Poster © Paramount Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAdventure
RatedPG
Runtime1 hr 55 mins
ReleasedJune 12, 1981
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorSteven Spielberg
StarringHarrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
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| Raiders of the Lost Ark's Details | |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Rated | PG |
| Released | 06/12/1981 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 55 mins |
| Budget | Not reported |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark's Interests | |
| General | Fedoras, bullwhips, golden idols, giant rolling boulders, maps with red lines, sandbags. |
| Music | John Williams. The Raiders March is basically a shot of espresso. |
| Movies | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Indy plus his dad, Sean Connery. |
| Television | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Indy as a kid, already collecting adventures. |
| Heroes | Marion Ravenwood. Tougher than Indy, and she will remind him. |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark's Crew | |
| Director | Steven Spielberg |
| Writers | Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas (story), Philip Kaufman (story) |
| Producers | Frank Marshall |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Music | John Williams |
| Edited By | Michael Kahn |
| Production | Lucasfilm Ltd. |
| Distributed By | Paramount Pictures |
Marion Ravenwood wins a drinking contest against a guy twice her size, and then the movie spends a big chunk of its runtime tying her to things. That’s my one real gripe, and it’s a real one. Everything else is the reason adventure movies exist. Harrison Ford plays Indy like a nerd who happens to be great at punching, a professor who sweats, gets banged up and complains about the mileage. The boulder. The truck chase. The bit with the swordsman in the market, where the biggest laugh is just Ford looking tired. Karen Allen is a hurricane until the script benches her. Spielberg made it for a reported $18 million and it pulled $389.9 million worldwide, with an A+ CinemaScore and 1,123,553 IMDb ratings averaging an 8.4. A 9.5 because every adventure movie since is still chasing it, and the snakes still win. $728 says you put on a hat this year, somebody calls you Indy as a joke, and you take it as a compliment.
What works: Harrison Ford’s tired, scrappy charm and set piece after set piece that still looks dangerous decades later.
What doesn’t: Marion starts as the toughest person in the movie and then gets reduced to someone to rescue, again and again.
Who it’s for: Anyone who has ever wanted to swing across a pit, and parents looking for a first adventure movie for older kids.
Spoilers
Belloq and the Nazis open the Ark on the island, and the power inside wipes them all out while Indy and Marion survive by keeping their eyes shut. The Ark ends up crated in a giant government warehouse, lost among endless identical boxes.
It is 1936, and archaeology professor Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) spends his semesters lecturing and his breaks raiding ancient temples, usually one step ahead of his rival René Belloq (Paul Freeman). Then U.S. Army intelligence comes to him with news: the Nazis are digging in Egypt for the Ark of the Covenant, and the government wants Indy to get there first. That means a trip to Nepal to find his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who has a key piece of the puzzle and a grudge, then on to Cairo and his friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies). Steven Spielberg directs. One hundred fifteen minutes, and it had to be snakes.
Anyone with a fedora and a bullwhip. If you bring snakes, he is leaving.
| Harrison Ford | Indiana Jones |
| Karen Allen | Marion Ravenwood |
| Paul Freeman | René Belloq |
| Ronald Lacey | Major Arnold Toht |
| John Rhys-Davies | Sallah |
| Denholm Elliott | Marcus Brody |