RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

The golden juggernaut and the sandbag. The rolling stone boulder. The thousand snakes in the Well of Souls. The opening of the Ark of the Covenant. From today’s perspective Steven Spielberg’s legendary adventure flick “Raiders of the Lost Ark” appears to be a “super-cut” of sequences that have irrevocably, and shining brightly, burned themselves into pop culture’s memory. For everyone, who has been living behind the moon for the last three and a half centuries: An adventurous archaeologist sets out to find a legendary relic on behalf of the US-government: Moses is said to have stored the stone carved ten commandments inside the Ark of the Covenant. Not only Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones assumes the whereabouts of this potential threat to civilization to be in Egypt: The Nazis are already on site, determined to provide their “Führer” with the Ark of the Covenant and thereby a key advantage in the second world war. Spielberg’s unique talent for action sequences is combined with his genuine love of the guilt culture of his childhood and youth to create an apotheosis of the “ride movie”, a high speed experience, whose directorial resourcefulness is only overcome by the perfection of its effects, truly amazing!