Raiders of the Lost Ark - Articles - Zimbio

Anything Goes

Mon, 22 Jul 2008 14:31:00 GMT

posted by skinnyrydell

I needed something to rinse off the stench after seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so I decided to revisit the heretofore most-maligned entry in the series, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

I must admit that I have been a hater of Temple for the last 20-plus years. Upon initial viewing, the film struck me as everything the original wasn’t -- glib, grating, unfunny and mean-spirited. The perpetually distressed Willie (Kate Capshaw) annoyed me to no end, only to be surpassed by the uber obnoxious sidekick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan).

Short Round. What a stupid name.

But mostly, it was the pervading grimness of the film that got to me. Even with Nazis and melting faces, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a charmer. Temple seemed pointlessly and endlessly dark: a dinner of giant beetles and monkey brains, an insect house of horrors, people burned alive, hearts ripped out, child abuse, child slavery. It just wasn’t as fun as the amiable, good-natured Raiders.

But was Temple intended to be as fun? Both Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas have credited the Republic Studios serials as an inspiration for Raiders. These were fast-paced, lightweight little B-movies shown in weekly episodes, always ending with a cliffhanger to ensure the moviegoer would return the following week for resolution (spoiler: the hero always made it). Raiders shares the freewheeling innocence of these movies from the late 1930s and 1940s.

I think Temple goes back a little further for its inspiration, back to the pre-code days of the early 1930s. The Hays Code of censorship was implemented in 1934 and choked the American film Industry for the next 30 years. But the period leading up to the code was a time of great creativity and surprising excess in the film industry. Reflecting the grim mood of Depression-era America, Hollywood gave us violent gangsters and hopeless victims (Little Caesar, Scarface and the haunting I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang), startlingly horrific images (Murders in the Zoo, Doctor X, Frankenstein), sexual innuendo and near nudity (I’m No Angel, King Kong), and rampant xenophobia (Mask of Fu Manchu, The Most Dangerous Game). It was a time when men were men and women were dames and foreigners were the enemy.

Temple has a lot of the aesthetic of early 1930’s Hollywood. Feminists can decry Willie as being nothing more than a screaming, subservient nitwit and they are probably right. But Willie has an older sister in the queen of all screamers, Fay Wray. In the quartet of horror movies Wray made in 1932 and 1933 (The Most Dangerous Game, Doctor X, King Kong, and Mystery of the Wax Museum), Wray was the archetype damsel in distress – wholly reliant on her leading man, unable or unwilling to act on her own. She was a forbidden temptation for the enemy and a beautiful prize to be claimed by the hero. The overt chauvinism of Indiana and Short Round (“You call him Dr. Jones, doll”) harks back to a day when tough guy heroes routinely told their girls to “shaddup or I’ll shut ya up.” It was an acceptable attitude during this period, perhaps a reaction to the oddly effete heroes who populated many late 1920’s movies. Indiana confirms his dominance by claiming Willie at the end of Temple – tellingly, corralling her with the most visual representation of his masculinity, his whip.

One might cringe at the apparent xenophobia of Temple. From the cool brutality of the Chinese mafia to the helplessness of the beseeching villagers to the primitive histrionics of the Thugees, nearly every non-American character is portrayed as either fawning and dependent, or cunning and malevolent. But the template was set by films like The Mask of Fu Manchu, The Most Dangerous Game, and The Black Cat, all films in which Americans are threatened by evil foreigners, villains who are cold enough to prostitue their own daughters (Fu Manchu); hunt human beings for fun (Count Zaroff); or offer up innocent American daughters for satanic sacrifice (Hjalmar Poelzig). Even their names are scary. Battered and broken by the Depression, America in the early 1930s had closed its doors to the outside world to lick its wounds in private. Europe and Asia became the great unknown, something to fear. Hollywood -- and later Temple -- simply put a face on those fears.

Temple, along with Gremlins, was responsible for the implementation of the PG-13 rating. Disturbing images -- a human heart being ripped from a living man, the same unfortunate man being burned alive, the beating of child slaves, and (perhaps) Kate Capshaw briefly feeling up a female statue -- led to an uproar from outraged parents. Melting faces were OK, but this was going too far. Sorry, I digress.

