Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull!

 Many years after the finale of the original trilogy of Indiana Jones movies, they decided to make another. I admit I was skeptical, not unlike what had happened with the Star Wars movies. I personally like the trilogy produced by Lucas telling us the origin of Darth Vader, but I see why people regard it with suspicion. It's not like the others, it's full of then-new tech tricks which allow us to see more than we did before. That turns out to be the case with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well. There's more stuff to see, and while at times that becomes ridiculous, it never loses my attention. 

The movie is set in 1957, and Indiana Jones is an older and wiser man, though no less dedicated to finding lost treasures where he comes across them. The use of the Soviet Union to replace the Nazis was a great touch as they are suitably evil for all narrative purposes. You don't have to spend a lot of time with it, just assert it. The goal is a properly mysterious one as well and I liked that the story shifted its settings this time to South America. Another Indy movie in the Middle East would've been capitulation to convention and admission of a lack of imagination. 

This movie is very well cast overall with the likes of Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone and John Hurt involved in various ways. Blanchett as a Soviet telepath and dedicated soldier is particularly sweet as she is constantly met with disappointment in the film. Ray Winstone is dandy as a soldier of fortune of questionable loyalty and John Hurt is kind of wasted as an archeologist who is largely hypnotized by the awesomeness of the "magic" he's uncovered. Shia Labeouf was okay as Indy's young helper, but it's Karen Allen who steals the show when she returns in the role of Marion Ravenwood. 

As I said there are things in the movie I like which are outlandish. Indy surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator is stunning visually but silly too. The battle back and forth between the trucks in the jungle is excessive in any number of places, and I understand wanting to call back to the great truck battle in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but that one kept our credulity carefully protected while this just says it's a movie so who cares. The ending comes quick and I like the twist on the nature of the "aliens". It's a better solution overall. 

This is a fun movie. I am happy they made it. 

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The Last Crusade!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is my least favorite of the movies in this series. After a true departure in the second one and getting hit with both diminished critical and popular appeal, the creators decided to make another Jones versus the Nazis movie. It's as great target they select, the Holy Grail being a rather familiar icon for the errant archeologists to seek out. But like so many sequels this one apes the original in too many places to elevate it above anything other than a retread. It's a handsomely mounted retread, but a retread nonetheless. 

Don't get me wrong. This is a fun movie to watch, a wild ride with good enough characterization and vile enough villains, but something from the original is lost. That something is gravity. The lightheartedness of the movie in so many places ultimately undermine its moments of grittiness, and those moments seem derivative if exciting. 

The strengths of this one is the interplay between the stars Harrison Ford and Sean Connery as son and father. They have a nice chemistry, and this is the heart of the theme of the story. But that strength also detracts from some of the other aspects of the story such as the mysticism around the Grail and the relationship between Ford and his female co-star Allsion Doody. John Rhys Davies is a welcome addition his appearance points again back to the original and reminds the viewer how much different this outing is. 

The Indiana Jones movies were always intended to be love letters to old-style storytelling from the days of the movie serials. We get that in the structure of the tales which are episodic, with Indy traveling the world in his efforts to find his goal. The Grail is the one which means the most to him by the end of the movie because finding it allows him to actually save the life of his father. The movie is very clever in places, and I really enjoyed that "X" marks the spot moment. This is a really good movie and offered up a nifty first "finale" for the trilogy as our heroes ride off literally into the sunset. But as we all know that wasn't the end. More on that next time. 

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The Temple Of Doom!

