Raiders Of The Lost Ark - 1981
Director – Steven Spielberg
Cast – Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies, Ronald Lacey, Wolf Kahler and Denholm Elliot.
The Temple Of Doom - 1984
Director – Steven Spielberg
Cast – Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth and Philip Stone.
The Last Crusade - 1989
Director – Steven Spielberg
Cast – Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliot, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover and River Phoenix.
The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull – 2008
Director – Steven Spielberg
Cast – Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent.
The hat, the whip, the swash, the buckle…that’s right, Indy is back. With the upcoming release of his forth adventure now is a good time to cast an eye back over the esteemed archaeologist’s career thus far.
It all really began in 1973 when the alchemic imagination of George Lucas produced The Adventures Of Indiana Smith. Lucas, a huge fan of the Saturday matinees of his childhood, decided to pay tribute to these serials in the best way he knew how – he would make his own. Of course taking on a project like this is not something that can be done alone so he mentioned it to a friend of his, one Steven Spielberg. In 1973 Spielberg had made a ripple in Hollywood waters with Duel and was two years away from making a tidal wave with its’ spiritual sequel, Jaws. And so these most fertile of imaginations batted ideas between them, sculpting and honing everything from character to plot until Raiders Of The Lost Ark was realised. Indiana was named after Lucas’ dog while his surname was changed from Smith to Jones at Spielberg’s prodding and so one of the most iconic characters in cinema history was born. So, who to play him?
By the time of casting some years had slipped by during which Lucas had gone ahead and made the first and second parts of his Star Wars space opera trilogy. As a result of Spielberg and Lucas’ popularity explosion they could take their pick of leading men to don the hat and whip but settled on the up and coming Tom Selleck, star of the hit TV show Magnum PI. Spielberg’s initial choice had been Harrison Ford but he had already starred in three of Lucas’ films and Lucas was wary of becoming too attached to one actor. Fate ended up conspiring against Lucas however as just before filming was due to commence CBS decided not to release Selleck from his Magnum PI contract. Three weeks before shooting began Ford was offered the part and the jigsaw was complete.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark is set in 1936 around the eminent archaeologist and college lecturer Indiana Jones and his quest to find the Ark Of The Convenant before the Nazis. The Ark is a chest built to hold the pieces of the actual Ten Commandments. In bible lore the Ark is said to envelope any army that holds it in invincibility so it would be pretty handy for the Nazis. Nostalgia abounds and there are many playful winks at Lucas’ Saturday matinees but Raiders stands on it’s own two feet. It has become a film beloved by those of us who were children then, marvelling at the action and laughing as Indy made another quip while he should have been quivering. Apart from Ford’s droll and charisma drenched performance we had the sparky and sparkling Karen Allen as and old flame and the daughter of Indiana’s old mentor. There were Denholm Elliot’s dignity and whimsy as museum curator Marcus Brody and Paul Freeman as the smooth talking rival archaeologist René Belloq. Across the whole trilogy there is no one enemy but many and they are either Nazis or men working for the Nazis. The swastika and all it stands for is really what Indiana is fighting. Spielberg would eventually make his masterpiece with Schindler’s List but it was with Indiana Jones he first tackled the Nazis.
Some of cinema’s most memorable scenes are in Raiders. The scene when the Nazis are melted while viewing the spirits released from the Ark was about as gory as children’s films were allowed to be at that time. The fight underneath the airplane between Indy and the pilot ends with the pilot being diced by the blades of the propeller and was viewed by most of us through the latticework of our fingers. Watching this scene now though it is surprising to see that Spielberg used Hitchcock’s technique of not showing anything other than the blood spattering, in this case not down the shower tray but across the cockpit window. The sound effects and our imaginations did the rest. Of course there is possibly the most casual dual of all time too, where a master swordsman approaches Indy spectacularly wielding a razor sharp sword only to be casually shot by a preoccupied Indy. One of the most affectionately remembered scenes is of course the very last shot of the film, when we see the Ark being housed in a box and stored in a seemingly infinite warehouse full of an infinite amount of identical boxes.
Following its’ success a sequel to Raiders Of The Lost Ark was inevitable and in 1984 The Temple Of Doom arrived. Spielberg and Lucas’ romantic nature can occasionally lead them into slightly corny territory and this is what frequently happened in Indy’s second adventure. Actually a prequel to Raiders this instalment is set a year before in 1935 and revolves around Indy trying to retrieve kidnapped children and a sacred stone from a dastardly cult. The romantic interest here is nightclub singer Wilhelmina “Willie” Scott who is played by Kate Capshaw. Surely the most annoying character in the whole trilogy she spends every moment on screen either whining, preening or screaming. Steven Spielberg obviously saw something he liked because he later married her but she contributes hugely to Temple Of Doom being the weakest of the trilogy. Once again a dog was used for inspiration when it came to finding Willie’s name and this time it was Spielberg’s cocker spaniel that was the dog of choice. If screenwriter Willard Huyck was feeling left out he need not have worried as Indy’s young accomplice Short Round was named after his dog.
