The AFI top 100 list is sure as hell no popularity contest.
No one is going as a Nashville character for Halloween, and not many people are whistling the tune from The African Queen in their day to day lives.
Some of the biggest box office hits--like Avatar, Grease, and Home Alone--are completely missing from the list.
Yet, one of the most iconic movies ever makes the cut. It’s one of those rare movies that has been seen by most everyone, loved by everyone, and stands the test of time. Something that’s full of iconic images and contains one of the most universal themes of all time.
Of course I’m talking about All the President’s Men.
No, not really. But we are here with a movie many many people have loved their entire lives (including me) 1980’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, written by Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Stephen Spielberg.
The power of nothing
For sure not my original idea, as I know it’s been brought up by comedians and even sitcoms, but Indiana Jones (the character) doesn’t do shit in this movie.
He fails again and again, actually inadvertently helping the Nazis out in several situations, and only lives because he decidedly chooses NOT to do something. But this is part of the beauty of the film, and it’s part of the movie’s central message, which I believe is “we must resist evil.”
Indiana tries to do things over and over again, like taking ancient artifacts from temples, and almost every time it backfires in his face. Him stealing the idol leads to him getting betrayed (and a bigass boulder coming after him). Him escaping with the idol leads to him having it stolen. Him finding the location of the idol leads the Nazis right to it, and it puts him and Marion in a giant snake pit.
It’s at the end, when they decide not to look at the contents of the ark, that their able to defeat their enemies.
And look at all the people who give into evil: his betrayers get killed by booby traps, the giant bald Nazi gets his head chopped off by a helicopter, Belloq and company get their faces melted.
Even the end is only a minor victory. Indiana Jones lives gets the ark away from the Nazis, but now it’s put in a warehouse, where it should be fine--as long as no one else succumbs to any evil...
Digging up an action classic
Raiders of the Lost Ark is for sure is an action movie. It has great set pieces, epic fights, special effects, did I mention melting faces?
But for all the action touchstones it adheres to, it also breaks tropes in many ways.
First of all, Indiana Jones is not a typical action hero. To audiences accustomed to James Bond and equally smooth heros, Indiana Jones seems like a mess. He gets things wrong (like the weight of the idol), he has a phobia (snakes), he makes careless mistakes and has to be saved (the date with Sallah). One of the first images we see of him is him panicking and screaming, running towards the plane. Not our typical action figure introduction.
It is also funnier than any action movie has a right to be. I mean:
I rest my case.
It also has STRONG characterizations. Along with Indiana Jones being flawed, he is so fascinating because he can be strong and vulnerable at the same time. Just look at the scene where he’s complaining about his booboos to Marion, and she’s kissing them.
Speaking of Marion, she is both strong and flawed as well, able to outdrink a man over twice her size and fool Belloq, but still getting caught up in judgement errors. And together, they have some realistic relationship issues
Belloq might be evil and eat flies and everything, but he himself is a complex villain, often bordering on being charming, far more interesting than villains usually in action films.
The fact that this film is so well-done, makes its placement on the list undeniable.
These types of movies are critical in my opinion. I love 2001: A Space Odyssey and Midnight Cowboy, but they do lack some of that raw entertainment that this movie has. Raiders seems to be saying that it’s ok for a great movie to also be entertaining and fun. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Whether or not you agree with Martin Scorsese’s take that the Marvel movies are like theme parks, doesn’t really matter. Maybe they are, but that doesn’t mean those can’t be great. Disneyland is a theme park, and it has Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain (I’d say the former is brilliant commentary on how tempting debauchery can be).
I’m just saying that fun and great can work together, and we don’t have to treat all fun movies like the ark and avoid looking deeper into them.
Thanks for reading!
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