Raiders of The
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D4 Weekend/Friday, June 12, 1981 1 rl 17 ,~==============, l~~ ~ ~==================- Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones, an archeol091st who barely escapes with his life several limes in "Raiders of the Spielberg and Lucas make a modern movie serial itching to once again be Superman. The opportunity soon comes. In one of those dull, now-it's-time-to-slt-on.your. with something for everyone - but is that enough? hands expository sequences, we dis- cover, during a top-secret American Steven Spielberg, have said in inter- Intelligence briefing, that the Nazis RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, directed by Steven ences reared Onone-damn-thing-after- are carrying on a mysterious excava- Spielberg, produ"Ced by frank Marshall, executive views that "Raiders" is their tribute to another TV heroics, that lack of producers, George lucaa, Howard Kazanjian, movie serials, but neither of them is script by lawrence Kssdan, dialributed by inspiration may be reassuring. Lucas 'Raiders'/O-5, Col. 1 Pararnount Pictures. Rated PG. old enough to have been formed by and Spielberg's approach carries no Indiana Jones .,. Harrison Ford those serials, which were mostly awe - neither for the wondrous Marion. Karen Allen popular In the '308 and '408. What treasures of antiquity at the heart of Diefrich Wolf Kahler really appears to have formed them Beucq , . Paul Freeman their movie, nor for the magic of are the serial hand-me-downs on TV. movies. They've scaled down their Godard once characterized the people imaginations in tribute to trash. By Peter Rainer in his movie "Masculin-Feminin" as At the beginning of the movie, set Herald Examiner film critic "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." in 1936,Indiana Jones <Harrison Ford) "Raiders" looks like it was made by - professor of archeology, collector or many people, "Raiders of the children of "Sky King" and "Kool- of antiquities, daredevil - plows the Lost Ark" does everything Aid," through a Peruvian jungle and enters a movie should do: It has a "Pure entertainment" has become a forbidden cave In search of a gold Fthrill-a-minute, a dashing hero the latest juggernaut in the movie idol. The cobwebby cave Is boohy- and feisty heroine, hidden tombs, business: Knock it and you're a trapped with spears and darts; when Nazis, 6,000snakes, a traitorous mon- spoilsport. But there's a big differ- Indiana finally plunders the relic, a key and a submarine. It's one long ence, I think, between an escapist massive rolling ball sweeps him out. cliffhanger - a traffic jam of Satur- movie like "Flash Gordon," which is side. There, he meets his archeological day-afternoon serials. Its producer, full of camp wonderment and Wit,and arch-rival, Belloq (Paul Freeman), a George Lucas, who conceived the "Raiders," which is all escapade and project for his company, Lucasfilms, Frenchman who enlists the local almost no spirit. And yet, "Raiders" natives to wrest the treasure from has a thumpingly simple approach to will no doubt turn out to be a much Indiana. Indiana escapes with his life drama; as in his "Star Wars" movies, bigger hit than the rather comrner- - barely. he just keeps pinging his 'B- and Z. cially dismal "Flash Gordon" was. Back at college, lecturing before movie escapades at us like spitballs. "Raiders" is entertaining, but it's his adoring students, Indiana seems a Both Lucas, and his director here, fundamentally uninspired; for audi- bit stiff - he's a Clark Kent who's Director Steven Spielberg •• , • \ 'I' .' ~. • - __ 06 Weekend/Friday, June 12, 1991 1 ~:-:==:::.:..:....:.=::::....:=...:=.:..-.:.---- r:tmm. ----------- berg wasn't able to dramatize the repressive, faceless bureaucrats in 'Raiders' "Close Encounters" - the military men who deceived the dreamers - Continued from page 0-4 he's incapable of making anything out of the American Intelligence guys in tion in what appears to be the lost "Raiders." We don't understand why Egyptian city of Tanis. Indiana fires they shelve the Ark at the end; it up when he hears the news: Tanis, it doesn't seem at all in their best turns out, is the location of .the Well of interests. tbe Souls tomb, which may contain Spielberg bas difficulty lampoon- tbe Ark of the Covenant, a gold- ing pulp because, on some basic level, encrusted wooden chest that, accord- be hasn't yet grown beyond it. When ing to Biblical lore, contains the Rhys-Davies' excavator rumbles on broken tablets of the Ten Command- about the Ark being "not of this ments. The Ark is supposed to have Earth," his words are meant to be supernatural powers, and all that jazz, taken straight. I understand Spiel- although the