the strength of the film's positive vision.

It is a transcendent blend of heroic exploits, cliffhangers and chases distilled with nostalgia and wit from the pulp thrillers, comic books and Republic serials of the World War II era.

It's all done with such a great spirit of high adventure and good humor that you don't even begin to count the corpses... The finale suggests that Ford's Indiana Jones character will soon be back with further adventures, and I'm all in favor of it.

Crisp and funny and filled with one unforgettable action set piece after another, yet also somehow unassuming. It truly feels like a vintage cliffhanger serial of the 1940s, directed by William Witney or some other master of the form.

Cementing Steven Spielberg’s place as the greatest blockbuster director ever, Raiders of the Lost Ark well deserves its spot as the jewel of action cinema.



Raiders of the Lost Ark is a movie so well-made and confident it didn’t need to have a sequel, but we’re sure glad it did.

One of the all-time greats. Harrison Ford is perfection-plus as Indiana Jones, so iconic a character that the AFI cited him as the second greatest movie hero of all time (just under Atticus Finch and just above James Bond).