US (1981): Action/Adventure
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's 1981 resurrection of the Saturday-matinee adventure genre was deservedly popular, and kicked off a successful trilogy. Set in 1936, this first feature introduces Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., an archaeologist and adventurer whose quests for rare antiquities frequently find him running from one menace or another. Raiders finds Dr. Jones in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of the Ark of the Covenant to win the World War II. Karen Allen plays the love interest with an old-fashioned "man's woman" appeal (she can drink anybody under the table and is free with her fists). The constant, cliffhanger appeal of the movie is great fun -- one is always wondering how Indy will get out of one scrape after another -- and Ford's career got a big boost with his self-effacing but masculine portrayal of the hero. (Lucasfilm, Paramount) (Tom Keogh, Amazon.com)
This film was named to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board in 1999. It placed #60 on the AFI list of "100 Years... 100 Movies", and #10 on the AFI list of "100 Years... 100 Thrills", behind Rosemary"s Baby (1968) and in front of The Godfather (1972).
8 nominations, 4 Awards, 1 Special Achievement Award
· Art Direction/Set Decoration 1981: Norman Reynolds & Leslie Dilley - Art Direction, Michael Ford - Set Decoration
· Film Editing 1981: Michael Kahn
· Sound 1981: Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Roy Charman
· Special Visual Effects 1981: Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson, Joe Johnston
· Special Achievement Awards 1981: Ben Burtt & Richard L. Anderson - Sound Effects Editing
· Best Picture 1981: Frank Marshall - Producer (Lucasfilm, Paramount)
· Directing 1981: Steven Spielberg
· Cinematography 1981: Douglas Slocombe
· Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1981: John Williams
