'Good Vs. Evil In Raiders Of The Lost Ark'

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The plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark has many notable themes throughout: religion, exploration, transformation, wisdom & knowledge, politics, and good vs. evil. Of these, one of the most prominent themes throughout is that of good vs. evil. In Raiders of the Lost Ark any character who stays in the movie either ends up on the good side (with Indiana Jones) or the bad side (with the Nazis). There is no in between. What makes this movie so unique is how close the bad guys actually come to achieving their goal of using the Ark for its powers. One of the most iconic parts in this movie when this happens is a scene where Indiana Jones and Marion are tied up and the Nazis have control of the Ark. It looks as though it will end in favor of the Nazi …show more content…

Winning 117 awards and being nominated for another 225, it is no surprise that his name is common in households across America. Williams’ music style is very classical, having been influenced by composers like Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. In this film, Williams uses the perfect amount of brass and strings to create fanfares and marches that are unsurprisingly still in the audience’s head, hours after they are heard. Not only are they catchy, but they also provide another dimension for the film, evoking emotions and setting the mood, to pull every audience member into each scene and develop the action in the film. Majority of the music in this film is non-diegetic with a few rare occurrences of diegetic music. One of these instances is a scene where Marion kisses Sallah, Indiana Jones’s colleague, and he starts singing. The only other time it is diegetic is when Indiana Jones is in the bar meeting with Belloq, a rival of Indiana …show more content…

The most noteworthy of these is the “Raider March” which is associated with Indiana Jones throughout this film, especially when he is in motion or around methods of transportation (vehicles, planes, horses). It makes its first appearance when Indiana Jones is fleeing the natives by jumping onto a plane. It then reappears during the flights to Nepal and Cairo later on in the film. “Raider March” is very distinctive in that it is a brass fanfare that accentuates when Indiana Jones does something heroic. It is used to identify Indiana Jones in such a way that removing it would have the same effect of removing Indiana Jones’s iconic fedora or whip: failure. The march begins by opening with four trumpets in unison to create a march and represent heroism, but incorporates syncopated beats to add buoyancy, indicating the less serious/fun side of Indiana

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