What is your favorite Indiana Jones movie?

[Dark Jezter]

Recently, I watched all three Indiana Jones movies on DVD, and it occured to me that while we have had polls recently regarding people's favorite Star Wars, Matrix, and Lord of the Rings movies, and I realized that no such poll had been posted for the Indiana Jones movies.

So, now's your chance to vote for your favorite movie featuring everyone's favorite Nazi-punching, whip-snapping archeologist.

 

[Enforcer]

While Last Crusade is still really really good, I don't care for Temple of Doom that much (Nazis make better villains); but my favorite is definitely Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm not sure I can articulate the reasons why, but it just is.

 

[WanderingMonster]

Last Crusade is a great film. Sean Connery is great as Professor Jones. Having John Rhys Davies back in the series is nice too.

Raiders has classic appeal for being the original, but IMO Last Crusade is just a much better film. Temple of Doom is only good by association.

 

[Orius]

Dude!

You realize this poll will likely be dominated by the original. Which of course got my vote. Crusade isn't bad either, it coveres a lot of similar ground, but Raiders I think is still the coolest of the three.

 

[gfunk]

Although I though the first and third movies were great, I have a special place in my heart for the Temple of Doom. As an Asian Indian, I never get tired of jokes about how I enjoy a good eyeball soup or the occasional chilled monkey brain.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Raiders of the Lost Arc for the same reason Star Wars: A New Hope, it was a movie that defined the coming of everything after it. While I liked Last Crusade it owned too much to Raiders, plus I don't know when I enjoyed a movie so much.

I remember having to force my little brother and some friends to go to it, the theater was close to empty that first few showings but the next weekend crowds were starting to show up for it.

 

[nikolai]

I think Raiders is by far the best. There are all sorts of reasons. There's the way the backdrop of the war, and the Beloc/Jones rivalry, powers the story. I think this gives the film a better structure than the other two. The main reason - for me at least - is the sense of the numinous that surrounds the ark. You get the tension between Jones rational views, the Nazi's supernaturalism and the uncovering of a divine artifact. Unfortunately for the other two films, this is the sort of thing that can only be done once. The others come across to me as thin attempts to recycle the magic of the first.

Also - as an action film - all the stunts, traps and fights are as good, if not better, than anything in the other two. So I think Raider is clearly ahead of the others.

 

[Dimwhit]

OK, who voted for Temple of Doom! (Maybe a big Kate Capshaw fan--who admittedly looked good in that one.)

I went with Crusade, but really, it and the first are both very excellent films. Temple was good and fun, but the other two are both classics.

 

[Henry]

In order:

1-Raiders
2-Crusade
3-Temple

The original screamed pulp adventure, and covered the second-greatest quest of European Culture - the Ark of the Covenant. The fact that the third covered the First-greatest European Cultural quest was icing on the cake.

The first one had Harrison Ford at his prime, doing a role he was tailor-made for. While I think Tom Selleck could have done well, I don't think that these films would be such cultural icons today if he had been picked for the role. Raiders influenced adventure film for decades - it returned the power of the adventure cliffhanger to modern cinema.

 

[John Crichton]

Gah!!

Believe it or not I have not even opened my trilogy boxed set yet even thought I bought it the day it was released. I shan't vote until I watch them all again. It's been too long and I don't want to default to Raiders...