#4 NOV 8, 2018 · 7 yr ago
This was the first Indiana Jones film I ever saw. It's probably my favourite too.
After Temple Of Doom was less successful they went back to the first one and made sure of ticking the boxes from there. They're using a more culturally familiar artefact as the plot point, and they've brought back Sallah and Marcus. Sallah is a great comic character who you'd want on your side because he's got the muscles as well. Marcus' being used as a bumbling idiot for comic effect is a little cheap, yes. Maybe they felt they needed something funny at that point in the film as it was getting too tense. I don't know. It's probably the one problem with this movie.
Sean Connery though . . . he has never been more like Sean Connery than he is in this film. Possibly because he was the only actor they wanted to play the part of Indy's father, they wrote the part as an exaggerated form of Sean Connery - again, the fact that Bond was an influence on the character of Indy probably had something to do with this.
The prologue of young Indy's adventures with that cross is a great idea because it does two things. First, it explains where EVERYTHING about Indy came from - his fear of snakes, his use of the whip, and even his outfit. The look of that head looter clearly inspired Indy completely, not just the hat! And secondly, the link to the "present day" is seamless with him tracking down that cross at last, a quarter of a century later. One gets the impression that it's always been in the back of his mind and he's just been waiting for a chance to do something about it. I can identify with that.
As for River Phoenix, it's worth mentioning that he died after the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles finished airing, so if they'd wanted him for that they could have got him. Still, he did a good enough job here.
Alison Doody as Elsa is particularly interesting. She reminds me of the Anne-Marie, the German nurse in Where Eagles Dare. Albeit the book rather than the film. Obviously the matronly-looking officer played by Olga Lowe in the film we covered last year is a far cry from Elsa, but in the book the character is described as (and I quote) "big, blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful. She could have been a pin-up girl for the Third Reich." Apart from big, that description definitely applies to Elsa.
I've mentioned the Chipmunks parody before, "Daytona Jones and the Pearl of Wisdom" - which has moments from all three original films parodied in it, and this film provides a lot of the more memorable ones. When "Bellyache" gets "Daytona Jones" (Alvin) and his brother "Saratoga" (Simon) at his mercy and demands the map from them, Simon confidently asks him if he thinks they'd be stupid enough to bring it with them. "Oh I know you wouldn't be stupid enough," Bellyache acknowledges to Simon, before pointing to Alvin and saying, "but I know he would!" - and proving himself right by pulling the map out of Alvin's pocket. Also the confrontation at the end when there are three pearls to pick from is influenced by the variety of different grails at the end of this one, although in this the characters who pick the wrong pearls just fall through trapdoors that open up beneath them if I recall correctly. Speaking of which . . .
The whole climax of this movie is great.
The other memorable moments for me though, well, let's see. First there's the whole "path to the grail" sequence. I've mentioned before a kids' game show called Knightmare which is a legitimate candidate for the title "best kids show of all time" and certainly no shortlist worth its salt would be complete without it. Well, not long after this film, a couple of memorable rooms appeared in the series. The Corridor of Blades debuted in 1990, and the causeway floor puzzles in 1991, both I have no doubt inspired by the challenges in this film. The last challenge, the step of faith onto the bridge that's so indistinguishable from the rest of the cliff, however, I have issues with. Mainly with the camerawork I guess. If they'd kept all the shots of it from Indy's viewpoint it would have worked better but we get an objective viewpoint of Indy at one point where we can see absolutely no floor from a different angle and that is just wrong. It's only supposed to be from Indy's viewpoint that we can't see it until we realise how intricately carved the bridge is, so any other angle, especially such a low-down shot of his feet, should have shown it.
Then of course there's the reaching the grail chamber and we find out what became of the third brother - we suddenly remember the story told at the start about three brothers searching for the grail, only two returned, and their fates are described. At that point, we initially assume the third died before that point, but now we learn otherwise. Then we have the question of which grail is the right one? Very cleverly done. The sequence with Donovan ageing rapidly is the one my best friend finds the most gruesome out of the trilogy, I remember him saying to me one time about 15yrs ago when we were discussing them.
And the finale after that with them trying to recover the grail from the ledge . . . powerfully done, Indy is saved by his father finally calling him Indiana, rather than "Junior". Great moment. His dad saying, so warmly, to let it go, is amazing. Henry Jones Senior has devoted his life to finding the grail, but he can let it go. So can Indy.
Definitely my pick of the original three.
I have never seen the fourth one - and just a reminder, that's going to be the next pick for Movie Club, might as well do the lot!
