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I think of Raiders as the greatest of all adventure films. I still remember seeing it at the movies, people were gasping and applauding. Nobody had ever seen anything like that before.



IMO it's the greatest straight-up adventure movie. There's a fantasy adventure I'd put above it: LOTR 1.



The first three Indy movies are all fun and Raiders Of The Lost Ark is my favourite of those so if only one was going to show up I'm glad it's this one. Wouldn't be within a lion's roar of my own Top Ten but that's part of the beauty of community lists imo.

Seen: 83/93 (Own: 43/93)
My list:  


Faildictions (Eternal vsn 1.0):
7. Double Indemnity (1944)



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is my #5.

Spielberg, George Lucas and scripter Philip Kaufman combine to create an homage to Saturday matinee serials which pumps up the creativity and the wit (both verbal and visual) to levels which would have never really been seen in the 1930s/40s. First, they create a perfect hero, team him up with some sidekicks, introduce a suave bad guy (Belloq, Paul Freeman), throw in a historical nemesis in the Nazis, and then to top it off, they throw in a sacred artifact of the Jews.

I saw this movie the first time at a sneak preview. As soon as the Paramount logo turned into a "real" South American mountain, I was hooked. Immediately, the cinematography, sound design and low-key music turned into some of the most intense things I had ever seen/heard. When Alfred Molina found the poison dart, talked about the Jovitos, and the birds started cackling, I went into some form of alternate universe. Although I had already had major epiphanies with Jaws and Close Encounters at the theatre, after five minutes, I was in Seventh (maybe even Eighth) Heaven. The film continued on, at such a kinetically-funny and ultra-violent pace, that I barely had time to get turned on by all the low-key scenes which provided so much tension and pacing.

Raiders of the Lost Ark crams in so much action into one movie that the only one I can compare it to is its prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). I love that film as much as Raiders, except that I can accept that Raiders was first, but even so, the intro and finale of Temple of Doom actually have more action included in it than the former film. I understand that some people hate Kate Capshaw's character, but I find her to be a sarcastic match for Indy, and this second film seems more attuned to the horror comic films (aka graphic novels) which recently seem to be flooding the movie marketplace.

At the same time, I'd be remiss not to mention Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). I know many people who love it the most, and I certainly do love it too. The intro with a young Indy (River Phoenix) has special meaning to me because I saw the film just after vacationing in Utah (and Arches National Park specifically) where it was filmed. Plus, I find Sean Connery's performance as Indy's pop the crowning achievement of his acting career, and the father/son teaming easily the greatest character relationships in the series. Still, although it's a terrific movie, it comes in third for me in the Indy sweepstakes. (That means that I give it
.)

Not much more to say about these wonderful films. Yes, I'm a huge fan boy, and I would have made three separate entries in the Top 30, let alone the Top 100, but that would make my list even more predictable.

My List
1.
2. Elmer Gantry
3. Midnight Cowboy
4. Star Wars
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
8. Little Big Man
9. Cabaret
10. The Incredibles
11. LOTR: The Return of the King
12. Schindler's List
13.
14. War and Peace (1966) full 7 hr. version
15. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
16. Back to the Future
17. Richard Pryor Live in Concert
18.
19. The Innocents
20. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
21. American Graffiti
22. Pygmalion
23. Paths of Glory
24.
25. The Graduate

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My List
1.
2. Elmer Gantry
Oh yeah, nobody knows what's your number one.
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Raiders of the Lost Ark is good but would not make my top 10 English speaking films. Maybe not even my top 25.



Raiders is one of the greatest adventure movies of all time. Has two or three scenes that I think about and reference fairly regularly. The film could hardly be more iconic. It's a hard one not to put on my 100 because of how much I used to love it and it's influence on my love of movies. If I'm being honest though, I don't care about watching it anymore. It's influence has run its course on me.
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For my money, Steven Spielberg is the greatest action director of all time, and it's the reason that Raiders of the Lost Ark was #4 on my list. His action scenes are kinetic but you always understand what is happening and where everything onscreen exists in space. This is a lot harder to do than he makes it look (*cough*Christopher Nolan*cough*). Indiana's escape from the indigenous temple is a masterclass of action. Is the movie profound? It is not. Does it have something important to say? I don't think so. But it is massively massively entertaining, riding a wave of B-movie clichés with a fully committed cast, telling a straightforward yarn of good vs. evil (Nazis are bad, everyone). This is pure movie popcorn at its best.



Raiders was on my list. No movie is perfect but Raiders is pretty damn close.



A Kino****a on my list, yes, but not that one.
i see, then it must be that one :3 right?

all hail hideko takamine


No Setsuko Hara movies on my list.
wuohoho
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Readjusting my guess for the order of the Top Seven...

7. Blade Runner
6. GoodFellas
5. Casablanca
4. Pulp Fiction
3. Jaws
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
1. The Godfather
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Oh hell, I forgot about Jaws. But is Jaws really going to top RotLA? The imdb ratings suggest it doesn't have even a chance of topping Schindler's List.



Oh hell, I forgot about Jaws. But is Jaws really going to top RotLA? The imdb ratings suggest it doesn't have even a chance of topping Schindler's List.
Yes.

By the IMDb ratings Shawshank Redemption is the greatest film ever made. I think that can end that line of argument.

Jaws finished behind only The Godfather on our 1970s list.



Raiders making it is a pleasant surprise. This callback to the day of serials is well done with memorable characters, lines and scenes. Nice set pieces with the boulder chase, the confrontation with the swordsman and the climax.

It didn't make my list, but it would clearly make my top 100. Can't wait to see what's tomorrow.



Oh hell, I forgot about Jaws. But is Jaws really going to top RotLA? The imdb ratings suggest it doesn't have even a chance of topping Schindler's List.

Yes.

By the IMDb ratings Shawshank Redemption is the greatest film ever made. I think that can end that line of argument.

Jaws finished behind only The Godfather on our 1970s list.
Yeah there's no way in hell Jaws is missing this list.
I thought the same about Jurassic as well tbh but Jaws is definitely making it.



Welcome to the human race...
Raiders was my #6. If part of the reason that lists like this get made is to illustrate cinema at its most superlative, then you can hardly go past Raiders when it comes to picking a slot for the best "adventure" film (though it feels like such a term opens itself up to interpretations beyond just fun crowd-pleasers - would The Wages of Fear or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre qualify as adventure films?). In any case, it's taken a slight hit in my ranks - in one top 100 I placed it at #1, in another at #2 - and part of me wonders if I'll ever truly drop it down the ranks and maybe out of the top 100 altogether. Seems unlikely - I do have a stronger attachment to this than most films, but who knows.
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