Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Sometimes a movie character comes along that grabs at ones attention, delves so deep into your psyche that they make an indelible mark upon you. As a movie obsessive I have a few characters that have done to me, from Freddy Krueger to Darth Vader to Frank Drebin. However, at the top of this list is none other than the eminent archaeologist Dr Indiana Jones. Hard to believe isn't it?

Part of the attraction of Jones is the fact that things don't always go his way, that he will, on occasion lose out, albeit temporarily. Harrison Ford is superbly cast and there's an aura of heroic, everyman charm about him which drives each movie. In this, the first of the four movies the archaeologist and history professor ends up hunting the Ark of the Covenant and has to contend with nefarious Nazis as well as his arch rival treasure hunter, Belloq.

I wont go into the meat and potato's of the plot as I rather suspect most of you have seen it by now. However I will ruminate upon some other parts of this movie or else this post would pointless. The love interest here is Marion, played by Karen Allen. She is quite unlike most other leading lady types. For example, she isn't your typical damsel in distress who screams down the place (I'm looking at you Willie Scott) and she's certainly not playing second fiddle to Indiana Jones.

The villains here, as i said above are mostly one dimensional Nazis with the exception of Toht, an SS torturer type sent to recover the Ark, along with Belloq, a French version of Jones. Toht is spectacularly, lip smackingly evil here. It's easy to hate him, and Belloq? Whilst slightly effeminate he does a good line in being bad but you wish he would man up a bit.

The action scenes thrill and scare in equal measure with the fight on the aeroplane followed by the truck chase being the highlights. A sticking for me though is that the historical aspects, are somewhat skewed but given that this is a thrilling movie, is a minor quibble.

A few minor criticisms aside this film rocks along at a fair pace and no matter how many times you see it it still has the power to capture your mind and imagination. Harrison is superb as Jones and unlike most heroes he someone that you could be, someone you would want to go for a drink with.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a superb movie that is almost perfect for those lazy sundays in front of the telly.