Heart And Soul

I’ve been teaching this film for decades and I am honestly surprised when  students mostly miss the serious themes here.

I ask, “Is Indiana Jones a nice person?” On several levels he is not.

RE: Marion. Their backstory is involved. They knew each other when Jones was a student and Marion’s father was his mentor. They had an affair. He left her high and dry, not taking responsibility for the romance even ten years later.

Marion stops, stares, shocked.

INDY
Hello, Marion.

She HITS HIM with a solid right to the jaw. He rubs his jaw.

INDY
Nice to see you, too.

MARION
Get out.

— cut —

MARION
I’ll tell you something, Indy. I’ve
learned to hate you in the last ten
years. But somehow, no matter how
much I hated you, I always knew
that someday you’d come through
that door. I never doubted that.
Something made it inevitable.

INDY
I need one of the pieces your
father collected.

Marion’s eyes go icy. She swings at him again with her right,
but this time he catches her at the wrist.

MARION
You son-of-a-bitch! You know what
you did to me, to my life? This is
your handiwork.

INDY
I never meant to hurt you.

MARION
I was a child!

INDY
You knew what you were doing.

MARION
It was wrong and you knew it.

Which begs a troubling question about how old everyone was at the time and exactly what happened.

This section is important because it points out, by intuitive logic, that this was what tore Indy away from his mentor, Ravenwood. Indy says to the Army men that he hasn’t seen Ravenwood for a number of years. This is why.

It’s also a major part of the B-story which we’ll cover in the next section.

A&B Story

All well-executed movies that come from well-written scripts have a strong A- and B-story.

The A-story is the plot. The B-story is the Emotional Core, in many cases the theme. Articles on this site have covered the Emotional Core, but let’s briefly discuss it here.

Indy is flawed. He values the artifacts he obsessively hunts, but not deeply. As an archaeologist he’s top notch; as a person – not so much. He understands full well the extrinsic value of the artifacts he goes after, but not their intrinsic value. In other words, he only acknowledges that they have value in a real-world sense.

The Ark is a religious artifact and everyone but Indy believes in its power. They understand the spiritual or intrinsic value. Indy does not.

BRODY
No one knows its secrets. It’s like nothing
you’ve ever gone after before.

INDY
Oh, Marcus. What are you trying to do, scare me?
You sound like my mother. We’ve known each other
for a long time. I don’t believe in magic, a lot
of superstitious hocus-pocus. I’m going after a
find of incredible historical significance.
You’re talking about the bogeyman.

There, in nutshell, is how Indy feels about the spiritual significance of the Ark. And for most of the movie, he maintains this attitude.

This cavalier approach also reflects how he treats people. He uses them like he used Marion ten years prior. Indy is a great adventurer but not really a good man. His journey chasing the Ark will change that, but it will nearly cost him his and Marion’s life.

Because there are two stories here, the A-story is resolved and also the B-story. By the time we get to the last act, Indy is much more in touch with himself and his actions, and it opens him up for he and Marion to rekindle their romance.

And in the last scenes, he tells Marion:

INDY
Marion! Close your eyes!

Because he now believes in the spiritual significance of the Ark. That it is actually magic and has powers that he completely dismissed earlier and for most of his life.

Quite a change.

A brilliant and complete ending with an also incredible coda in Washington that satisfies both the A- and B-story.

MARION
Hey, what happened? You don’t look very happy.

INDY
Fools. Bureaucratic fools. They don’t know
what they’ve got there.

Then, with a dazzling smile, Marion offers to buy him a drink and they walk off arm-in-arm. Indy has had a 180 degree change of mind.

Set Pieces That Rise Above The Noise

I preach the gospel of uniqueness. With so much derivative material flooding the market, it’s incredibly inspiring to see a movie that still sets the bar so high.

I’m going to list some of the set pieces (scene sequences) that make Raiders so incredible.

• Opening cave scene. That rolling ball still makes me grip the sides of the chair.
• The teaching scene. I’ve never seen a girl print “I love you” on her eyelids.
• The Army scene. Because of the information being given.
  • Also note the way the exposition is skillfully shuttled between all four characters in rotating fashion. Great technique.
• The Nepal scenes including Marion’s intro and the fighting scenes.
• The medallion reveal and dead monkey moment.
• The marketplace scene.
• The cafe scene where Indy is in mourning over Marion and willing to commit ‘suicide by Nazi.’
• The Well of Souls moment which leads to Indy and Marion’s entombment.
• The fight near the spinning propellers.
• The insane chase on horseback.
• The funny and touching ship scene between Indy and Marion.
• The entire ending sequence.
• The coda and that amazing scene in the government’s secret warehouse.

Of course, there’s also a hundred smaller moments that continue to delight even now, decades later.

Structure

As mentioned at the top of this article, this is my go-to movie for discussing structure. Charting it out according to my Informed Structure paradigm (Quantum Scriptwriting) it falls almost perfectly on the major tentpoles with those tentpoles happening every 15 – 20 minutes.

• Indy on the quest.
• In Egypt, Nazis digging in the wrong place.
• Losing Marion.
• Getting the Ark.
• Losing the Ark.
• Finding Marion.
• Getting the Ark back.
• Losing both Marion and the Ark.
• Captured, all is lost.
• Resolution.
• Coda (potential for sequel)

Each carefully built tentpole adds, enhances and moves the story forward. There is no fat in this movie. It’s a marvel in how to actually deliver on a concept in major fashion. An entire scriptwriting course could be (should be) built around this movie.

Enduring Legacy

I’ve mentioned this but it bears repeating. This movie has the same impact today that it did when it premiered. I once assigned this to a class and one of the younger students had never heard of it. She came back after watching it in love with this adventure tale.

And sure, many others have imitated it, but nothing has diminished the quality of the script or the production.

None of the sequels have come close. I think it’s an almost impossible task to replicate such a nearly perfect movie. It never really feels dated. I can think of dozens of movies done in the last ten years that don’t hold up as well as this one. Sure, certain 1980s attitudes show but if you excuse them on the basis of this was a period piece and reflected the culture of the time (1936) then it’s not as egregious – just a little uncomfortable.

Conclusion

This film fulfills the most important mandate of any movie – it entertains. From the opening gambit to the last stunning image it grabs and holds you. It does the big things right and the little things even better.

For example, in the coda sequence on the steps of the building in Washington, Marion chases Indy up and down two or three stairs in comedic fashion. Is that necessary to anything? No. But it’s funny and it give you one last smile before our two heroes head off together arm-in-arm.

The small things as well as the big things.

Together with the amazing story, action set pieces, intense characters, interesting McGuffin and just everything combined, “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” remains one of the greatest scripts ever written and films ever produced.

[More: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Learning from Stoppard]

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