In 1932, Murders in the Zoo showed a close-up of a man with his lips sewn shut. That same year, the villain of Doctor X – who happened to be a cannibal -- endured a prolonged transformation into a gruesome creature. Frankenstein, The Mask of Fu Manchu, The Mystery of the Wax Museum and Island of Lost Souls also contained surprisingly graphic sequences. After the Hays Code went into effect, many of these films had to be edited before they could be re-released into theaters for public consumption. It was a grim time in America, and movies reflected the mood of the country with gruesome, sometimes shocking, images. Likewise, the excesses of Temple mirror those films.

The final thing that strikes me about Temple is how gloriously cinematic it is. Check out the marvelous Bubsy Berkeley homage that opens the film; or the Bava-esque lighting emanating from the mine caverns; or the carefully composed, iconic shots of a battered but determined Indy; or the genuinely nail-biting moments in the spiked chamber and on the rock crusher. The sheer number of memorable set pieces is astounding, but the film never compromises visual aesthetic to achieve visceral action. The same cannot be said for the too-bright, two-dimensional look of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

If Raiders is a roller coaster ride on a bright summer day, Temple is a dark, twisting ride through a gloomy night of America’s cinematic past. I will line up for this ride anytime.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures RELOADED

Sat, 20 Jul 2008 17:10:00 GMT

posted by chetankumarmeena

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures RELOADED
The third time is the charm for Traveller's Tales--logical puzzles and great offline co-op play make this the best Lego game yet.

LEGO® Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures takes the fun and creative construction of LEGO and combines it with the wits, daring and non-stop action from the original cinematic adventures that enthralled audiences everywhere (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

With a tongue-in-cheek take on these original adventures, LEGO Indiana Jones follows Dr. Jones’s escapades through the jungles of South America to the mountaintops of India where you will build, battle and brawl your way through your favorite moments, from Indy’s entanglements with snakes to his dashing boulder run.

Now that Traveller's Tales has conquered a galaxy far, far away, it has set its sights on giving a Lego makeover to a more terrestrial franchise. Lego Indiana Jones: The Complete Trilogy lets you reenact the key scenes from the first three Indiana Jones movies, with a blocky twist only Lego can provide. The idea of children's building toys pasted atop action-packed adventures may seem strange--and seeing a Lego monkey is rather unnerving--but the enduring charm of the movies is the perfect foundation for some small-scale tomb robbing. The surprise is, even without a nostalgic-powered handcuff fastening you to these stories, the seamless co-op and clever puzzles should be enough to draw even the Indy ignorant into the experience.

Like the Lego Star Wars games, Lego Indiana Jones is primarily a puzzle-solving game with light combat and platforming elements. While the core experience remains largely unchanged from the previous games, the puzzles are constructed in a much more intelligent and logical manner this time around. Previous Lego games had bewildering sections that would stump even seasoned puzzle-solving veterans, not to mention frustrate casual fans who were just looking for a Star Wars fix. Those tricky sections still exist in Lego Indiana Jones, but now they have been relegated to the bonus missions. Though you'll still spend the majority of your time trying to figure out how to open locked doors or cross perilous pits, the pacing is never halted by overly complex solutions.

Even though the adventuring is more streamlined this time, the obstacles you'll encounter are quite diverse. Every level seems to throw a new trick your way that will continually keep you on your toes. The most amusing puzzles involve the severe phobias with which certain characters are cursed. Indiana has no fear swinging across molten lava with his whip or leaping over spikes while being run down by a giant boulder, but if you put a snake in front of him, he'll become nearly catatonic. The boss battles also provide a unique twist in every encounter. From having to figure out how to hurt a man who can regenerate his health to fighting against someone who won't stop jumping, these encounters serve as a fun diversion you'll have to solve quickly, lest you find your Lego head popped clean off. Other sections have you using elephants to cross mud, driving a motorcycle while being chased by a group of bikers, and trying to get a monkey to part with some dynamite. There is also a nauseatingly awesome mine cart ride in [em]The Temple of Doom[/em] section that, though brief, is quite exhilarating.

Though the puzzle aspects alone are enough to make Lego Indy worthwhile, the humor makes it enjoyable even for people just watching the action. The silent cutscenes take you through the journey in a much sillier manner than Steven Spielberg originally envisioned. No, you won't see the Lost Ark melt some unfortunate Lego person's face, but you will see Indy's father fall asleep (because he's old!) and even the Harrison Ford look-alike donning a blonde wig to deceive a foolish guard. The humorous touches go beyond just the cutscenes; there are funny nods all around you. If you have time to marvel at the decor when trying to escape from a burning castle, you might see a painting of the Sphinx with a Lego head. Traveller's Tales also included a few references to its previous Lego games. You can see soldiers wearing Darth Vader masks, Belloq mocking C-3PO, and a clever homage to Hoth hidden away in one level.