movie doesn't make berg's desire not to camp it up, but, clear whether those powers would when we're dealing with penny-dread- work for or against whoever pos- ful dramatics, what price purity" sessed it. Anyway. Hitler I a Messiah- Spielberg is at his best here in the freak, wants it and, just in case there action sequences - the opening [un- is something to all this rnumbo-jumbo, gle jaunt; a truck-chase where Indiana American Intelligence decides that it one-ups a "Stagecoach" stunt; Indiana wants the Ark, too. Indiana is hired to and Marion's 'escape from the Well of retrieve it before the Nazis do. the Souls, where snakes slither But, to find it, be needs the Indiana (Harrison Ford) is reacquainted with former IIame Marion (Karen Allen). through holes-in-the-wall and cobras headpiece to the staff of Ra. He finds roll inside skulls like massive tongues. it in Nepal, in the possession of an old derring-do and Fred C. Dobbs stubble, barroom confrontation, Belloq tells Like Hitchcock, Spielberg can make flame, Marion (Karen Allen), the he's a sexless creation. There's no Indiana, "You and I are alike. We've tecbnique itself a source of Wit, and daughter of his now-deceased mentor. romance in the movie; the only time both fallen from the pure," and my this gift really pays off in tbe movie's Marion, down on her luck, runs a Indiana and Marion feel amorous, he response was "Huh?" Indiana is im- best scene: a showdown between dank bar; she greets Indiana with a falls asleep on her. I'm not sure why purity-free; even when he can't get Indiana and a black-caped swordster. wallop to the mouth. "Do you know Lucas and Spielberg, and screenwri- himself to blow up the Ark and save The scene's capper is so abruptly what you did to my life?" she screams. ter Lawrence Kasdan, kept things so Marion, he's a good guy. We never see comic that it bas the crack of (Presumably, he once took advantage chaste; a little romantic kitsch would tbe sort of "dark" aspects that would Indiana's whip. , of her, although it's hard to imagine have given their movie "heart." make Indiana, even in this boy's-book Still, "Raiders" seems more like a • Indiana getting steamy over any As it is, Indiana and Marion aren't format, a more interesting character: Lucas film than a Spielberg film. It , woman, unless she's in the shape of a much of a couple: She's as exasperat- We never see his mercenary instincts, doesn't spring out at you the way r relic.I When the Nazis, who are also. Spielberg's earlier films did. Even after the Staff of Ra, track them though the movie, which was edited • down, Marion and Indiana join forces, by the wizardly Michael Kabn, really • fight their way free, and move on to Like Hitchcock, Spielberg can make technique t moues, it isn't elating. We pause to ask Tanis, where Belloq is in charge of the itself a source of wit, and this gift really pays all the dumb questions that we're ,• Nazi excavation. After a slew of never supposed to ask in this type of skirmishes, Indiana locates the Ark, r off in the movie's best scene: a showdown film - like bow come the Nazis didn't but, for his troubles, gets entombed spot Indiana's excavators at the Well r• with Marion and 6,()(X) poisonous between Indiana and a black-caped swordster. of the Souls, or wby didn't the Nazis snakes while Belloq and the Nazis open the Ark in Tanis, or how was • speed off toward Munich with the ingly ornery as the Unsinkable Molly his attraction to the occult, his desire Indiana able to make it all the way to • Ark. Of course, it never gets there; Gibraltar by clinging to a submarine but, before it's finally opened, Marion Brown - a spunknik - and she for self·aggrandizement. • conning tower? • is kidnapped by the Nazis, and Indi- doesn't draw Indiana out. And yet, Indiana may be an adventurer, but • ana hijacks the truck transporting the we're supposed to believe that there's he's not an oddball or a crackpot - It's possible to enter Lucas' uni- r Ark and hops a Nazi sub. Finally, something major going On between and that may explain why Spielberg verse and still expand as a filmmaker; t- Indiana and Marion, bound. and tbem. When Indiana ambushes Belloq doesn't do more with him. Spielberg Irvin Kerschner, the director of "The gagged, witness the opening of the and the Nazis and threatens to blow loves crackpots. ("Close Encounters of Empire Strikes Back," proved that. Ark. Or, more accurately, they don't up the Ark unless Marion is released the Third Kind" is practically dedi- Spielberg, however, doesn't appear to witness its opening, since Indiana, to him, we're not even treated to a cated to them.) He loves their ding bat have craved expansion; after the who knows about such things, shouts close-up of her reaction.