Raiders of the Lost Ark

When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.

Broadly acclaimed on release and only more beloved since, Raiders of the Lost Ark was celebrated for distilling the Saturday-matinee serial into its sharpest, most kinetically pleasurable form — with Ford's performance and the film's escalating stunt work drawing particular praise. The minority dissent, led by Pauline Kael and Stanley Kauffmann, argued that Spielberg and Lucas were thinking like marketers rather than filmmakers, sacrificing character and innovation for the thrill of topping themselves, and that the relentless pace eventually numbed rather than excited.