REVIEW: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

This time last week, I had no clue what I’d be writing about for today’s column. Absolutely nothing of note opened at the box office over the weekend and screening invites have been sparse. Things were looking desperate. Luckily, I was rescued by an old friend with a fedora and a bullwhip.

In conjunction with the Sept. 18 release of Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures on Blu-Ray, Paramount Pictures released Raiders of the Lost Ark on select IMAX screens with digitally remastered image and sound quality. The experience was fantastic, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who counts the classic among their favorites. (That should be just about everyone.) But do it quickly – the limited engagement wraps up Sept. 13.

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ ode to serials of the ’30s and ’40s first hit theaters in June 1981, two months before I was born. I’ve seen the movie countless times over the years, but never on the big screen as it was originally intended. As you might imagine, the difference is immense.

Memorable scenes that I know by heart thanks to multiple viewings on cable, VHS or DVD resulted in full-fledged goosebumps when they played out on a larger-than-life canvas. The giant boulder that chases Indy through the temple becomes colossal. When the famed archaeologist engages in a fistfight, it sounds like thunderclaps from heaven. Nazis unleashing the Ark of the Covenant’s wrath is face-meltingly awesome.

And words can’t describe the way I felt when John Williams’ legendary theme came pouring out of those massive speakers. It was almost a religious experience.

The film’s plot is engrained in the public consciousness by now: famed archaeologist Henry Jones (Harrison Ford), licking his wounds after a failed South American expedition, is recruited by the U.S. government to track down the biblical artifact known as the Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis have a head start in the search, and Hitler is the absolute last person in the world who should have his hands on such a powerful relic.

To make matters worse, the Nazis have hired Belloq (Paul Freeman), Indy’s bitter rival, as the head of their project. So Indy sets off for Nepal, where he reconnects with old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and locates the first clue he’ll need for his expedition. That takes him to Cairo, where another old friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), awaits to help in the mission.

Every step is fraught with peril, resulting in action sequences that are now considered iconic. I’ll never forget the sheer elation I felt the first time I saw how Indy handles that giant, sword-wielding adversary in the streets of Cairo. I didn’t think I’d ever stop laughing. The truly great cinematic moment plays even better in IMAX and, even though I could see the punchline coming a mile away, I still cackled just as hard.

I loved it even more after learning that Ford – suffering from food poisoning – came up with it on the day to avoid shooting a long, drawn-out struggle. The genius idea works better than a swordfight ever could. Combine that with the actor’s ad-libbing of the killer line, “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage,” and it makes you long for the days when Ford actually seemed to care about his performance in a film.

That’s what an IMAX revisit of Raiders reveals the most: the utterly astounding charisma Ford once possessed. His stardom has been in decline for a while – probably right after 2007’s Air Force One – but the flick provides ample evidence as to why he used to be one of the world’s biggest movie stars.

Like Ford’s reputation, Indy’s was also tarnished with 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Visions of nuke-proof refrigerators, cartoonish CGI and Shia LaBeouf still cause full-body shivers in movie buffs four years later.

Chalk up another reason I’m glad I saw Raiders over the weekend. My ticket was a bit pricey, but it was worth it to ensure that the last time I saw my hero on the big screen didn’t involve LaBeouf swinging on vines with a frickin’ army of monkeys.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is rated PG.

Grade: A