I'm not sure what prompted it, but I had a strong desire to watch Raiders of The Lost Ark this evening. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it, but it's likely one of the first movies I remember seeing, at the age of 7. (Home video didn't exist back then.) There were scenes that really creeped me out as a child, namely Marion in the room of corpses in the Well of the Souls, and the face melting bit, but it was just so epic.
What surprises me is that it's still quite epic, and really stands up to time. It's classic Spielberg. The sound effects are over the top, he uses shadows and off-camera action to tell the story, it has a John Williams soundtrack... it's the definition of an adventure movie.
The casting is brilliant too. John Rhys-Davies was the perfect Sallah (and who knew he'd be Gimli in LoTR?), able to be a screen presence as well as a sidekick. Karen Allen was a believable love interest, understatedly attractive but not Hollywood pretty. And of course, Harrison Ford is one of the biggest movie stars in history, and I think it's well deserved.
Such a great movie. I can't believe it's been around for almost 30 years now.
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