Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition) | 
| Actors: Karen Allen, Ishaq Bux, Anthony Chinn, John Rhys-davies, Patrick Durkin
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $9.91
You Save: $10.08 (50%)
New (63) Used (25) Collectible (2) from $5.97
Rating:  177 reviews
Sales Rank: 1073
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Arabic (Original Language), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), German (Original Language), Hebrew (Original Language), Nepali (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 132824
UPC: 097361328249
EAN: 0097361328249
ASIN: B0014Z4OMU
Theatrical Release Date: 1981
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Essential DVD
It's said that the original is the greatest, and there can be no more vivid proof than Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first and indisputably best of the initial three Indiana Jones adventures cooked up by the dream team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Expectations were high for this 1981 collaboration between the two men, who essentially invented the box office blockbuster with `70s efforts like Jaws and Star Wars, and Spielberg (who directed) and Lucas (who co-wrote the story and executive produced) didn't disappoint. This wildly entertaining film has it all: non-stop action, exotic locations, grand spectacle, a hero for the ages, despicable villains, a beautiful love interest, humor, horror… not to mention lots of snakes. And along with all the bits that are so familiar by now--Indy (Harrison Ford) running from the giant boulder in a cave, using his pistol instead of his trusty whip to take out a scimitar-wielding bad guy, facing off with a hissing cobra, and on and on--there's real resonance in a potent storyline that brings together a profound religious-archaeological icon (the Ark of the Covenant, nothing less than "a radio for speaking to God") and the 20th century's most infamous criminals (the Nazis). Now that's entertainment. --Sam Graham
Description
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a "history" with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel."
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 172 more reviews...
Awesome start in the Indiana Jones series April 22, 2009
Jennifer A. Everhart
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Here comes Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the action packed franchise. It features Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) searching for the Ark of the Conevant with the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). His rival Rene Bellog (John Rhys-Davis) and a Nazi commander Major Arnold Toht (Ronald Lacey) are after the Ark as well. This was a great movie to watch with your family. The stunts were neat, the visual effects were so real and complex, and the story is entertaining. The cast was well rehersed. The melting head was phenominal. There would later be three aditional films as well, a prequel and two sequels. This is another timeless classic you don't want to miss!
Still One Of The All-Time Adventure Stories April 11, 2009
Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
All three Indiana Jones films of the `80s were entertaining but this first one was still the best. It's certainly the most memorable.
Famous scenes, from the opening one with the gigantic boulder chasing Harrison Ford to the film's ending with the Ark of the Covenant opened, will be Hollywood classic moments for years and years.
The action scenes are varied, from fist fights to battles with snakes, to dodging airplane propellers, guns, knives, poison dates, fires, supernatural plague-type winds, chases through city streets, caves, mountains....you name it, it's all in here.
The music can get too loud, the action too much, Karen Allen's mouth too profane; the credibility too much to believe, the theology too weird, etc, but no one can deny this is a fun ride all the way through. You take none of it seriously and just enjoy the adventure.
Coming on the heels of Star Wars, this really made Harrison Ford a mega-star. It didn't do much for the rest of the cast but it sure boosted Ford's stock.
After a long wait, this finally came out on DVD in October of 2003 and it looks great! Now, we wait for a sharp Blu-Ray transfer.
Film History's Second Greatest Hero February 20, 2009
Mark J. Fowler (Okinawa, Japan)
At the turn of the Millenium the American Film Institute made up several "Best 100..." lists, and one of them was "Best Hero". Indiana Jones came in #2, right behind Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and ahead of Rick Blaine Casablanca, James Bond, etc. This is the movie that introduced the screen icon, and no cogent individual would argue that any of the three (so far) films that followed were superior to this one.
Henry Jones, Jr. is an archaeologist, and an unmatched thrill-seeker. Harrison Ford's hero is a perfect mixture of intelligence and action. The film would be worth seeing if only for the opening prologue where Indy tracks down a golden idol in a secret cavern guarded by tarantulas, spear-hurling booby traps, giant rolling boulders and poison dart shooting hovitos. In this scene watch for an early appearance by the talented English actor Alfred Molina as South American guide Satipo.
This opening scene is used to introduce Indy and his nemesis, French archaeologist Belloq (played by Paul Freeman), as well as Dr. Jones' dislike for snakes.
We next see Indy lecturing a room of star-struck co-eds in archaeology before colleague Marcus Brody (played by Denholm Elliot) drags Indy to a secret meeting with Army intelligence officers. Secret messages intercepted from the Nazi's show that Hitler has sent a massive archaeological team outside of Cairo to attempt to recover the biblical Ark of the Covenant. This scene is a piece of genius exposition, explaining a little of the history of the Ark and its location that sets up the rest of the movie, and at the same time adding the ominous warning that "an army carrying the Ark of the Covenant before it is invincible".
