RAIDERS gets rave...again!

Posted by adam from ww-th04.proxy.aol.com on March 14, 1998 at 14:49:17:

Two things of interest, in case you didn't know...

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" has been selected as one of the top 400 films of all time, according to a recent poll of famous movie celebrities, filmmakers, and critics in conjunction with an upcoming CBS special, "100 Years, 100 Movies"... This program will air in June, featuring the top 100 films from the initial 400 finalists. As to WHICH films are on the 100 list is not yet made public (we can only hope RAIDERS has more luck than, say, the wildly overrated, overpriced Cameron vanity piece that is TITANIC). But surely Indy has a chance...

And...

Last week, the LA WEEKLY -- the newspaper-magazine notorious for its harsh, twisted, and pretentious criticisms (including, ironically, a mocking one for the rerelease of STAR WARS last year) -- nevertheless managed to give old Indy a "hat's off" by choosing a showing of RAIDERS in Westwood as the revival pick of the week...

Here is the article:

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

"The weekend STAR WARS opened, George Lucas had no clue as to whether it would fly or flop -- so he calmed his nerves by pacing a Hawaiian beach with his pal Steven Spielberg, improvising the outline for an old-fashioned Saturday matinee about a macho hero called Indiana Jones. When STAR WARS surprized them by turning a small profit, "Indy" was left to stew on a back burner -- only to be brought off a couple years later when Spielberg needed cheering from the de facto flop of 1941. It makes perfect sense that what began in private as a necessary upper -- twice -- became one for the public at large. Harrison Ford rides like John Wayne and wears a hat like Humphrey Bogart -- but his odd mixture of force and charm is very much his own. Karen Allen, playing his girlfriend, visibly seethes at being consigned to the role of damsel-in-distress, yet as such is indispensable to the charm of this movie. Her offbeat beauty -- freckles, large eyes, tabby-cat cheekbones -- and her feisty energy make the far-flung fantasy more plausible as she and Indy gallop through 1930's Egypt, racing the Nazis in a search for the lost Ark of the Covenant of Moses. Barely a moment goes by that isn't a cliffhanger: stone darts, snakes, pits, mummies, corpses, and even a heil-Hitlering monkey all jump out with the dizzying regularity of the spooks and ghouls in an amusement park ride. After more than a decade and a half, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is still an upper -- for this critic's money, vastly superior to the two sequels it inspired, an unpretentious romp through the narrative catacombs that underlie all movies.

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup:

Name:    
E-Mail:  
Subject: 
Comments:

: Two things of interest, in case you didn't know...

: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has been selected as one of the top 400 films of all time, according to a recent poll of famous movie celebrities, filmmakers, and critics in conjunction with an upcoming CBS special, "100 Years, 100 Movies"...  This program will air in June, featuring the top 100 films from the initial 400 finalists.  As to WHICH films are on the 100 list is not yet made public (we can only hope RAIDERS has more luck than, say, the wildly overrated, overpriced Cameron vanity piece that is TITANIC).  But surely Indy has a chance...

: And...

: Last week, the LA WEEKLY -- the newspaper-magazine notorious for its harsh, twisted, and pretentious criticisms (including, ironically, a mocking one for the rerelease of STAR WARS last year) -- nevertheless managed to give old Indy a "hat's off" by choosing a showing of RAIDERS in Westwood as the revival pick of the week...

: Here is the article:

: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

: "The weekend STAR WARS opened, George Lucas had no clue as to whether it would fly or flop -- so he calmed his nerves by pacing a Hawaiian beach with his pal Steven Spielberg, improvising the outline for an old-fashioned Saturday matinee about a macho hero called Indiana Jones.  When STAR WARS surprized them by turning a small profit, "Indy" was left to stew on a back burner -- only to be brought off a couple years later when Spielberg needed cheering from the de facto flop of 1941.  It makes perfect sense that what began in private as a necessary upper -- twice -- became one for the public at large.  Harrison Ford rides like John Wayne and wears a hat like Humphrey Bogart -- but his odd mixture of force and charm is very much his own.  Karen Allen, playing his girlfriend, visibly seethes at being consigned to the role of damsel-in-distress, yet as such is indispensable to the charm of this movie.  Her offbeat beauty -- freckles, large eyes, tabby-cat cheekbones -- and her feisty energy make the far-flung fantasy more plausible as she and Indy gallop through 1930's Egypt, racing the Nazis in a search for the lost Ark of the Covenant of Moses.  Barely a moment goes by that isn't a cliffhanger:  stone darts, snakes, pits, mummies, corpses, and even a heil-Hitlering monkey all jump out with the dizzying regularity of the spooks and ghouls in an amusement park ride.  After more than a decade and a half, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is still an upper -- for this critic's money, vastly superior to the two sequels it inspired, an unpretentious romp through the narrative catacombs that underlie all movies.

Optional:

Link URL:   
Link Title: 
Image URL:

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Indyfan Forum ] [ FAQ ]