Indiana Jones the Mercenary
Slashdot commenter Sentry21 wrote a really insightful comment on Indiana Jones that was then expounded upon by niktemadur. I hadn’t thought along these lines before, but it really rings true.
Re:That, my friends, is… (Score:5, Insightful) by Sentry21 (8183) on 2008-05-15 14:50 (#23422252)
I saw temple of doom, hoping it would be as good, if not better, than raiders. It didn’t even come close. But it didn’t “suck”, it wasn’t heartbreaking, it just wasn’t as good as Raiders.
One thing that sort of ‘fixed’ my appreciation of the Indiana Jones moves is remembering that Temple of Doom is a prequel to Raiders. While this doesn’t make it a better movie, it does sort of make the movies fit together better.
If you consider Temple of Doom to be the first movie, Indiana Jones is playing more of the mercenary lifestyle, digging up treasure for a Shanghai mobster. After the events of Temple occurs Raiders and Crusade – both of which are similar in style and formula (globetrotting adventure).
After Indy’s experience in India and becoming a believer of Hinduism, he goes back to the states and alternates between teaching and rescuing artifacts for the museum (which happens in Raiders, which proves Judaism, and Crusade, which proves Christianity).
It doesn’t make Temple a better movie, but for me, it made it fit better in the grand scheme.
Re:That, my friends, is… (Score:5, Insightful) by niktemadur (793971) on 2008-05-15 18:43 (#23425902)
If you consider Temple of Doom to be the first movie, Indiana Jones is playing more of the mercenary lifestyle.
Mod this guy all the way up. How did this slip by me for a quarter of a century?
“Too bad the Hovitos don’t know you the way I do, Belloq” – That’s right, Indy and Belloq used to be fellow travelers, then after the events of Temple, they developed a “difference of opinion”. Belloq is Indy five years before.
This also ties in the Crusade teaser, in a broader sense. See Indy the idealist in full force, living the first experience that will turn him cynical. Then back to Raiders, look at the way Marion receives him, with a sucker punch to the mouth – Indiana the cynical bastard we see at the beginning of Temple getting a taste of his just desserts.
Of course for this interpretation you have to discount the tv series, at least somewhat. The teenage Indiana Jones wasn’t really cynical at all. Speaking of the tv series, as long as we’re hanging out down below the main content of this post, I wonder if Crystal Skull will explain why old Indy had an eyepatch. Probably not. Here’s hoping that movie is better that it appears to be. Lucas’ cameo-tastic filmmaking (Hey look! It’s the warehouse of boxes! Oh look there! Uncle Owen!) coupled with Spielberg’s recent Spielbergness (Minority Report, War of the Worlds) makes for a depressing probability. How much you want to bet that a bunch of set pieces from the original series (e.g. the sun will hit an object like a high powered laser and point the way to treasure, snakes in a pit) will be revamped?
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