I voted for Raiders just like the other 90 out of 116 at this time; it's almost always the first movie in a series that's the best. In fact, the only ones I can think of where a sequel outdid the original were Fletch Lives! and The Bride of Frankenstein.
I voted the original as the best and my favorite. That movie changed my life in an unexpected way in the '80's in that I became obsessed with replicating the exact look of Indy's fedora in Raiders that the sequels lost. Once I saw the sequels I knew no one spotted this unique hat design which to me looked like a cross between a cowboy hat and the fedoras worn by Howard Hughes when he was promoting the Spruce Goose airliner. In fact that was the name I was going to call the hat design and market it. I contacted the original London fedora suppliers Herbert Johnson Hat Company and ordered what they called the "Grosvenor". IndyGear.com: Fedora When I received it I noticed it didn't fit right and didn't have the same shape so when I called them back they told me it was the exact model but that the costume designer had to rough it up to give that shape. The crown was too tapered like a gangster hat that roughing it up wouldn't change so I re-blocked it and shaped it myself. I finally got it looking at pictures from Raiders. See pics below I took in 1990. I had to let go of this project because I knew it was too late ten years after Raiders was released to take advantage of market demand for the hat so I gave it to Good Will. Saw the original fedora design was revived in Kingdom of Crystal Skull and read up on how they did it and found someone else was just as obsessive about the design that he did it better. It was admitted by Spielberg in article that the look of the fedora bothered him in the next two sequels and made sure it was corrected on Crystal Skull.
I rate these as follows: Raiders Last Crusade Temple of Doom Crystal Skull Wonder if we will ever really get a fifth film?
They should have just stopped at The Last Crusade as they asserted they would back on it's initial theatrical release in 1989, they even made quite a big deal of it being THE LAST INDY FILM if I remember correctly, pity they didn't hold to that. Having read both Frank Darabont's discarded (by Lucas) City of the Gods script and obviously seen the released film, I honestly don't think it was frankly worth the effort of making a fourth Indy film at all; Spielberg's heart evidently wasn't fully in it, plus he really did not like the aliens being the macguffin - and publicly said so - in addition to Marion seeming like a totally different character to the spunky firebrand from Raiders, and the frankly useless character of Mutt. And let's face it; once you've already used the single greatest archeological artifact in history as your macguffin on the first film, everything else is diminishing returns after that... although the first two sequels just about got away with it, with Crystal Skull, it was awkward, not particularly interesting, and the predictable big effects-filled finale was but a lame duck parody of the still-visceral and genuinely unsettling climax to Raiders. God only knows what they can dredge up for Indy 5 if it ever gets made... Was Crystal Skull an entertaining enough film? Yeah it was, such as it was. Was it worth bringing Indy back after 18 years? If they had a really great script, then yeah, but they didn't so hell no it wasn't. I'll believe a fifth Indy film will actually happen once the cameras start rolling, but I'll not hold my breath... especially not for an 80-year-old lead actor who simply won't be able to do the physical stunts like in previous films... let it go, Harrison dude.
I'm gonna vote for "Raiders", because it was first and is an undisputed classic, but I could have just as easily voted for "Crusade", which I absolutely love. They are both pretty close, in terms of quality. I watched "Crusade" just last month. I get all choked up with his paw gives him a hug. I wish I had hugged my paw like that just once. Oh no, here I go again.... "Temple" is a step down because of Kate and the gross-out banquet. Too corny. Too Ewok. Still an enjoyable movie, overall, but not a masterpiece like the others. I like to pretend "Crystal Skull" didn't happen. In fact, I bought the Indy titles on blu-ray separately because I didn't want to own the boxed set because "Skull" was in it. It was an abomination. From the groundhogs to the ants to the... I don't even know what this swirling blur of CGI at the climax even is at this point... just... ugh...
Having seen "Doom" in part or whole about 120 times (I was a projectionist), Kapshaw is representative of the kind of film-making Spielberg couldn't do with a gun to his head: goofy vintage slapstick. You can feel how hard she and others work to get the "fun" across, reminding me of "1941." The film threads uneasily between this forced humor and some remarkably brutal (yet also somewhat cartoonish) scenes of violence, which both repulse and bewilder, given the "light" tone the movie is supposed to have. You can't do an homage to 'the serials of yore' and then throw in a CU of someone ripping a beating heart out of someone's chest; that violates the very universe you are trying to re-create, IMO. If "Star Wars" had shown Imperial Troopers with their guts being blown out, or characters had horrific burn wounds, that's about the comparison I can think of. All that said, I'll go with the original "Raiders."
I love Doom and Crusade, but Raiders is head and shoulders above the others to me, as a film. There are humorous moments, and moments that might be sending up old genres, but the later films are a hair too self-mocking and self-aware for me to equate them with Raiders. Nothing in the later films matches either the power and mystery of the Ark, or the dynamic and romance with Marion. Again, the sequels are awesome, but Raiders is the best. But I give a shout out to the fun interplay between father and son in Crusade, and its great opening sequence with River Phoenix.
Hands down, Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's one of the great action films of cinema - and looking back, easily among Steven Spielberg's best. The sequels I like just fine - give or take - but none come even close to matching the adrenaline-rush thrills and richly drawn characters of Raiders.
I remember being drop jawed at the melting face ending as an effective way to show the power of the Arc Of The Covenant that it sparked a conversation with my devout Lutheran grandmother on its history in the Bible. I was 20 and didn't go to church but that movie just fascinated and entertained me on so many levels. I thought it was better than the original Star Wars at telling a story with a lot of interesting elements. It was an adventure in its purist form. There's not one dull scene in Raiders and it never drags.
I saw Temple of Doom in 70mm (blow up) 6-Track Dolby in a THX theater, and found myself covering my ears during those screaming scenes, and I wasn't the only one.
Temple Of Doom's roller coaster mine scene made me feel like Spielberg was on crack or speed because I started becoming nauseous and jittery nervous watching the whole thing in the theater. It was all too fast and frantic and couldn't understand its purpose in the movie but as to only appeal to bored and impetuous children. At that point the adult had left the room and the kids had control over the bouncy house, only the bouncy house had lost its tie downs and was sailing away. Then I had to come down to Earth to feel sympathetic about the child labor abuse at the core of the plot. Never watched that movie again. What was Spielberg thinking?
Oh, I loved it at the age of eleven. And the scene and the movie as a whole continued to thrill me through my teen years. As an adult, I recognize that much of the film is a bit silly, the tunnel full of water that never seems to catch up with them as they’re running for instance. But it really worked for me in the eighties.
