RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK- When a problem comes along, you must whip it!

No doubt about it - the early eighties was the decade where Harrison Ford reigned supreme as a god amongst men. Both Han Solo and Indiana Jones dominated the action movie landscape, and without Ford's presence, both movies would have been poorer. And with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull just around the corner, I thought I'd put my two cents in on the coolest, most two fisted, action packed trilogy in Hollywood history.

So, lets take a look at where it all began, with Raiders of the Lost Ark

First of all, let's get this out of the way right away. In order to maintain continuity with the rest of the series, Raiders of the Lost Ark has been needlessly renamed Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. That is the official title now, but right here in this paragraph is the only time you're going to see me using it. For the sake of our little review session here, there is only One True Name: Raiders of the Lost Ark, period, full stop, end of story.

The first - and best - film of the trilogy (plus one) introduces us to Professor Henry Jones Junior, Finder of Lost Things. It seems that the Nazis (Boo! Hiss!) are attempting to find the fabled Lost Ark of the Covenant, and Uncle Sam needs Indy to find it first and keep it out of the Reich's hands. And so the good Doctor strikes out across the globe, to various far flung locations, reunites with an old flame named Marion (Karen Allen, who I might add looks as hawt in Crystal Skull as she did back in Raiders), deals with some slithery snakes (why'd it have to be snakes), fights off some swordsmen and outwits a bunch of fiendish Nazis until he finally squares off with his long time rival, a French archeologist named Doctor Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), all culminating in the divine wrath of god herself.

In cases there's any doubt in your mind, let me state that Raiders of the Lost Ark is the perfect action movie, the gold standard that all others must measure up to. From the white knuckler of an opening sequence in a South American jungle temple to a chase through the deserts of Egypt with a barely under control truck, Jones faces down creepy statues, skeletons, booby traps, gigantic boulders, engages in bar room gunfights, chasing Nazi agents through the streets of Cairo and outruns the biggest damn boulder you're likely to see. Much like Star Wars is a Flash Gordon for the modern era, Raiders is a fantastically exciting adventure inspired by old pulp magazines, serial adventures and comic books.

Doc Savage would be proud.

THE DVD -
Released on DVD back in 2003, Raiders of the Lost Ark sports an 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen theatrical aspect ratio with some very nice image quality is very nice across the board. The colors look accurate compared to my laserdiscs and what I remember from the movies as a kid, some of the effects have been cleaned up (like, for example, the reflection of the glass between Indy and the Cobra in Raiders), and given an overall sweep of the restoration brush. There's very infrequent specks here and there but aside from that the film look very good.

The disc sports an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix and alternate Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are provided in French and Spanish with optional subtitles available in English, French and Spanish. The disc sounds great with plenty of surround sound popping up in the mix at the right time and with some great Subwoofer workout.

THE EXTRAS -
The disc of Raiders itself has no extra content on it. However the box set has, in addition to the three films, a fourth disc. It's here you get all the hidden treasures. We start off with a pretty beefy documentary on the making of the trilogy, with just about all the principal cast and crew. There's a documentary on the special effects in a pre computer generated world. There's a short documentary with Ben Burtt, sound and editing god about how the trilogy is an adventure in sound. There's a segment on the stunt work - back in the days where a director was not afraid to dangle a man from the back of a speeding truck and put his life in danger for the sake of art. We get a documentary on John Williams and the Indy trilogy score, a selection of teasers and trailers from all three movies. Rounding out the package is a handful of DVD rom material - but this is mostly spyware and DRM crap, so give that a miss.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
Raiders of the Lost Ark stands the test of time as one of the finest action/adventure films of all time. The film took home four Academy Awards and was nominated for two more and it solidified Ford's status of a box office superstar. You would be a fool not to have this film in your collection.

MY OTHER INDIANA JONES REVIEWS
* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
* Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
* Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
* Raiders of the Lost Ark