Renowned archaeologist and occult scholar Dr. Jones receives a dangerous assignment from the US government. He must go in search of a unique relic – the sacred Ark. But Indiana does not even suspect that the secret agents of Adolf Hitler have already received a similar order.

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27 years have passed since the release of this film on the world screens. The term is considerable. Other heroes came, new faces filled the screens, adventure began to be understood as an abundance of special effects and nothing more, much is outdated and faded, but Indiana Jones has not aged and has not faded for a quarter of a century. Like 27 years ago, people still cling to screens to look at one of the brightest adventure films in the history of cinema and at their favorite hero, they still applaud the crazy ideas and dangerous adventures of the guy in the same hat with puppy delight. the same whip. I share their delight!

Why? Because we have before us a reference adventure film, shot by the king of the genre, Steven Spielberg. The film is absolutely timeless – Spielberg did not modernize the action, he removed it from the then viewer, but placed it in such attractive places that the film looks great at any time. The Amazon jungle is always teeming with dangers, ancient temples are always interesting, the Nazis with their atrocities and blockheads to conquer the world by any means is a byword. Cairo will always remain a city of pyramids that have buried great treasures and terrible secrets, and archaeologists – heroic discoverers. With such settings, the film will not grow old for another hundred years!

A film for all ages – it has an atmosphere of youth, childish enthusiasm, there is some kind of naivety, a thirst for discovery that all children experience. This is a film for teenagers, which, nevertheless, perfectly helps adults to feel like children again. Therefore, he struck right here too. This is a real family movie, which Spielberg has always been great at.

The film is imbued with an atmosphere of mystery, mystery, and this is one of the greatest incentives for people to read books, watch a movie or go on a journey. Spielberg opens before us a completely different world – the world of ideal heroes, a world where real history intersects with mysticism, where historical names and dates are mentioned, but they are shrouded in fantasies. This creates an additional pungent sensation. Indeed, for teenagers all over the world, Indiana Jones is an almost real character who once really acted in the situations shown.

Only a very good writer and a very good director can bring their characters to life like that. Spielberg is not only a good director, but also an eternal child. As a 12-year-old boy, he, too, dreamed of dangerous adventures, of lost temples, and of going through a myriad of trials.

We all dreamed, dreamed, and many future directors, but Spielberg is one of the few who, having come to the cinema, began to embody their childhood fantasies in an accessible and fascinating form. Surely he saw himself in these adventures, because it is difficult to believe that the film follows a dead script – it moves straight out of childhood fantasies, like a sweet dream of a boy who reads Wells or Vern for the night.

And the hero is perfect. Everyone needs an ideal hero as a child. Indiana Jones has become a role model for millions of boys in America and in the world, because he is honest, simple, noble, fearless, loving danger, reckless, and most importantly, he is the same boy – a dreamer and fidget, like themselves. He is always active, always in the thick of things, always surrounded by dangers, but he gets out of the worst of them easily and naturally, as if he knows everything in advance. He is smart enough to get out of the basements of the ancient pyramids, he easily dodges darts and his hat never goes off on the run, because he is a hero!

And Harrison Ford embodied the image of such a kid hero – with a naive smile, with uncertain relationships with women, but with a very definite passion for science and adventure. His absolutely organic behavior in the proposed circumstances, one hundred percent coincidence of the character of the hero and the personal, emotional characteristics of the young actor – made him a favorite of the audience, despite the fact that the actor did not even need to squeeze out of himself any strong game.

The hero should have a bright and one-sided type, which Ford recreated brilliantly: passionate, impulsive. Now it is difficult to imagine someone else in his place, but in fact the casting did not go so smoothly: Tim Matheson, Nick Mancuso and Peter Coyote auditioned for the role of Indiana. Spielberg himself favored Klaus Kinski and Nick Nolte. But both refused to act. It was only then that Harrison Ford appeared in the project, just 3 weeks before filming began. Spielberg, however, made the perfect choice, making the actor famous throughout the world. He then had to fight off the image of Indiana Jones for a very long time, proving that he is capable of more, and in vain, being the hero of all children and adolescents is also not bad.

Like any normal hero, Indiana was supposed to have a girlfriend. Sean Young, Amy Irving and Debra Winger auditioned for her role. The role went to Karen Allen. The slightly manly, freckled beauty was well suited for Jones, who was not particularly thinking about women. In their relationship there is not even a hint of sexuality, intimacy, as in all Spielberg’s films – women play only the role of a kind of background, because boy heroes like Jones do not need families and lovers. They are always obsessed with their childish ideas. They have no time for women.
The film, among other things, has a lot of common sense humor that dilutes the dangerous environment.

The villainous environment is also pleasantly pleasing – Wolf Kahler is a sadistic killer, Ronald Lacey is an executive major Thoth, Paul Freeman is Dr. Belloc, Alfred Molina is a traitorous guide … However, Spielberg always manages, even at the last moment, to find the best actors.

And of course, what is Spielberg without special effects? Special effects, fights, dynamic chases lay on the adventures of Indiana – the tempo of the film is incredible – one adventure follows another, mystical riddles and their equally fascinating solutions are pouring into the audience almost without a break.

They say that Spielberg was very afraid for the success of his brainchild, thinking that while shooting such a children’s film, he was shooting a category “B” tape. But it turned out that while filming his childhood dreams, he guessed the dreams of millions of people on the globe and the film became the loudest event of 1981. And he also grabbed 5 Oscars. Agree, not bad for a childish craft?

By the way, the continuation of the famous franchise is successfully going on in cinemas. And I’m incredibly happy about this: some part of my soul still longs for the continuation of the adventures, they turned out to be painfully cool. It’s hard not to love this hero, and it’s hard not to admire this film, before us is one of the cult films of the 80s, an almost perfect adventure film that has become a legend. And, even if childhood has passed, it can still return when he again appears on the screen – the unsinkable hero from boyish fantasies.

See the next part: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 4K 1984

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (54.2 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Russian: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Danish, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Thai, Japanese.