Raiders of the Lost Ark [VHS]

Raiders of the Lost Ark [VHS]
by Steven Spielberg

Raiders of the Lost Ark [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey
Director: Steven Spielberg
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: Arabic (Original Language); English (Original Language), Analog; German (Original Language); Hebrew (Original Language); Nepali (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Original recording remastered, THX
Running Time: 115 minutes
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Paramount
Studio: Paramount

VHS Movie Reviews of Raiders of the Lost Ark [VHS]

Movie Review: Awesome start in the Indiana Jones series
Summary: 5 Stars

Here comes Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the action packed franchise. It features Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) searching for the Ark of the Conevant with the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). His rival Ren? Bellog (John Rhys-Davis) and a Nazi commander Major Arnold Toht (Ronald Lacey) are after the Ark as well. This was a great movie to watch with your family. The stunts were neat, the visual effects were so real and complex, and the story is entertaining. The cast was well rehersed. The melting head was phenominal. There would later be three aditional films as well, a prequel and two sequels. This is another timeless classic you don't want to miss!

Movie Review: Still One Of The All-Time Adventure Stories
Summary: 5 Stars

All three Indiana Jones films of the `80s were entertaining but this first one was still the best. It's certainly the most memorable.

Famous scenes, from the opening one with the gigantic boulder chasing Harrison Ford to the film's ending with the Ark of the Covenant opened, will be Hollywood classic moments for years and years.

The action scenes are varied, from fist fights to battles with snakes, to dodging airplane propellers, guns, knives, poison dates, fires, supernatural plague-type winds, chases through city streets, caves, mountains....you name it, it's all in here.

The music can get too loud, the action too much, Karen Allen's mouth too profane; the credibility too much to believe, the theology too weird, etc, but no one can deny this is a fun ride all the way through. You take none of it seriously and just enjoy the adventure.

Coming on the heels of Star Wars, this really made Harrison Ford a mega-star. It didn't do much for the rest of the cast but it sure boosted Ford's stock.

After a long wait, this finally came out on DVD in October of 2003 and it looks great! Now, we wait for a sharp Blu-Ray transfer.

Movie Review: Film History's Second Greatest Hero
Summary: 5 Stars

At the turn of the Millenium the American Film Institute made up several "Best 100..." lists, and one of them was "Best Hero". Indiana Jones came in #2, right behind Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and ahead of Rick Blaine Casablanca, James Bond, etc. This is the movie that introduced the screen icon, and no cogent individual would argue that any of the three (so far) films that followed were superior to this one.

Henry Jones, Jr. is an archaeologist, and an unmatched thrill-seeker. Harrison Ford's hero is a perfect mixture of intelligence and action. The film would be worth seeing if only for the opening prologue where Indy tracks down a golden idol in a secret cavern guarded by tarantulas, spear-hurling booby traps, giant rolling boulders and poison dart shooting hovitos. In this scene watch for an early appearance by the talented English actor Alfred Molina as South American guide Satipo.

This opening scene is used to introduce Indy and his nemesis, French archaeologist Belloq (played by Paul Freeman), as well as Dr. Jones' dislike for snakes.

We next see Indy lecturing a room of star-struck co-eds in archaeology before colleague Marcus Brody (played by Denholm Elliot) drags Indy to a secret meeting with Army intelligence officers. Secret messages intercepted from the Nazi's show that Hitler has sent a massive archaeological team outside of Cairo to attempt to recover the biblical Ark of the Covenant. This scene is a piece of genius exposition, explaining a little of the history of the Ark and its location that sets up the rest of the movie, and at the same time adding the ominous warning that "an army carrying the Ark of the Covenant before it is invincible".

We meet Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, a former girlfriend with an important piece of the puzzle, and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, an Egyptian archaeologist who has worked with Indiana before.

The movie is an absolute roller-coaster, with our hero dodging one near-death experience after another, but the thing that makes "Raiders" superior to the Indiana movies that followed is the perfect balance of witty derring-do and realistic humanity embodied in Harrison Ford's portrayal. The AARP aged Indy in the recent "Crystal Skull" takes a beating without flinching, but the Indiana of the first movie makes you believe it HURTS to be drug behind a truck or punched by a 250 pound Nazi sergeant.

The climactic scene leaves no doubt who "the good guys" are, and the ending allows us to catch our breath before the credits roll. Not intended to be a film of academic minutiae, it is nonetheless a perfect combination of action, romance and film smarts.

