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Raiders of the Lost Ark is a feature film released by Paramount Pictures in 1981. Directed by Steven Spielberg, it is a fantasy adventure and the first in a series of film and TV productions about the adventures of the heroic fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones, who was played by actor Harrison Ford. Indy is a professor of archeology at an unnamed university and also acquires artifacts for Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott), who works for an unnamed museum. On his adventure he is accompanied by Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies). His bête noire is Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman).
The plot line of the film relates to saving the Ark of the Covenant and its supposed incredible powers from the Nazis in 1936, shortly before World War II.
George Lucas originally became involved in the project in 1977. Like Star Wars he saw it as an opportunity to create a modern version of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s. The early 1970s had been dominated by action films either with a certain gritty realism, such as the Dirty Harry series or that were massive productions with huge casts and elaborate special effects such as the The Poseidon Adventure. By contrast Raiders of the Lost Ark is comic book-like in tone, with a glamorous heroine, over-the-top villains, and impressive stunt work combined with moments of comedy. It was also limited in its ambitions as it was made in only 73 days, the plot is rather straightforward, and there are only a few principal characters.
Rather than direct it himself Lucas gave the film to his close friend Steven Spielberg, whose career was suffering due to the expensive bomb 1941. The film was a huge success, becoming the year's highest grossing film. The box office success of the film led to a prequel - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and a sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). A fourth, as yet titleless, movie is apparently in preproduction for 2006.
In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Newer videos of this movie are titled Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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