It's worth playing the levels a few times just to pick up on all the references, but there is a much more tangible reason than that: They are jam packed with hidden goodies. It's actually impossible to get all the bonus items your first time. There are a number of different character-specific traits, so you'll have to unlock Free mode to see all that every level has to offer. The different traits help keep the tasks varied throughout the game. Indiana has his trusty whip, which can not only help him swing across gaps and grab objects from far away, but can also bring the ladies closer (and steal a quick kiss). There are also scholars who can decrypt hieroglyphics, smaller-sized characters who can squeeze through tiny spaces, craftsmen equipped with a wrench or a shovel, and bad guys who can enter secret Thuggie doors. You'll be lucky to finish 50 percent of this game your first time through, so it's overflowing with replay value.

Features:
* With lots of new features, LEGO Indiana Jones takes everything that was great about LEGO Star Wars and adds even more.
* And for the first time ever, LEGO characters are fully immersed in their environment; they are able to swim, climb, shimmy across rock ledges and pick up and carry objects.
* Also for the first time ever, you can use a variety of weapons from the environment such as chairs, guns, swords and bottles to fight enemies.
* And no Indiana Jones game would be complete without Indy’s signature whip which you’ll use as a multi-purpose tool to attack, disarm, swing across gaps, activate levers and interact with a world of LEGO objects and puzzles.
* Unlock more than 60 playable characters, each with unique abilities. And team up with a friend to battle enemies and seek out the world’s greatest treasures.
* Create unique playable characters like Sallah Scott or Mola Round by mixing and matching the LEGO body parts of all playable characters.
* Cooperative gameplay encourages parents to share the legacy of Indiana Jones with their children in a fun and humorous way.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
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Intel P3 1.0 GHz or AMD Athlon XP
256 MB / 512MB Windows Vista
64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
DVD-ROM drive

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS:
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512 MB / 1 GB Windows Vista
256 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
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Indy Forever (Indiana Jones Special)

Wed, 19 Jun 2008 20:35:00 GMT

posted by emmaalvarez
After three years of waiting, finally Indiana Jones is back. The return of Indy was in the mind of George Lucas since 1993, but 15 years have passed until this movie is shown for first time, the fourth part of this series.

"Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull" is a wink for Indiana's fans, and an attempt to capture the attention of the new generations, as Steven Spielberg himself said.

Following the comments that Harrison Ford did, this kind of movies that mix so much emotions and fun are hard to find nowadays.

This movie is without a doubt done with a big care. It is told that during the filming of the movie, when Harrison Ford was finally dressed for first time as Indiana Jones, everybody in the filming team clapped with emotion.

I confess that I'm a big fan of adventure movies and Indiana Jones. I went to the cinema quite skeptic but I liked it very much. In fact, it may be the second one of the saga that I like most after "The Temple Of Doom".

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
As in the previous movies, this is directed by Steven Spielberg and the executive producer is George Lucas, who wrote the story with Jeff Nathanson (Rush Hour and series like Terminal, The Last Shot).

The story is the following: Indiana keeps on getting himself in trouble, and it costs him his job as teacher in the University. A young rebel called Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), son of Marion (the girl that appeared in "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", the first movie of Indiana Jones) asks Indiana Jones for help and they go together to Peru.
They get the coveted Crystal Skull, but the Russians, lead by a diabolical Cate Blanchett go after them and the skull.

As in the other movies of Indiana Jones, there's a mix of fantastic and real elements.
As a curiosity, in the beginning of the XX century, the archaeologist F.A. Mitchell-Hedger found some fossilized skulls in the shape of quartz crystal. Their origin is still a mystery.

In this movie, they talk about Francisco De Orellana, a Spanish explorer and adventurer that gave its name to the Amazon River.
I will write a post soon about this personality, and also another one about the Nazca Lines, that also appear in the movie and are part of a real mystery.

Indiana Jones, the character
Although Indiana Jones seems a comic book character, he's actually originated in the imagination of George Lucas. Lucas created Indiana (Indy) in 1973.

