Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I have been struggling with a cold for the past few days, which has been slowing me down quite a bit. This resulted in me taking a little longer to polish this and post it than I thought it would.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Harrison Ford - Is an introduction really necessary?
Kate Capshaw - Willie

Another movie that isn’t that serious, so I figured I would just go with the notes I made again, and give a short summary at the end.

Notes:

Oh. My. God. How on Earth could I have forgotten that it starts off with Kate Capshaw singing “Anything Goes” in Cantonese? Spielberg and Lucas seem to have a hidden passion for 1930s musicals. Of course, that wasn’t all Spielberg had a passion for.

Harrison Ford gets a great entrance. And in a white suit no less. It makes his eyes look the bluest I’ve ever seen them. Since his eyes are actually hazel, they normally look brown, so this surprised me. I was instantly reminded why he was the first man I ever had a crush on.

The prologue serves an interesting purpose: it shows that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’s first thirty minutes of ridiculousness was not a fluke. While the first fifteen minutes are not as over the top in slapstick humor as the last film, it has its moments. I was depressed to realize that this is proof positive that if Harrison Ford had shown an interest in doing anything but standing in front of the camera to collect a paycheck in the last film, it may have been all right.

Noticed for the first time that the sign outside the club says “Club Obi Wan.”

I am hard-pressed to decide which is more ridiculous: Indiana Jones surviving a nuclear bomb by hiding in a fridge, or Indiana Jones and tagalongs surviving the fall from a plane in a life raft. Could go either way.

The Vietnamese kid played a fairly amusing character in Goonies the year after this was released, which makes sense since it was a kids’ movie. It is surprising that he’s pretty amusing in this one, too. That’s very rare for a child actor. The only real misstep was when he tried to cry, but it only lasts for a few seconds, so it was endurable.

I am very conflicted about Kate Capshaw in this film. On the one hand, she plays one of the dumbest, shrillest, annoying, and offensive female characters to come out of Hollywood in the last 25 years. On the other hand, it was clear from the very first scene of the film that she was deliberately modeled after the dumb blondes that were very popular in films back in the 1920s and 30s. It’s not her fault. And there are a (very) few scenes where Capshaw moves away from that and shows that she probably would have been better used as a more serious character. She wasn’t that bad of an actress. Her response to being told to hold on in the cool bridge scene at the end is one of the funniest moments in the film. Plus I love her in Space Camp (that's right, I said it), so it's hard for me to criticize her too much.


Hollywood seems to have been interested in India in the 1980s. James Bond spent some time there in Octopussy the year before.

The chilled monkey brains still makes me smile. Ick.

The relationship between Indy and Willie is just not believable. I cringed during all their intimate scenes. Ford and Capshaw have little to no chemistry, and considering the fact that Indiana Jones showed nothing but annoyance with her for the first 40 minutes, his sudden interest makes no sense. Well, it coinciding with her arriving at dinner dressed in beautiful Indian clothing may have played some part. I don’t think my dislike of their relationship was completely the fault of the actors, though. Kate Capshaw was given the unpleasant task of trying to follow up Karen Allen’s Marion, who was feisty, independent and self-reliant woman. And it didn't hurt that Ford and Allen had chemistry. I believe Marion to be one of the greatest love interests of all time. Willie is the exact opposite of all that she represented, and it just doesn’t seem to be a good match for Dr. Jones.

I have always found this film to be a bit underwhelming. I think the the two screenwriters must take much of the blame for this. This opinion was strengthened when I looked up their credits on imdb. Though they did write American Graffiti, they also wrote Howard the Duck. I will admit to having an affection for that film (What? So I like bad 80s films. Sue me). But there is a reason it is universally acknowledged as a bad film.

The scene where Willie has to stick her hand through a hole with insects crawling all over the place is still one of the creepiest moments of all time. As much I love Harrison Ford, I would think twice about sticking my hand through that as well.

Oh, that’s right. I remember now why Spielberg was responsible for the PG-13 rating. The sacrifice scene. Wohoo!

The mine shaft scene is one of the coolest action scenes ever, and quite obviously inspired the designers of a few video games.

*checks imdb*Ha! I knew that guy was Dan Akroyd. It’s the first time I ever noticed. He never gets a close-up, and you only ever see his profile, but he was still recognizable.

I never paid to Indiana Jones' motivations in this film, until now. Though I have known for a long time that this film is a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, I never thought that the film conveyed this to the audience. I admit, it never seemed important enough for me to even look for any evidence because one doesn't need to in order to enjoy the film. This time, the clues seemed fairly obvious. Most noticeably, Jones shows no interest in collecting items for museums. He hunts artifacts for profit. There is even a nod to this at the end when Willie and Ford discuss putting the relic they have in a museum. Considering how unsubtle all the Indiana Jones movies are, it surprises me that this aspect of his character doesn't stand out that much.

The worst I can say about this movie is that there were several boring parts, especially once Indy and the other two are captured. I mean, Indy was getting tortured, and I couldn't bring myself to care. The best that I can say is that it is far better than The Kingdom of the Skull. It was fun, and the acting was good. Harrison Ford still looked incredibly hot, and was still interested in the character. The action scenes were great, despite the silly one with the life raft. Overall, I think my reaction to this movie can best be summed up with this: I can’t wait to watch The Last Crusade.