Don't get me wrong... Pushed to choose, I would pick it as my all-time favorite action/adventure movie. I absolutely love it; The characters were great, not to mention believable... they were not yet the broad (though truly funny) cartoons they eventually became in the sequels. The action was top notch (and aside from the ark's fire, all practical FX and stunts, so it holds up very well to the test of time.) And the adventure itself was truly sprawling and beautifully paced.

No, what makes it odd was the way it treated the lead character. Indiana Jones was a complete loser in that film. Admittedly, the coolest loser ever, but still... even Charlie Brown had to take some pity on the guy. How big of a loser was he? He was such a loser that he spent the climax of the film tied to a pole being completely ignored by the villains. He didn't have a single tiny contribution to their ultimate defeat. His last card (to blow up the ark) was a bluff... it was called, and his role in things was over.

What's more, the ending renders his whole adventure pointless. The Ark could obviously take care of itself... there was never any danger in the Nazi's being able to use it. Indiana's main goal of getting the Ark to a museum was never realized... the prize is taken away from him yet again, lost to a warehouse.

Of course, he does get the girl, and thus his true reward... So that's not too shabby, I admit. Still, it wasn't until I recently rewatched it that I reflected on what a bizarrely anti-climactic role Indy played in his own movie. Yet it still launched him as a hero for the ages. Go figure.