Indy is an archaeologist and teacher that searches for historical relics.
In his adventures, Indiana always wears the same clothes (as a comic hero): a hat (a fedora, that is near to loose in many occasions, risking his life to recover it), a brown leather jacket, brown trousers similar to those of a II World War soldier, shirt of safari-style, a bag and a whip and a revolver as weapons.

The success of the character is without doubts due to the unforgettable duet of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
The name of Indiana is a reference to the dog of Lucas which had that name. In the beginning, Indy's surname was Smith, but Spielberg changed it for Jones.

Indiana Jones is a brave hero, intelligent, very lucky to keep himself safe and sound after all the dangerous situations that he has to face. He has only one phobia: the fear to snakes.

The character of Indiana Jones has been so captivating that has generated many theme parks, a TV series, computer games, and fans for generations.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark
It was shown for first time in 1981. The music is by John Williams. It was starred by: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey.

The story is the following: It's 1936. Indiana Jones is a teacher in an University that searches historical relics. This time, he searches for the Ark of Alliance, where the Hebrew put the tables of the law that God gave to Mosses. Those who have the Ark in their hands will be invincible, so the Nazis try to get it.

Curiosities of this movie:

During the filming, Karen Allen "let go" real punchs to Harrison Ford.
The tarantulas that they used were real too.
And as nobody was very convinced with the "Fedora" hat, they trampled on it and wrinkled it to make it more realist.
They also used real snakes for the movie, and Harrison Ford was not bitten in the filming. But when he got to his home, a snake bite him in his garden.
Karen Allen's character is called Marion, that was the name of Steven Spielberg's cat.

The Temple Of Doom
It was shown in 1984. The music was also by John Williams, and it was starred by Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ice Quan (The Goonies)...

Indiana Jones has a fight in a night club in Shanghai and escapes with his little oriental friend and the club singer in a plane. After an accident they end in a small village of India, where all the children have disappeared, as well as the powerful stone that protected them.

Curiosities of this movie:

During the filming, an elephant ate the read dress of the actress Kate Capshaw.
Kate Capshaw married Steven Spielberg some time after this movie.
Steven Spielberg appears in this movie, in the first scene of the airport.
The Shanghai club is called "Club Obi Wan".

The Last Crusade
It was shown for first time in 1989. The music is by John Williams. It's starred by Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody, River Phoenix...

Indiana Jones' father (Sean Connery) is kidnapped when he was searching for the Sacred Grail. Indiana will have to rescue his father and help him to find the Grail.

Curiosities of this movie:

The rats of the basements of the Library of Venice are real rats that were already there.
Sean Connery uses to take his trousers off between the scenes in the filming for "relaxing himself". Some scenes in which only his torso is visible are filmed with Connery in shorts.
The hat of Indy was stapled to the head of Ford in some scenes, so it couldn't fall.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- Knowledge is Power

Wed, 26 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

posted by martinbaggs

In the last couple of years we have seen the return of some old favorite sexagenarians to the screen. Sylvester Stallone started it in 2006, coming back as boxer Rocky for the millionth time in Rocky Balboa. And then he did it again this year as Rambo. So, when Harrison Ford reprised his role as legendary Henry Jones Jr, it was with some trepidation that I went to see Indiana on the silver screen once more. But Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun, if far-fetched, flick, and a reasonable addition (conclusion?) to the Indiana Jones franchise.
Crystal Skull makes no bones about Ford's age. Indeed, it seems to play up to the fact that he is now no spring chicken. Indiana looks older and more wizened, though he is still physically able to perform heroic stunts that would leave younger, lesser men in the dust . . . or in the ER. At one point Dean Stanforth (James Broadbent, taking over from Denholm Elliot [Dean Marcus Brody], who died in 1992), says to Indy, "We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away." And for Indy, his job as professor of archeology at Marshall College is being taken away due to questions of his "communist associations."

Set in the late 1950s, Indy is still teaching and pursuing adventures as an archaeologist. This time, though, his enemy is not the Nazis, but the Russian commies, and they don't carry quite the same punch. The leader of this bad band is Col. Dr. Irina Spalko. Cate Blanchett plays her with relish as a wicked cartoonish figure, like Cruella DaVille with a Russian accent. The goal in this chapter is the crystal skull, legendary pointer to El Dorado, city of gold, hidden somewhere in South America.

