I remember seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark at the Wellfleet Drive-In on Cape Cod when I was 5 years old. The movie was so intense in spots, especially the Wrath of God Nazi-melting ending, I ended up hiding in the back of the car and peeping above the back seat so I could "safely" watch the rest of the film.
That movie set a standard for me, the perfect amalgum of the old action/adventure serials of the 1930's giving us a smart and witty rogue who always fought the bad guys no matter what crazy situation he was thrown into. He got the girl, saved the precious artifact, and made sure the world stayed safe from the bad guys.
But this film, this construct of creative genius's, show not only are they well past their prime but how they have encapsulated themselves into their own little world and not realized how badly they have maimed the treasured memory their fans carry of Indiana Jones.
The film, on paper, has all the aspects of a great film: fascist bad-guys, rare and exotic antiquities, remote locales, double-agents, hostile natives and lethal fauna, and even the return of a long-lost love with an important (if predictable) secret.
But put together in the ham-fisted way they were, with poor direction and mediocre screen writing, it wrenched my heart to see the mess that appeared on-screen.
I will not fault the actors, but I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the producers, writers, and directors. I *wanted* to like this film, very much so. I saw it with my brother, and for a week afterwards we were in a kind of shock; we would say to each other, "Yeah, that was a pretty good film." After a time though, we slowly admitted to ourselves, "God, it was awful. Why was it so bad???"
Another Indiana Jones movie must be made, if only to wash from our mouths the terrible taste of this one.
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