What do you do when you have a surprise hit movie on your hands? Today we are all accustomed to seeing sequels to virtually all movies that make money. But in the 80's this was a business model which was just getting started. The Raiders of the Lost Ark (a little movie made relatively quickly and based in no small part on B-movies of decades past) made a bushel of money for its producers so another Indiana Jones movie was required. Actually, they say that this always supposed to be a trilogy, but I bet if the first one had tanked the second wouldn't exist. As is often the case a sequel will not be as good as its predecessor and that's true for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 

By all accounts this is the darkest and scariest of the first three Indiana Jones movies. I'd agree with that. Much of the movie takes place in the darkness of underground temples and mines, so the movie is literally dark. But it doesn't begin that way. To counterpoint the beginning of the first movie, in this one we get a splashy Busby Berkley dance number. It's neatly done and does gives a good glimpse into the less noble side of Indiana. He's a made a deal with the devil and he pays the price. 

The price puts him in India in 1936 which at the time and the region is still part of the once sprawling British Empire. We meet some seemingly urbane and civilized types but learn quickly that this is a mere ruse to cover the return of the infamous Thuggee cult which had been demolished decades before. This legendary murderous cult of Kali is a staple of adventure films and does good work here giving us several tasty villains de jour. 

The action in this one, once it begins in earnest, is unrelenting and perhaps a too much so. The first movie offered up fantastic action moments but maintained a pacing which allowed the violence to erupt. Here we get so much violence and action that it becomes arguably tiring. By the time the baddies are dispatched we are somewhat relieved it's over. That makes sound like I didn't enjoy it, but I did. 

This movie is criticized properly for kowtowing to racist tropes. That's all too true, but I'm curious why this one gets that critique when the first movie did a lot of the same kind of thing, but just with different cultures. The simplification of foreign peoples and their ways is practically a trope of this kind of movie. I might could see the critique more plainly if all the individuals of Indian culture were presented as stupid or evil or whatnot, but we get a range, admittedly a range familiar to moviegoers. This movie is typical of its genre, good and bad. 

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Raiders Of The Lost Ark!

Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the big screen in 1981. Ronald Reagan was beginning his first term as president of these United States beginning a slow steady decline which has gotten us finally into the mess we find ourselves in today. We didn't know how good we had it when Ronnie began his assault on the public good and even the whole idea of a public good. But even then we needed some escape from the rigors of life and Steven Spielberg's not-so-little action flick was an ideal choice for a moviegoer looking to forget the real world. 

Indiana Jones was one tough nut. As the movie begins, we're not even certain he's a good guy. And truth told it takes most of the movie for him to figure that out. He's not a villain for sure, but is he a hero? At many points in the movie it's questionable. He's a compulsive figure who seeks ancient secrets and does so at no small cost to those around him. Harrison Ford's portrayal is ideal and it's of course impossible now to imagine someone in that role. Tom Selleck was apparently all set to do it when Magnum P.I. got in the way. I think we're lucky in that regard in that as charming as Selleck can be in his roles, he lacks the mean streak that allows us to believe even for a moment that Indiana can fight as he does. Shooting the swordsman is an ideal example of a man who is pragmatic and not overcome by whimsical notions of good and evil. 

It's been a few years since I watched this movie again and I'd forgotten how good the other parts are. Karen Allen is vivacious and believable as the tough-as-nails broad who lives on her own in Nepal and drinks larger men under the table for cash. Paul Freeman is vile and charming all at once as Indy's counterpart who pretends not to be as bad as the Nazis but turns out is. John Rhy-Davies makes his impression as the passionate and loyal Sallah. There are several highlights (the giant rock, discovery of the Ark's hidden site, the pragmatic battle with the swordsman, and more) but for me the sequence where Indy takes on the whole of the Nazi forces for control of the truck and so control of the Ark is one of the most exciting fight sequences ever filmed. It hovers on the edge of believability, and it is in fact incredibly, but in the frame of the film it holds the viewer fast. 

According to Spielberg he wanted to make a movie on time and on budget. With the help of George Lucas as producer he did just that with a movie I don't think either of them imagined would spawn the franchise it became. They made a movie that's at once cynical and yet offers up hope in something greater than ourselves, if we don't lose track of what's important. It's all too easy to do. Just ask those of us who still remember Ronald Reagan. 

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