Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

It is hard to find fault with this film in terms of Spielberg’s sheer mastery of his craft. Each frame of the film is orchestrated so expertly that Spielberg maintains a level of control of his audience unseen before (they are constantly torn between feelings of anxiety and excitement at the hero’s adventures and rewarded with the pleasures of near death escapes and expertly choreographed actions sequences). Spielberg’s camera becomes a character in its own right, with the audience constantly placed in the position of an unknown listener, native, idol, etc.

Spielberg benefits enormously by having the visual blueprint of the old Republic serials as he can concentrate on what he is best at – the visual telling of his tale and the problem solving in which this entails. By recreating many of the best of the Republic serials, he is able to use them as a starting point and then find ingenious ways to build on the excitement while adding to the organic unity of the film. His use of combing and contrasting the images of Marion w/ the Ark and sand w/ the sacred heighten the journey that Indy is himself on, of understanding that his quest for artifacts is never as important as his real quest, a spiritual awakening of his place in the community and his appreciation of the human (sand a metaphor of the dust we all become?) and those that love him. I love how Spielberg transforms the macho heroes of the serials to a fallible nerd/action hero that always winds up losing the artifact he is on a quest for. At the conclusion of the movie, The Lost Ark is lost again (this time in bureaucracy) but Indy has found the true Ark (though he too apparently doesn’t know what he has as the credits role as it will take decades and three more movies/adventures before he marries Marian).

The arc of the four films is interesting, as Indy slowly begins to lose his cynicism regarding the power of the spiritual and in each films bonds closer with those around him – perhaps more importantly he comes to understand his role in the community. His fear of snakes is interesting also, as snakes represent the circle of life and death in many cultures – as if Indy is subconsciously terrified of growing up and taking his position in society (he would be happy at the beginning of the series to remain the boy on his adventures). The series ends however with Indy accepting his role as father and husband.

Whether due to insecurities over the critical and financial failure of 1941 or due to his love of the old Republic serials, Spielberg raises the bar with Raiders. Despite the criticism of his treatment of women, racism, and apparent pro-Reagan era themes, Spielberg is doing so much more than his critics give him credit for. He has taken a tired genre and turned it upside down. His hero is not Ronald Regan from “They Died w/ Their Boots On” or John Wayne from “Stagecoach”, he is a man that makes mistakes, runs from danger when discretion is the better part of valor, is usually dirty and covered with sweat, never keeps the physical object he is seeking, and comes to understand that spiritual/religious object from indigenous cultures have power and belong to them. I love this series, including the even numbered ones which lack the great stories of the first and third installments.