We meet Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, a former girlfriend with an important piece of the puzzle, and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, an Egyptian archaeologist who has worked with Indiana before.
The movie is an absolute roller-coaster, with our hero dodging one near-death experience after another, but the thing that makes "Raiders" superior to the Indiana movies that followed is the perfect balance of witty derring-do and realistic humanity embodied in Harrison Ford's portrayal. The AARP aged Indy in the recent "Crystal Skull" takes a beating without flinching, but the Indiana of the first movie makes you believe it HURTS to be drug behind a truck or punched by a 250 pound Nazi sergeant.
The climactic scene leaves no doubt who "the good guys" are, and the ending allows us to catch our breath before the credits roll. Not intended to be a film of academic minutiae, it is nonetheless a perfect combination of action, romance and film smarts.
Movies simply don't come better than "Raiders".
Inspired by the 1930s, Made in the 1980s, Still Great Action-Adventure in the 2000s. February 16, 2009
mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA)
In 1981, it wasn't obvious that an A-movie that is a pastiche of old B-movies could take the top spot at the box office and inspire a franchise that is still profitable 27 years later. But "Raiders of the Lost Ark" did just that. Set in 1936, as the industrial world moves closer to war, and parts of the third world are still unexplored, archeologist and "obtainer of rare antiquities" Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) scours the globe for treasures of civilizations past. His talent for extracting long-lost artifacts under perilous circumstances attracts the attention of United States Military Intelligence. Nazi Germany has taken an interest in the reputed power of the Ark of the Covenant, which held the original Ten Commandments, and the US would like Dr. Jones to find it before the Nazis do. First, Jones must find his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), daughter of the man who was in possession of a medallion with clues to the Ark's location.
These days, the only filmmaker who makes big-budget tributes to low-budget genre films is Quentin Tarantino. But his films are often self-conscious comments upon the exploitation films that inspired them. In the 1970s and early 1980s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg did something similar but less cerebral. They make movies that updated and upgraded low-budget genre films but with essentially the same intention as the original films. Post-War sci-fi flicks inspired George Lucas' "Star Wars" trilogy. Steven Spielberg upgraded youth-oriented exploitation films to make "Jaws". And Spielberg and Lucas together wrought "Raiders of the Lost Ark" from adventure serials of the 1930s-1940s, with their dependence of cliffhangers, damsels in distress, and intrepid adventures in exotic locales. "Raiders" rounds it out with an evil, sadistic Nazi, Maj. Toht (Ronald Lacey). and a clever, cultured, but squeamish French rival, Dr. Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman).
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" turned out better than its creators expected. Audiences didn't interpret it as a send-up or tribute to earlier films. They embraced it as a rip-roaring action-adventure with great style and humor. It had just the right mix of cliche and freshness, and it takes its characters seriously, if not its plot. Marion is a damsel in distress, but a tomboy. The action sequences are creative and well-paced. A lot of credit goes to Harrison Ford for bringing an unselfconscious humor to the film (and to "Star Wars" as well) that endears Indy to everyone. It achieves the right balance of exoticism and down-to-earth. Indy's skepticism of the supernatural plays much better than his acceptance of it does in the sequels. It's no wonder there were so many adventure stories in the first half of 20th century. It was a time when amateur explorers were mapping the globe, always discovering new things. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" captured the romanticism of that for another era, and it still does.
The DVD (Paramount 2008 Special Edition): There are 3 featurettes, 4 image galleries, and trailer and demo (PC only) for a Lego Indiana Jones Original Adventures Game. "Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Introduction" (8 min) features Spielberg and Lucas talking (recently) about how the film was conceived and brought in under time and on budget, including some archival footage. "Indiana Jones: An Appreciation" (12 min) interviews the cast and creative crew of the 4th Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", about their experiences making or seeing "Raiders" in 1981. In "The Melting Face!" (8 min), Chris Walas explains how he created Toht's melting face, including footage of the procedure. That is the only bonus feature that is worthwhile. I remember seeing several documentaries about the making of "Raiders" in the 1980s, particularly about the stunts, but this disc doesn't include anything like that, which will be a disappointment to fans. Subtitles for the film available in English, French, Spanish. Dubbing in French and Spanish.
A nice suprize January 13, 2009
C. Malone
It was very refreshing to have ordered the DVD Indiana Jonesm and have it come so quickly, correct and without any hassles, especially around the christmas hustle and bustle. I will definatelly use their services again.
|
|
|
