My top 30 films - No.22

22. Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) - "The creators of JAWS and STAR WARS now bring you the ultimate hero in the ultimate adventure."

Before they made this film, Steven Spielberg (E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws) said that he always wanted to direct a James Bond film, but George Lucas (Star Wars and American Graffiti) said that he had an idea "better than James Bond". Spielberg loved the plot, calling it "a James Bond film without the hardware", but he didn't like one thing - the main character's name, which was Indiana Smith. So Lucas decided to change it to Indiana Jones.

This is the first of the Indiana Jones films, with Harrison Ford (Star Wars and Blade Runner) as the famous archaeologist. It's set in 1936, a time when the Nazis were all around the world searching for historical artifacts, which would help them in their quest for power. Two U.S. army officials tell Indy that the Nazis are looking for his former mentor Abner Ravenwood and he deduces that they are searching for the Ark of the Covenant, which would make the Nazis invincible, and they want him to get ahold of it before them. Indy travels to Nepal to meet up with Abner's daughter Marion (Karen Allen (Animal House)), only to find out that Abner is dead, and together they meet up with Indy's friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies (Lord Of The Rings trilogy) in Cairo. However, Marion gets kidnapped by the Nazis and Indy encounters his rival archaeologist Belloq (Paul Freeman (The Long Good Friday and Hot Fuzz)), who is working with them. They have already found the site, but to Indy's advantage they are digging in the wrong place. So he must find the Ark and get it away from them.

Let's face it, Indiana Jones is one of the greatest characters in movie history. You say Indiana Jones to somebody and they will think of the fedora, the jacket and the whip. He is so recognisable. Plus, it is perhaps Harrison Ford's greatest performance. Spielberg was the one who originally suggested Ford, but Lucas didn't want him to become his "Bobby De Niro" (reference to Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro). Indiana Jones was going to be played by Tom Selleck, but he pulled out due to other commitments (Magnum P.I.). Therefore, they went for Ford, especially after his performance as Han Solo in Lucas' The Empire Strikes Back.

This film is almost for many of its numerous set pieces and stunts. The most famous has to be the boulder scene. I now expect every archaeology related film to feature a boulder sequence, so they owe that to this film. Another famous stunt in the film is when Indy is clinging onto the front of a lorry and he then crawls under it to appear on the other side, all this whilst it's moving. That was a stunt that stuntman Terry Leonard tried previously in The Legend of the Lone Ranger that went wrong. I particularly like the fact that when he's at the front of the lorry, Indy is clinging onto the Mercedes badge and it just bends off. There are so many to choose from and that is what makes this film memorable.

Something else that is lasts a lifetime is the iconic theme music. Like the majority of Spielberg's movies, it is conducted by John Williams. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of their show on BBC Radio 5 Live, Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode broadcast a live show from Salford, with a variety of film scores performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The rules were only one piece per composer, but for John Williams they decided to let the listeners choose between either Raiders Of The Lost Ark or Jaws. Raiders Of The Lost Ark got 67.5% of the votes.

All the scenes of the dig site just outside Cairo, in fact all the Egypt scenes were actually filmed in Tunisia. That area was familiar to the majority of the crew, who had previously worked on Star Wars, as Tunisia was where they shot the scenes on Tatooine. Other pieces were filmed in San Francisco, La Rochelle, Elstree Studios and Hawaii. An interesting piece of trivia, there is a submarine that features in this film and it is the same one used for the film Das Boot.

I would like to dedicate this to the actor/wrestler Pat Roach, a.k.a Bomber in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Apart from Harrison Ford, Pat Roach is the only person to appear in all three films of the original trilogy. In this film, he plays a Sherpa and a plane mechanic, both of whom Indy has brawls with; in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom he played a Thuggee and in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade he briefly appeared as a Gestapo officer. He also appeared in Never Say Never Again, Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange. Unfortunately, he died in July 2004, but his memory will always live on.

This is obviously the best film of the franchise, but they have all been successful in my opinion (apart from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a much darker and serious film to this, in the same way that The Empire Strikes Back was. There are also many comic elements to these films, including the following:

Is Indiana Jones a greater personality than James Bond, like they originally intended. Too close to call, but the Indiana Jones films are better. Plus, he has made archaeology cool.