Welcome Back, Indy

It was in the early1980s when I recommended Raiders of the Lost Ark to a friend.  Since that friend taught arts and humanities at the time? indulging in details of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting? he found the movie corny so I figured he was better off watching Kurosawa artsy movies than Indiana Jones.

But I’ll take the whole hog anytime, as long as they don’t waste my time.  Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) never wasted my time.  He was worth every moment, every laughter.  And now he’s back!

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1936 setting) burst into our lives in 1981.  It was the Reagan era for the US; it was still the Marcos era for us, the yellow confetti being still an unforeseen five years away.

Professor Henry Jones Jr. a.k.a. Indiana discovers the Ark of the Covenant, saves it from the Nazis, and ends up losing it when US bureaucracy stores it anonymously for good.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1935 setting) came to us in 1984. It is actually a prequel to Raiders, a time glitch (movie release-wise) without an explanation.  (Let’s just trust producer-writer George Lucas.)  Indiana the archaeologist gets to India and meets a bloody cult that worships some kind of stones, swipes the stones away from the cult and its temple, and returns these to a peaceful village that venerates these.

Then came 1989 and so did Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1938 setting), when we get to know Indiana’s father, Professor Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery).  Also an archaeologist, Senior finally gives attention to his son, who we would know is named Junior after all (but hates it so he took the name of their dog, Indiana).  Again Indiana outwits the Nazis.  It was his discovery of the Holy Grail this time around, which gets lost when the earth opens up and swallows it.

Now it’s 2008, and Indiana is with us again, fighting the Red Menace in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (1957 setting), a full 19 years after we last saw him.

It’s more of the same? discovery and loss? but it’s the adventures that entertain, not the lessons to be had, which aren’t that many to begin with.
What about the women? After all, James Bond is not supposed to monopolize women, be they lovers or assassins.

All the women are of strong stuff in Indiana Jones movies.  There’s Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the love of Indiana’s life, with her fiery spirit in Raiders. She comes back in Crystal Skull.

Wilhelmina Scott (Kate Capshaw) is the shrieking lady in the Temple of Doom who became the real-life love interest of Indiana movies director Steven Spielberg.

Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) seduces both Junior and Senior in the Last Crusade. She betrays the Nazis with whom she was involved and desires the Holy Grail to gain immortality.  She ends up swallowed by the cracking earth, along with the Holy Grail.

Crystal Skull has the ultimate villain Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett).  And since Indiana is up against the Red Menace, well, yes, Irina leads the Soviet army’s quest for the crystal skull.

Because it’s Russian communists that our hero is up against in this latest movie, leave it to them to call for its ban in Russian theaters. What galls, they say, is that their country and the US together defeated Hitler in World War II, and yet the US goes on to scare kids about communism.  Well, Indiana’s bravado is supposed to inspire without political consequence.

‘He’s great entertainment but an ethical nightmare,’ says Australian Professor Claire Smith, head of the World Archaeological Congress. Indiana ‘ignores international treaties, treats human remains as weapons, and destroys archaeological sites in a bid to escape entombment and other worrisome possibilities. Indiana’s great value for archaeology,’ she says, ‘is that he makes a pedantic and exacting science appear exciting.’

Exciting, yes.  And he’s back, craggier face and all.  It’s a long way from Olivia Newton-John to Britney Spears.  Watching Indiana seems to bridge the time gap.  He’s now in his 60s, but lucky aging fans can go back to their teens just by watching.  Sometimes, we do watch movies to suspend disbelief and just feel good at the end.

(8 June 2008)