Movie A Day #69: Raiders of the Lost Ark

[Brian in Mesa]

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Synopsis: Archeologist and university proffesor Indiana Jones must retrieve the mythic Lost Ark of the Covenant before the it gets into the hands of Adolf Hitler who plans on useing its power to guarantee his global conquest.

Some of the cast:Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, and Alfred Molina.

I am a huge movie fan so it would be hard to limit myself to a favorite movie of all time. If pressed, I might have to say Raiders of the Lost Ark. An instant classic. Great movie, great acting. Can't tell you how many times I've seen it. I don't have the recently released 4 disc DVD collection yet, but it's on my list.

 

[Chaplin]

This used to be my favorite movie from about 1981 to 1990. Now it's simply a top 20 film.

I love movies like this---a lot of adventure, great characters, a solid story. It doesn't get much better than Raiders.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

And one of the best endings to a movie...all that work, and they take it to a huge warehouse full of God knows what. Loved it.

I have to say, the entire series was good, and Crusade would be #2 on my list on the trilogy, but close to Raiders.

Great pick Bim.

Mike

 

[schutd]

Love Raiders, though it is responsible for spawning the cheesy action movie one liner.

BIM! How bout picking something with a little controversy! Heh.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Originally posted by schutd
Love Raiders, though it is responsible for spawning the cheesy action movie one liner.

BIM! How bout picking something with a little controversy! Heh.

Like Spiderman?



Kidding Chap...

Mike

 

[Chaz]

Great movie.

One of the best action flicks of all time. I can't wait to get the new DVD set so my son can enjoy them too.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Originally posted by Chandler Mike
Spiderman

Spider-Man

 

[mdamien13]

Great choice! Possibly the best action-adventure movie ever. Can't think how this would've been had they gone ahead and cast Tom Selleck as Indiana. The effects don't really hold up today but it's still such a great movie you don't even care.

 

[Chaplin]

Raiders trivia:

The scene where Indy shoots the swordsman in the bazaar was actually adlibbed--apparently Harrison Ford was extremely sick with the flu that day (you can tell because he looked miserable), so he asked Spielberg if he could just pull out his gun and shoot him because he felt too weak to actually fight. Spielberg said sure, and the rest is history.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Originally posted by Chaplin
Raiders trivia:

The scene where Indy shoots the swordsman in the bazaar was actually adlibbed--apparently Harrison Ford was extremely sick with the flu that day (you can tell because he looked miserable), so he asked Spielberg if he could just pull out his gun and shoot him because he felt too weak to actually fight. Spielberg said sure, and the rest is history.

Yeah I remember hearing about that. I love when actors adlib and they catch a great scene. Another great adlib is the scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere snaps the jewerly case closed on Julia Roberts fingers. Her reaction is classic and made the scene.

Sorry about that being slightly off topic.

 

[Dback Jon]

I love this movie. Bought the special 4-DVD set - re-watched this one the other night.

Only part I don't like - like Indy, I am not fond of snakes!

 

[Bada0Bing]

Re-watched this one for the first time since I was a kid. What a great family adventure movie. Still holds up well.

Raiders trivia:

The scene where Indy shoots the swordsman in the bazaar was actually adlibbed--apparently Harrison Ford was extremely sick with the flu that day (you can tell because he looked miserable), so he asked Spielberg if he could just pull out his gun and shoot him because he felt too weak to actually fight. Spielberg said sure, and the rest is history.

Haha. That is great trivia. I love that scene.

I love this movie. Bought the special 4-DVD set - re-watched this one the other night.

Only part I don't like - like Indy, I am not fond of snakes!

That scene stuck with me over the years; I hate snakes! Just about the only scene I remembered well, and the giant boulder scene.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Re-watched this one for the first time since I was a kid. What a great family adventure movie. Still holds up well..

First time since??? Honestly, I didn't know that was possible. We don't watch it as often as we used to but I'd guess we watched it at least 50 times in the decade it was released. We've probably watched it another 10 times since the 80's. Of course our son was only 5 or 6 when we first saw it in the theater so he was spearheading the Raiders re-watch movement (along with the Star Wars films).

 

[Bada0Bing]

First time since??? Honestly, I didn't know that was possible. We don't watch it as often as we used to but I'd guess we watched it at least 50 times in the decade it was released. We've probably watched it another 10 times since the 80's. Of course our son was only 5 or 6 when we first saw it in the theater so he was spearheading the Raiders re-watch movement (along with the Star Wars films).

Haha, I'm not sure why. Perhaps it took a long time to be released on dvd. Every once in a while one gets by me.

 

[Cheesebeef]

First time since??? Honestly, I didn't know that was possible. We don't watch it as often as we used to but I'd guess we watched it at least 50 times in the decade it was released. We've probably watched it another 10 times since the 80's. Of course our son was only 5 or 6 when we first saw it in the theater so he was spearheading the Raiders re-watch movement (along with the Star Wars films).

what's weird is I've rewetted Temple Of Doom and Last Crusade a lot more than Raiders, and I know this is heresy, but Last Crusade is my favorite of the three.

also, the set-pieces in Temple Of Doom are out of this world.

 

[Chaplin]

what's weird is I've rewetted Temple Of Doom and Last Crusade a lot more than Raiders, and I know this is heresy, but Last Crusade is my favorite of the three.

also, the set-pieces in Temple Of Doom are out of this world.

I love all 3 of them. I have Raiders slightly ahead of last Crusade, but not by much. Temple of Doom is tied to specific memories, so that helps my love of it.

Hell, I consider one of the few good things about Crystal Skull, is that it made Temple of Doom better.

 

[AzStevenCal]

what's weird is I've rewetted Temple Of Doom and Last Crusade a lot more than Raiders, and I know this is heresy, but Last Crusade is my favorite of the three.

also, the set-pieces in Temple Of Doom are out of this world.

Well after the fact, Last Crusade became our favorite too but when Raiders first came out it, it stood alone. I really can't recall a movie experience quite as exhilarating as Raiders was for us (not even Star Wars and saying that might be heresy for my generation). But Temple of Doom OTOH was a real disappointment for us.

We didn't hate Temple of Doom by any means but the bar had been set too high by Indy's first movie and Temple pales in comparison IMO. The interplay between Ford and Sean in the 3rd installment, along with the guy that can get lost in his own museum, saved the series for us.

 

[cwamjn]

what's weird is I've rewetted Temple Of Doom and Last Crusade a lot more than Raiders, and I know this is heresy, but Last Crusade is my favorite of the three.

also, the set-pieces in Temple Of Doom are out of this world.

I agree. Last year I took the kids to a Tuesday night classic, I thought it said it was Raiders. It was Last crusade. I agree the last crusade is the best but Raiders is still an all time classic as well.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I agree. Last year I took the kids to a Tuesday night classic, I thought it said it was Raiders. It was Last crusade. I agree the last crusade is the best but Raiders is still an all time classic as well.

no argument there.

 

[Stout]

I do love Temple of Doom, because I was a certain age as a kid and the cheese was just perfect. Chilled monkey brains, eyeball soup, hearts torn out, goofy love interest, inflatable raft from a plane? Kewl! I'm sure I would have hated the sequel as an adult lol