Action opening sequence - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

Analysing the opening sequence to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a Action/adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg that released on July 30th 1981 and was produced by Lucasfilm, the cast features Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies.

INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

NARRATIVE

This sequence opens on a group of adventurers walking through a jungle, eventually the majority of them run away from fear after they encounter a hidden trap, except for two men. The sequence’s main action is focused on the scene where these two men enter some form of cave system that is absolutely covered with secret traps and the skeletons of previous adventurers who failed to avoid them. After successfully making it to the last section of the cave, it is revealed that they are there to steal some sort of ancient gold idol, the leader (Indiana Jones)’ clever attempt to replace its weight with a sack of sand fails as the cave system begins to collapse behind them, forcing them to run back to the entrance, where the other man attempts to steal the idol and leave Jones behind to die, only to fall into a trap whilst Jones manages to skilfully escape. From this, we can assume that the rest of the movie will follow him throughout more adventures as he is clearly experienced and very skilled at survival, we can also expect to find out more about the idol and why he had to steal it (despite it never being brought up again).

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target audience for this film seems to be young audiences; the wonderfully adventurous nature of this opening, such as the intense chase scene, appeals mainly to younger people as they typically enjoy the idea of adventures the most. Certain graphic imagery like the various dead bodies shown could be argued to indicate that this film is not for children, but rather for teenagers or young adults. 

GENRE & TONE

The film’s adventurous action genre is made clear through its setting deep in a jungle, including shots of arrows lodged into trees, suggesting there are other people in the jungle that potentially pose some form of danger to them. Short sequences like; Jones expertly disarming one of the men who attempted to shoot him using only his whip, the intense escape scene, the various secret traps they must avoid - all further confirm the action genre. The tone established is quite lighthearted and fun for an action film (looking past the dead bodies) due to the secret traps almost appearing like some form of game, including the other man’s somewhat comedic role of looking frightened and nervous in contrast to Jones’ confident and cautious stance.

CHARACTERS

Although two characters are predominant throughout this opening: Indiana Jones and the other man along for the ‘mission’, it is mainly Jones we are properly introduced to. The other man stays with Jones throughout the whole expedition unlike the other adventurers who ran away, this at first makes him seem brave and almost loyal. However, it is revealed that he only stayed with Jones just to get the Idol to himself out of greed; he looks up towards the idol as if it were almost godlike to him, he then makes a ‘money counting’ gesture of sorts, wordlessly revealing that he only wants it for its financial value. Jones on the other hand is presented as a very skilled adventurer who is clever and a quick thinker; he is always in the foreground and middle third of the shot leading the action. Towards the beginning of the opening we are shown a close up of him filling up a bag with sand, this is later revealed to be used in order to replace the Idol on its weight sensitive platform, the close up helps establish that he was thinking in advance and therefore has a lot of experience with these types of missions.

TECHNIQUES

The moment that uses the most technical aspects to enhance its intensity would be the scene where Jones cautiously steps through the final room and takes the Idol. The importance and glory of the Idol is stressed through one long shot that slowly zooms into it, the bright lighting over it allows it to glow a radiant gold, clearly looking like an object of great value. Additionally, once Jones steps in front of it, its warm orange glow shines on his face; exaggerating its golden colour as gold has strong connotations to wealth and high status. In the moments leading up to him replacing it with the bag of sand, the non diegetic soundtrack quickly increases in pitch and volume, adding to the tension and stress created by this important action. The music then rapidly decreases in intensity once the action is completed and seemingly successful, creating a false sense of security, this is then followed by a pleonastic diegetic sound effect of the platform the Idol was on sinking downwards - revealing to the audience that it wasn’t in fact successful for a few moments before the cave begins to collapse.

SUCCESSFUL?

In my opinion this is a fantastic opening sequence; it doesn’t reveal anything about the rest of the movie, its entire purpose revolves around introducing the character of Indiana Jones and presenting him as an excellent and able adventurer who is intelligent and a quick thinker. Yet despite the entire opening purely serving to establish one character’s skills, it manages to remain very entertaining as it also works as its own entire adventure sequence; almost like a short film before the real thing starts.