Movies simply don't come better than "Raiders".

Movie Review: Inspired by the 1930s, Made in the 1980s, Still Great Action-Adventure in the 2000s.
Summary: 5 Stars

In 1981, it wasn't obvious that an A-movie that is a pastiche of old B-movies could take the top spot at the box office and inspire a franchise that is still profitable 27 years later. But "Raiders of the Lost Ark" did just that. Set in 1936, as the industrial world moves closer to war, and parts of the third world are still unexplored, archeologist and "obtainer of rare antiquities" Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) scours the globe for treasures of civilizations past. His talent for extracting long-lost artifacts under perilous circumstances attracts the attention of United States Military Intelligence. Nazi Germany has taken an interest in the reputed power of the Ark of the Covenant, which held the original Ten Commandments, and the US would like Dr. Jones to find it before the Nazis do. First, Jones must find his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), daughter of the man who was in possession of a medallion with clues to the Ark's location.

These days, the only filmmaker who makes big-budget tributes to low-budget genre films is Quentin Tarantino. But his films are often self-conscious comments upon the exploitation films that inspired them. In the 1970s and early 1980s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg did something similar but less cerebral. They make movies that updated and upgraded low-budget genre films but with essentially the same intention as the original films. Post-War sci-fi flicks inspired George Lucas' "Star Wars" trilogy. Steven Spielberg upgraded youth-oriented exploitation films to make "Jaws". And Spielberg and Lucas together wrought "Raiders of the Lost Ark" from adventure serials of the 1930s-1940s, with their dependence of cliffhangers, damsels in distress, and intrepid adventures in exotic locales. "Raiders" rounds it out with an evil, sadistic Nazi, Maj. Toht (Ronald Lacey). and a clever, cultured, but squeamish French rival, Dr. Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman).

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" turned out better than its creators expected. Audiences didn't interpret it as a send-up or tribute to earlier films. They embraced it as a rip-roaring action-adventure with great style and humor. It had just the right mix of clich? and freshness, and it takes its characters seriously, if not its plot. Marion is a damsel in distress, but a tomboy. The action sequences are creative and well-paced. A lot of credit goes to Harrison Ford for bringing an unselfconscious humor to the film (and to "Star Wars" as well) that endears Indy to everyone. It achieves the right balance of exoticism and down-to-earth. Indy's skepticism of the supernatural plays much better than his acceptance of it does in the sequels. It's no wonder there were so many adventure stories in the first half of 20th century. It was a time when amateur explorers were mapping the globe, always discovering new things. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" captured the romanticism of that for another era, and it still does.

The DVD (Paramount 2008 Special Edition): There are 3 featurettes, 4 image galleries, and trailer and demo (PC only) for a Lego Indiana Jones Original Adventures Game. "Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Introduction" (8 min) features Spielberg and Lucas talking (recently) about how the film was conceived and brought in under time and on budget, including some archival footage. "Indiana Jones: An Appreciation" (12 min) interviews the cast and creative crew of the 4th Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", about their experiences making or seeing "Raiders" in 1981. In "The Melting Face!" (8 min), Chris Walas explains how he created Toht's melting face, including footage of the procedure. That is the only bonus feature that is worthwhile. I remember seeing several documentaries about the making of "Raiders" in the 1980s, particularly about the stunts, but this disc doesn't include anything like that, which will be a disappointment to fans. Subtitles for the film available in English, French, Spanish. Dubbing in French and Spanish.

Movie Review: A nice suprize
Summary: 5 Stars

It was very refreshing to have ordered the DVD Indiana Jonesm and have it come so quickly, correct and without any hassles, especially around the christmas hustle and bustle. I will definatelly use their services again.

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Summary of Raiders of the Lost Ark [VHS]

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's 1981 resurrection of the Saturday-matinee adventure genre was deservedly popular, and kicked off a successful trilogy. Set in 1936, this first feature introduces Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer whose quests for rare antiquities frequently find him running from one menace or another. Raiders finds Dr. Jones in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of the Ark of the Covenant to win the war. Karen Allen plays the love interest with an old-fashioned "man's woman" appeal (she can drink anybody under the table and is free with her fists). The constant, cliffhanger appeal of the movie is great fun--one is always wondering how Indy will get out of one scrape after another--and Ford's career got a big boost with his self-effacing but masculine portrayal of the hero. --Tom Keogh

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