Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Not-so-Special Edition... great film, anemic extras

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is universally considered to be an extremely entertaining action/adventure movie, so I won't waste your time reviewing the film itself. If you've already seen it, you know it's awesome; if you haven't... well, to quote Indiana Jones himself: "Trust me." It actually does live up to the hype. What's truly important for those thinking about purchasing this "special edition," however, is a discussion of the bonus material.

The extras on this disc definitely do NOT warrant purchasing this edition if you already own the previously-released Indy Trilogy DVD set. The extras can basically be summed up in a word: "meh." Each of the handful of featurettes is around 10 minutes or less, and there are no surprises. Some brief "making-of" clips from the filming of "Raiders" are semi-interesting, but are all very short. Another featurette is just a bunch of actors from the series making bland comments about how great Indiana Jones is, set to overly-familiar clips from the various movies (Watch Indy run from the giant ball! Now watch him shoot the swordsman!). The endless repetition of clips from the movie is one of the tiresome aspects of DVD bonus material, and serves mainly to make you so sick of the film that you don't want to see it again for awhile!

The best featurette is the one about how they did the "melting face," but even this is short and, really, no great shakes. Next is the apparently mandatory "for interest to fanatics only" stuff like storyboards and a gallery of production stills. Finally, there's a brief commercial for the Lego Indiana Jones video game, which actually (and tellingly) is one of the more entertaining of the extras.

Considering the importance and success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and the fact that it's being sold as a stand-alone "special edition" after having long been available as part of a trilogy set, the overall paltriness of the bonus features is a letdown. The extensive, well-produced extras on George Lucas's "Star Wars" prequel DVD's, with lengthy, thoughtful featurettes and deleted scenes, should have been the model followed here. Instead, it seems like Lucas and company were more interested in cashing in on "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" hoopla (a trailer for this latest sequel plays automatically before the main menu pops up) rather than rewarding loyal fans with something definitive and satisfying.

Buy this disc for the awesome movie, if you don't already own it; otherwise, pass. Trust me.
August 9, 2008

This is the greatest movie ever!

Dude, if you have not seen Raiders of the Lost Ark yet, you have no life. No, let me tell you this movie is perfect. Good Story, Nice Action, not a lot of gore. And who doesn't like Harrison Ford, well, after the sucess of Star Wars I'm going to say nobody. And remember, this took place in 1936, so they had a bunch of stuff you don't see now. I mean this took place before the Wizard of Oz was made. (Gasp in horror) I know that's hard to beleive but that's what you get. So, Harrison Ford starred in one of the famous movies ever! So, see it if you have it. Stick around for my next review: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!!! August 1, 2008

CLASSIC ACTION & ADVENTURE! FORD'S DEFINING ROLE!

I bought the original box set many months ago on sale for a bargain price. Reading all the reviews for the new Indy installment I have been wanting to watch the original 3 films before eventually seeing the new one.

Watching the original was quite fun as I haven't watched the film in years! The DVD transfer is excellent and the audio is more than adequate on the original 4 DVD box set release not the newest release. This film still holds up well and could be labeled the definitive action adventure film without any arguments.

Ford is perfectly cast as the elusive whip-cracking archeologist and Allen is great as his very capable love interest. It's a one of kind film that has been copied so much it's hard to remember when this was fresh and new! The first film is the best by a mile, but I will be reviewing all the films as I watch them! July 13, 2008

Still good after all this time.

Well it's Saturday morning movies again. Indiana Jones is the best of the action hero's and Raiders is still the best of these movies. Even after all this time, it still holds up. Settle back with a bag of popcorn and be prepared to have a great time. July 4, 2008

They buried the dialog!

First off, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite movies and I'd give the movie itself 5 stars. However, I'm upset with this DVD and I can't recommend it. The score and sound effects are very loud compared to the dialog. In fact, in many places its hard to hear what the characters are saying unless you really turn up the sound (but then the score is super loud, and that is quite irritating).

I purchased this DVD after watching Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was a little disappointed by it (it was okay, but not as good as the previous 3), however, my girl friend really enjoyed it. Though she also admitted to me that she had not seen the previous Indiana Jones movies. So I felt like it'd be fun to do a movie night where we saw the original.

I picked this DVD up figuring it'd be the definitive version. The picture is wonderful and the movie itself is a thrill to watch. However, several times during the movie we found ourselves saying "what did that person just say?" The music and sound effects were very loud and prominent, however the dialog wasn't. We had to turn the volume way up, to the point where when the music kicked in or certain sound effects (like thunder) occurred, they were annoyingly loud.

We actually stopped the movie twice and fiddled around with the settings on her TV. At one point we even restarted the DVD and checked the options menu to see if there was some kind of setting for normal sound - there wasn't. She told me no other DVD had this problem. So I'm assuming they've mixed the sound like this on purpose, which I find to be extremely annoying. I wish they would have just left it alone or made it so someone could watch the movie with normal sound.

As it is, I'm unhappy with this purchase and can't see myself watching this version again. June 29, 2008

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