I had no idea

I had osmosed a lot about Raiders of the Lost Ark in the decades that it has existed, so I knew that Indiana Jones is the kind of "archeologist" who is really just a thief, but I was surprised that the movie didn't provide even the skimpiest fig leaf, neither for Jones's theft of other peoples' treasures, nor for his wanton destruction of the context that contains all the information that a real archeologist would treasure. For Jones, those are just obstacles that he can smash to prove that he is the Manliest Man who will do Whatever It Takes.

I was prepared for the heroine to scream and run away, and get captured and sexually menaced, and be useless a lot, but I was astonished to see other men keep dressing her up in ridiculous floofy or slinky white gowns. Was that to signal that, despite all the sexual menacing, she was still good enough to be the hero's Consolation Prize? Is that why, after the heroine is thrown into the pit of snakes, and we see a snake slithering through the open toe of one of her white high-heeled pumps, she clutches the other pump even while she's climbing to escape the snakes?

And I knew the climax was some supernatural/radioactive nonsense that caused the Nazis' faces to melt off. I was wondering how Indiana and Marian were going to be separated from the Ark before that happened. I had no idea that Indiana would protect them by saying, "Just close your eyes. Whatever you do, don't look." As long as you don't look, the horrors that are happening around you can't touch you. They may come close enough to burn away your restraints, but you yourself will remain unscathed.

That may be the most American thing I have ever seen.