Can you believe it. Raiders of the Lost Arc, Steven Spielberg’s and George Lucas’ blockbuster adventure opened in theaters 40 years ago this past weekend. How does that make you feel?
There can be no question that this movie changed the scope of adventure flics as Indy and Co romped around the globe, fighting Nazis and discovering great treasure. For those of you living in a cave for the last four decades, the story revolves around archeologist Indiana Jones and his race to find the Arc of the Covenant before it is taken from the sands of Egypt by the Nazis and turned over to Hitler. It takes place in 1935.
From the moment the famous Paramount Logo Mountain morphs into a landscape in Peru this movie grabs you and doesn’t let go for the next two hours. Whether he is battling Nazis, a bear chested behemoth, snakes, aboriginal natives, snakes, an evil opponent, snakes, the Egyptian desert, spies, Arab swordsmen, or even the odd left hook from his girlfriend, Marian, Indy never gives up, besting them all in one of the greatest chase scenes of all time, only to have the Arc snatched from his grasp by his own government. By the way, Indy does not like snakes.
Unlike the rest of us, Raiders doesn’t get old. Seeing it again brings back fond memories of swashbuckling and derring-do. Check it out – you can download from Amazon, or practically anywhere else.
Oh, and you Big Bang nuts that believe the story would have come out the same without Indy. So What!
JVH
