Rating: NNNNN
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (Steven Spielberg, 1981) redefined the summer blockbuster as a roller-coaster ride. It looted Saturday-afternoon jungle adventure serials and rode the kinetic energy of Spielberg’s camera and Harrison Ford’s stolid heroism to become one of the top-grossing movies ever. Think it wasn’t influential? Check the summer multiplex listings for The Mummy Returns and Tomb Raider. Though it’s a staple of the U.S. superstations and is available on video, Raiders is still best appreciated in a theatre. Two questions: would it have been as big a hit had Spielberg’s original choice, Tom Selleck, been able to get a break from his TV contract? and, in the opening sequence, if Indy has such precise knowledge of the artifact’s location that he can have a plane waiting a few hundred yards away, why’s he wandering through the jungle with a mule and a couple of local guides? NNNNN (July 28, Bloor)