As Indiana is about to leave Marshall on a train, his job gone, a young punk greaser, Mutt Williams pulls up along side the train on his Harley and delivers the news that his old friend Prof Oxley (John Hurt) has been kidnapped after apparently finding the skull. Shia LaBeouf looks like a young Marlon Brando is this encounter, and has the chops to pull it off. He brings a sense of youth and adventure to Crystal Skull, a younger version of Indiana, if you will. Of course, this sets in motion the rest of the film.
And with fedora, bullwhip and leather jacket, Professor Jones becomes the Indiana we have waited two decades to see. Just like before, he builds plans on the fly (the question, "What's he gonna do now," gets the apt response, "I don't think he plans that far ahead.") He does what he believes is right at the time. Seemingly always one step behind, Indiana is still the guy who picks himself up, dusts himself off, straightens his hat, and tries again. Once again an American cowboy for the twentieth century.
Crystal Skull is shot in the same comic book style, with the same types of action sequences as the previous three episodes. So much so, in fact, that this could have come out in the 1990s. It is filled with obvious references to the earlier movies: truck chases, fist fights, poison-tipped dart-blowing natives, booby-trapped tombs. The most exciting chase occurs early in the movie, when Williams meets Jones, and they flee the Russians on Mutt's motorcycle. This had all the thrills of the earlier movies.

But if Crystal Skull captures the flavor of Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is not quite up to that movie's standards. It goes too far, and asks the viewer to suspend disbelief too much. The early incident where Indiana survives an atomic bomb explosion is simply unbelievable. And the incident later when the adventure seekers go over three waterfalls is highly implausible. Tack on a prolonged sword fight across two high-speed jeeps. Action adventure films often go over the top, and this one is no exception.
The first act is strong, showing us an older and more worldly-wise Jones, and introducing us to a young Mutt Williams. The second act is more predictable. The third act, where Karen Allen reappears as Marion Ravenwood pits the two ex-lovers, Marion and Indiana, once again verbally at each other's throats. And they pick up where they left off in Raiders. Indeed, a big part of the fun of Crystal Skull is seeing these two love-birds fighting and squabbling again.

But as it comes to the climax Crystal Skull moves into the ludicrous. Steven Spielberg seems to want to make reference to his earlier movies, with a flying saucer that looks an escapee from Close Encounters, and aliens reminding us of ET. Indeed, where Raiders and The Last Crusade had clear biblical references, Crystal Skull has none. Gone is Scripture (apart from a very brief glimpse of the ark) and in its place are aliens.

Crystal Skull has some reunions and surprises, a nasty villain and a gruesome scene with some red ants. It gets silly with some monkeys and Tarzan-like tree-swinging. Yet, by the end Indiana has discovered his lost love, and perhaps realizes he has wasted a lot of life simply waiting for her, filling in his time with quests for a treasure he already had found . . . and lost. How much of life do we waste waiting, for whatever we wait for? Life is an Indiana Jones-like adventure, a journey of discovery to be treasured and enjoyed. Let's not sit around waiting for something to happen.

A key theme in Crystal Skull is knowledge. Dr Spalko tells Indy early that she is seeking the artifact for knowledge. Her power, as Stalin's chief scientist, comes from her ability to know things others don't. She is pursuing knowledge. And along the way, when Mutt asks him about El Dorado, Indiana says, "Well the word for 'gold' translates as treasure.' But their treasure wasn't gold, it was knowledge, Knowledge was their treasure." And it was Spalko's treasure. And it was her downfall. In the climax, Spalko's eyes are opened to knowledge, more knowledge than her head can hold and she is destroyed.

In many ways, in the postmodern twenty-first century, knowledge is still power. The information age peddles knowledge as currency. It is what we know, and it is who we know. As true as this is in the physical world, it is more true in the spiritual world. Knowledge is power there. Who we know is the key to this power. If we know Jesus as our master, then we have an age-old, timeless power that Indiana Jones would have marveled at. As the apostle Peter says, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Pet 1:3). Like the apostle Paul, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection" (Phil. 3:10).
Copyright 2008, Martin Baggs

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark -- Harnessing the Power of God

