Iconic cinema. Lucas and Spielberg flexed their revisionist muscles
when they recycled the adventure serials of the 1930s, gave Harrison
Ford a whip and fedora, and created modern cinematic manna. Ford as
Indiana Jones is a dream of gruff charisma; the quasi-religious hokum
of Lawrence Kasdan's script injects a welcome tone of gravitas; and
John Williams yet again wrote an unforgettable theme. Raiders
heralded a return to form for Spielberg, who delivers an enchanting
piece of rip-roaring adventure. The model for all the action films that
followed in the 1980s, Raiders is an absolute cracker.
