Today I watched: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

[fitia]

You know, my parents actually bought the complete Blu-Ray box set of the Indiana Jones movies a couple years back, but I never got around to actually watching any of them? Despite its reputation as a must-see classic, as well as being referenced everywhere in pop culture, I never felt enough interest for these films to be in any hurry to watch them. Though, this time around, I'd been feeling more inclined: I've been developing an interest in history/archaeology over the years, and I also like having a look at how popular culture and media tends to vulgarize/romanticize/dramatize professional and academic fields, so I thought, why not finally give this movie a try.

(Other motivations include that I'm currently fighting a bad cold right now, was bored and tired out of my mind as a result, and needed something to occupy my mind)

My first thought once I'd finished the movie was: I would've had way more fun watching this in theatres, instead of on my bed through an online streaming site. This really is the quintessential action movie! The characterization felt about as minimal as the plot, only present to give a connecting string to our successive, high-octane, increasingly dangerous and improbable chase and battle scenes. Running for your life inside an ancient, booby-trapped temple, battling Nazis while you try to hijack a truck: it's a movie written first and foremost to keep you at the edge of your seat. It certainly made for a reasonably enjoyable time, but I do wish I was in the space to feel it all more.

And aside from the setting I ended up watching in, I think the effects of the movie itself felt dated enough to lessen the punch of a lot of its moments. Visually, I'm certainly being communicated that when Indiana Jones is fighting five different armed Egyptian men at once or falls into a pit of snakes, he's certainly in incredible danger, but the execution in the effects often felt too obviously artificial to make me feel the tension. It might also just be the fact that I don't watch too many 80s action movies. Or action movies in general, really. Or movies.

The character of Indiana Jones himself is not one I found very compelling. He's about as generic American action hero as you can get, and I suppose Harrison Ford did a good enough job working with it. Like I said, there's not much depth to either character or plot, and I never got a sense that anyone was personally invested enough in the battle between the US government and the Nazis for the ostensibly high stakes to matter even just a little.

Also, your average racism/orientalism and misogyny, unfortunate sign of the times. I immediately felt bad for Marion the minute she showed up because I know how the stories go when you're the female love interest of a grizzly, yet heroically masculine male protagonist. I had to sigh every time the protagonists encountered anyone non-white.

The biggest things I got out of this movie were being able to tally every single recognizable action trope within it played entirely straight, and a greater curiosity for its general cultural impact: because there were a lot of moments in it that I recognized as being influential, given that I'd seen them referenced/parodied in a lot of other media. And I'm wondering how it compares to other American action flicks, which I suppose I'll have to make the effort to watch in order to maybe better understand what this movie both draws from and might have inspired. 

All-in-all: probably a movie that felt more awesome for people who first saw it in theatres in the 80s, but from my vantage point I've seen everything it does improved upon, so as an individual piece of media it didn't exactly do much for me except open up the possibility for going down a new research rabbit hole.