Raiders of the Lost Ark (Fathom Events)

 

I just happened on this screening by looking at the app for one of the Cinema Chains that I have a membership to. I suppose this has been scheduled in anticipation of the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny". In essence, we are paying for a commercial that lasts two hours for a movie that opens at the end of the month, frankly I'm OK with that, as was the nearly full auditorium of movie fans I saw this with. 

You can find previous posts on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" here, and here, and also here, and at least one more here. So I am not going to do a deep dive on this post, although there is always something more to see or talk about on a great movie. I just want to cover two quick things as an acknowledgement of my seeing the film again on the big screen.

First up, I want to address the notion, widely promulgated after an episode of  "The Big Bang Theory", that Indiana Jones is really irrelevant to the plot in this, since the Nazis would have found the ark regardless and been destroyed by it, just like what happens in the film. People who believe this are ignoring two big points. First and perhaps most importantly, they would not have found the Ark without Dr. Jones. The whole opening sequence sets up the premise that Rene Belloq is a parasite who claims treasures after Indy find them. 

" Dr. Jones. Again we see there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away."

This has been a pattern that continues with the search for the Ark. They need Ravenwood's headpiece but don't know where he is and how to contact him. So what do they do? They follow Indiana, who has taken up the task himself. Toht follows Indy to Nepal, follows him to Marion's place, and then follows up Indy's offer to Marion with threats instead. It may not be the best influence on the plot, because he gives away the location of the prize, but it is certainly relevant. 

Second, we learn that the head piece the Nazi team is using is missing key information. Information that allows Indiana to find and take possession of the Ark. Belloq only gets his hands on it because Indy found it first. Repeating their pattern.

 "So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine."

It is also true that without Indy, the Ark might have remained with the Nazi's . We don't see how it is accomplished but the famous last scene in the film shows the Ark being buried again, this time by the American Government, in a tomb of ephemera and flotsam, contained in nearly identical crates. That does not happen without Dr. Jones and Marion, even if we don't get to see how it was done.

Now, as to a couple of different points, I'd like to give a shout out to a couple of the supporting actors. Ronald Lacey as the despicable Toht, Gestapo tool and torturer, is delightfully fiendish in his role. He oozes menace in Nepal, whines like a wounded animal when he handles the red hot head piece, and nicely plays the visual joke of the coat hanger that looks so menacing in Cairo. His scream in the climactic sequence is also frightfully deserving.

William Hootkins, who plays Major Eaton, from Army Intelligence, is the personification of the old joke that the phrase "Army Intelligence" is an oxymoron. In the first meeting with Jones he comes off as a clueless but inquisitive investigator. In the last segment, he is an officious bureaucrat, whose curt answer of "Top Men" as the team that will be investigating the Ark, is perfect. It is dismissive and condescending and exactly parodies the type of government incompetence that Dr. Jones has to deal with.