Customer Reviews

RAIDERS OF LOST ARK

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I expect film novelizations to be dull and badly written, following the movie line for line and not adding anything new. The novelization for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" by Campbell Black is interesting and memorable. He adds a lot that is not in the movie, and it gives all the characters, especially Marion Ravenwood and Deitrich, a lot more depth. Campbell Black is an amazingly talented and restrained writer. His style is almost Hemingway-esque. Most impressive. It's definetly a worthy read if you're fan of the movie.

To me Indiana Jones is Harrison Ford, brown leather, and fedora.
When reading the book, i kept replaying the movie in my head of that scene.

Nevertheless, reading this book, I do recommend. It'll fill in gaps that the movie missed, and like all books will paint a much bigger picture that does a movie.

I can accept a film novelisation which differs, sometimes radically, from the motion picture, but the adaptation of "Raiders" changes one rather important element: excitement. The first Indiana Jones film is a roaring B-movie, packed with adventure and thrills, albeit at the expense of any real depth (which is unsurprising when you consider the source material). This book is a shallow plodder, crippled by the author's remarkable inability to describe an action scene. Considering that there is little else in the plot that's a major handicap. Descriptions are confusing, unimaginative and fleetingly terse, while the attempts to flesh out motivations and characters are sporadic and seem incomplete. Several of the best moments in the film are missing here, which may disappoint fans, but to my mind the fault with this book is not that it fails to either represent or add to the movie, but that it's a scrappy bit of hack work in its own right. Not the best of the three movie novelisations, by a long chalk.

If a novelization of a movie is done well, such as this one, it will entertain you as much as the actual movie. This novel does just that. It keeps moving along just like the movie and is quite entertaining, especially with the added detail you don't get in the movie.

A good read for any age bracket.

Adaptation, and that is about that. However, it was decently done, and I am sure most people are familiar with the story. Archaelogist-pulp hero finds an old flame and must save the world from nazis attempting to put the Ark of the Covenant to evil ends.

There are some good films made from bad novels and some bad films made from good novels, but the only thing that you can hope for from a novelization based on a screenplay is that it will fill in where the film left off, describing things that went by in a flash that maybe you wanted to spend some more time with. Raiders gives you nothing more than what you saw in the movie and sometimes considerably less.

Black, Black, Black! Where are you and what's next? "Raiders" is much better than the movie ever was. Fast paced wtih an Indiana Jones that goes well beyond the two dimensional Harrison Ford interpertation. Black gives color and life to a most fictitious situation. Yes, this book is a must for any fan of adventure and intrigue! What this author does with a typewriter is something that can't be taught in school. Talent should be his middle name