Sun, 23 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

posted by martinbaggs

As Philip Marlowe epitomized the private detective of the 40s, and Humphrey Bogart exemplified Marlowe (as in The Big Sleep), so the 80s gave us Indiana Jones the epitome of the determined yet carefree adventurer and Harrison Ford exemplified Jones. Originally scripted to be called Indiana Smith, and changed on the first day of production to Jones, how can we think of anyone other than Indiana Jones when we think of tombs and arks, whips and fedoras?
The Oscar-winning classic and highest grossing film of 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark, opens with the extended scene of a leather-coated Jones in pursuit of a gold relic in a tomb in South America. Getting past the initial booby-traps that have claimed other earlier archeologists and mercenaries, he attains the altar upon which the small golden head rests. He swaps a bag of sand for the head, but despite this trick still triggers the final trap: a large boulder the size of a truck rolling down to crush him. When he finally gets out, with the help of his trusty bullwhip, he finds his arch-enemy, the French Belloq (Paul Freeman), waiting with a hostile tribe of headhunters, and has to relinquish the relic. The classic shot, foreshortened via long telephoto lens, of Indy running in front of these native Indians before diving into the river is one seared into the American movie-goers memory.
Whew! What a way to start a movie.
And like the typical James Bond movie, this scene has little to do with the rest of Raiders. Yet, it serves its purpose -- to introduce the person and character of Indiana Jones. Here is someone who lives at the edges of danger and survives by the seat of his pants . . . and by his wits.
When we next see Indiana Jones, it is in a suit, in his real job as a college professor, writing with chalk and winning with charm. But when the US Army tells him that the Nazis are seeking the Lost Ark that Moses used to store the Commandments, he rises to their call. Another adventure beckons. And he is just the man for it. Indeed, it is harder to think of another hero for this job. And it is hard to imagine that apart from a commitment to Magnum PI, Tom Selleck would have been Indiana Jones. Instead, Ford was cast less than three weeks before photography began, and this gave him a second career-defining role (after Han Solo in Star Wars).
From America to Nepal, where he teams up with old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), to Cairo Indy paves a trail that is anything but silent. As Raiders progresses, the action comes thick and fast. The world of the late 1930s is changing, and the Germans want the ark because of the power of God that it is supposed to provide to its bearer. But Indiana Jones symbolizes all that is good about America in contrast to the highly organized and efficient but evil Germans. With such memorable scenes as the marketplace fight and standoff with the giant scimitar-bearing thug, and the truck chase culminating in Indy being dragged on his belly, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a modern-day classic, yet another winner from the Spielberg-Lucas stable.
Indiana Jones is the kind of character you want in your corner in a bind but don't want at your doorstep dating your daughter. He is a true modern cowboy, with a wry asymmetrical smile, a one-liner response to every situation, and an ability to face anything . . . except snakes! His adventurous spirit is symbolized in his response to how he would go after the truck bearing the ark, "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go." But his adventure and flexibility are tempered and controlled by his dogged determination. When he sets his mind to something, he will go at with all his might and gusto.
As the climax approaches, Indiana and Marion find themselves tied together to a pole, while the Germans prepare to open the ark they have recovered, with Belloq presiding in the robes of a Hebrew high priest. All appears lost. But this is nothing if not a Hollywood movie, and a happy ending is in the cards. The Germans expect to harness the power of God to use in their soon-to-be ensuing war machine. But, in the words of the late C.S. Lewis, Aslan is not a tame lion, and God is not a genie, bottled up waiting for the magic lamp to be rubbed to release him to do the bidder's beckoning.
As fun and as fast as Raiders of the Lost Ark is, the whole emphasis is on the power of God locked up somehow in this ancient and mysterious artifact. Certainly in the Bible, the Israelites treated the ark with fear and respect, and it did carry with it a supernatural power that caused death and disease to be visited upon her enemies (1 Sam. 5-6). But the ark represented the very presence of the holy and living God, and it was His power that was in view. Though the power of God is not available upon request to the owner of the ark, it is a rightful truth that the power of God is something to behold.
The very same power of God that was believed locked in the ark of the covenant was the power of God that defeated sin, Satan and death at the cross. It is the power of God for the salvation for all who believe (Rom. 1:16). It is the power of God available through the resurrection of Jesus (Phil. 3:10). It is the power of God that is available to those of His followers who trust and depend on Him. We may not dodge rolling boulders or poisoned blow-darts. We may not stare down king cobras or escape cruel Nazis. But as we search for own personal arks, we can find the power of God available to us for our daily lives. We just need to lay down our bullwhip and our own strength -- God's power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:8).
Copyright 2008, Martin Baggs