Watching this and Jaws back to back made it clear that part of Spielberg’s wizardry is managing a tone that can marry genuinely high stakes and danger with whimsy and humor. You look movies Indiana Jones inspired, like say the Mummy series, there’s never the sense of danger and worry for characters’ safety like Jones during the truck scene (or really, all the set-pieces). It’s like the walking on broken glass in Die Hard: Indiana Jones is fluidly both a superman and human. He fucks up (accidentally blowing up the truck he thinks Marion is on) but he’s also super-capable (CRAWLING. UNDER. THAT. GODDAMNED. TRUCK.)
This was my first time seeing an Indiana Jones movie as an adult (Crystal Skull doesn’t count) and while I was always in the “Temple is better” camp (mostly because that movie informs my taste in films in so many huge important ways) I think now it’s much easier for me to see why this is clearly the best one. I don’t know if I find it as transcendent as something like Jaws, but it’s clearly a perfect movie. A+
Martha Marcy Nash and Young 