Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or...

Ostensibly, the setting is roughly divided into two general categories: the Known World (Washington, D.C. and Indy's university) and the Unknown World (everywhere else). That's in keeping with the...

Raiders of the Lost Ark wasn't interested in breaking new ground with narrative technique. It was a big, bold crowd-pleaser aimed at honoring smaller, older crowd-pleasers. Getting cute with the na...

Action-Adventure, Thriller, Satire, Religious PictureAction-adventure is the name of the game and Raiders of the Lost Ark did it so well it practically defines the genre these days. They even added...

According to the book The Cinema of George Lucas, the movie was originally supposed to be titled The Adventures of Indiana Smith. Doesn't exactly grab you, does it? (Even without the whole weird Sm...

You fight your way through an army of cranky Germans, risk life and limb to rescue a priceless artifact of stunning religious significance, and those clowns in the government promptly bury it in th...

ROfficially it's a PG film, but that's only because there was no PG-13 when it was released. In fact, its sequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom directly inspired the PG-13 rating. (There's so...