Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

My favourite, and the best, of the series so far.
We start in the Amazon rainforest and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is introduced in a soon-to-be-familiar situation in the series. That is going after an ancient artifact. Poison darts, spears, native tribesmen and Indy's nemesis, Belloq (Paul Freeman), thwart Indy and take his prize from him. We move from the Amazon to Nepal to Egypt in a blur of mystery, intrigue, action and (of course) Nazis.

The Nazis are suitably evil and have a spare-no-expense effort to recover the Ark of the Covenant for der Fuhrer. Indy's good friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) and old flame Marion (Karen Allen) get drawn into helping prevent the Germans getting the Ark. The Germans, of course, are digging in the wrong place and Indy has the missing piece of information, in the form of the head of a staff. Having located the correct place to dig, Indy and Sallah try to recover the Ark. They are discovered by Belloq, and Indy is temporarily trapped with Marion (previously captured by the Germans) in the vault where the Ark was.With the Ark now on it's way to Berlin and Indy must chase it across desert, sea and island to prevent it's arrival.

Most memorable among the scenes is a stand-off between Indy and a scimitar-wielding henchman, which Indy solves by just shooting him.

Main characters are introduced with enough time to get to know them a bit before the next comes along and the pacing of the movie is nigh on perfect. The script is tight and the acting is great for the most part. A little over-acting is allowed for the bad guys because, well, they're bad guys. The only issue I have, and it's a very small one, is that the staff Indy uses to find the right place to dig is wrong. We are told that it is 6 kaddams high (72 inches or six feet according to Sallah), less one kaddam. My maths makes this five feet high, and yet it towers about a foot above Indy's head in the map room. Unless he's four feet tall, or squatting, the staff is too tall. As I said, a minor gripe in an otherwise brilliant film.

9/10 (would have been 9.5 but for the staff)