The most visually arresting scene in The Temple Of Doom was Indy, Willie and Short Round’s escape from the cult’s palace in a mine car. The track through the mine would have contravened a fair few safety regulations as it happened to be put together just like a roller coaster but while it was probably hair raising for the miners each day it provided an exhilarating escape for Indy. Surprisingly the special effects do not stand up as well as the effects in Raiders. Perhaps technology had not yet caught up to Lucas and Spielberg’s ambition in time to fully realise the larger set pieces and stunts in The Temple Of Doom.
Five years later The Last Crusade was released and surprisingly proved to rival Raiders as the strongest of the series. It’s premise is the quest for the Holy Grail, the chalice used by Jesus at his last supper and then by Joseph to catch Jesus’ blood as he hung from the cross. This time round more time was spent in developing the characters, in particular Indy himself. As a young man we see how Indy, played by the late River Phoenix, gets the scar on his chin, comes to gain proficiency with a whip and where he gets his hat. We are introduced to his father Professor Henry Jones who is played by Sean Connery and displays all of his son’s drive, wit and sense of adventure. Alison Doody plays Dr. Elsa Schneider, an Austrian professor who, while working for the Nazis, seduces both of the Jones’.
Legend has it that anyone that drinks from the Holy Grail receives immortality and when a new clue emerges as to its’ whereabouts another race against the Nazis begins. Initially it is Jones Senior in his obsession with the Grail who attempts to find it but when he is captured it is left to his son to rescue him and prevent the Grail from landing in Nazi hands. As usual there is action in abundance and booby traps galore and the appearance of Connery ensures double the amount of quips, asides and verbal sparring. The father son relationship is interesting and explains a lot about Indy’s personality. In fact the quest for the Holy Grail seems to be a metaphor for a son’s everlasting quest for his father’s approval.
The Last Crusade was released nearly twenty years ago and here we are, mere weeks from the proof that it was not in fact the last crusade after all. On the 22nd of May The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, Indy’s fourth adventure, is released. Can Spielberg recapture the innocence of his earlier work, can Lucas relinquish his special effects obsession and can they, between the two of them successfully breathe life back into Indy once again?
There has been an almost unheard of blanket of secret draped over The Crystal Skull since Harrison Ford was finally persuaded to root out his whip once more. Very little is known about the plot and everyone involved in the production of the film signed a confidentiality agreement so unusually for a Hollywood blockbuster on the 22nd of May there will be surprises. The small fragments we do know are that the film is set in 1957 so like the actor that plays him Indy has aged 19 years. The Nazis are no longer his enemies and their place has been taken by The Soviet Union who battle Indy for the mysterious crystal skull across America, Central America and South America.
Harrison Ford is now 64 years of age and in order to prepare for his return as Indy he spent three hours a day in the gym and followed a strict high protein fish and vegetable diet. Once again he performs many of his own stunts and has said himself that he feels the film confronts the fear of aging head on which is something he feels is important to address in modern America. He insisted on not dying his hair and wants to present a positive attitude to aging to the cinema going public. This time around Ford is joined by an established and experienced cast including Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent. Unfortunately The Crystal Skull will not feature the late Denholm Elliot or the retired Sean Connery but thankfully Karen Allen has been persuaded to come out of retirement to play Marion Ravenwood once again. Shia LaBeouf is a young actor that Spielberg rates very highly and he will feature heavily as Indy’s sidekick, Mutt Williams.
Over the years Indy’s influence has spread far and wide and there have been Indiana Jones video games, a TV series, t-shirts, lunchboxes and even an Indiana Jones Disneyland ride based on his mine car escape. Maybe a more accurate gauge of the influence is the amount of imitations that he has spawned over the years. On film there has been, among others, King Solomon’s Mines, The Jewel Of The Nile, The Mummy, National Treasure and Sahara. In the realm of computer games there have been Pitfall, Rick Dangerous, Tomb Raider and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Without Indy none of these would exist.
Nearly thirty years have passed since Raiders Of The Lost Ark and going to the cinema is no longer the event it once was. Instead of being led into the quasi-regal splendour of the Ambassador or the stately Savoy nowadays children are taken to the nearest charmless multiplex to see any one of a dozen charmless blockbusters. The inspiration for Indy was the old school and now Indy is old school himself and so, the question has to be asked, is there still room for Indiana Jones? On opening night, on May the 22nd, when the lights go down, when the first notes in John Williams’ seminal score echo through a cinema for the first time in just under two decades and when all of a sudden a million hairs stand to attention on hundreds of necks we will surely have our answer.
