If you haven’t revisited the Indiana Jones saga, now is the perfect time! The release of INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is happening this week, the first time we’ll see Harrison Ford put the fedora back on since 2008. If you don’t have eight or so hours to kill this week, we’ve got a quick refresher below. The INDIANA JONES franchise is far from perfect, but it’s still the best adventure series out there.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) 🤩
My colleague Esta wrote a more comprehensive review of this classic film in late 2022 that you can read here. There’s nothing to argue with in her review. RAIDERS is one of, if not the best, adventure film of all time. It deserves every accolade it’s received, and watching Indy take down Nazis is as satisfying as ever. Ford’s performance, Steven Spielberg’s direction, and the unforgettable score from John Williams all add up to the brilliance that is Indiana Jones’ first and still best film. I’ve seen this movie many times and will watch it many more in my life. It’s spectacular on every single viewing.
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984) 😊
This was the first Indiana Jones movie I saw in the theatre. I remember standing in a long line with my mom outside our local cinema for our chance to buy a ticket. I don’t think I’d seen RAIDERS prior, either. It’s a wonderful memory of my mom introducing me to a franchise and character I immediately loved. We owned this film on VHS and later DVD, and when my parents would babysit their grandchildren, they’d often leave this film on playing in the background. I’m pretty sure “chilled monkey brains” was one of my nephew’s first phrases spoken as a baby.
When I watch this as an adult, I see a very different movie than I did 39 years ago. I see the racism in how the Indian characters are depicted. As an adult, I learned about how Indian-American friends of mine were bullied as children because TEMPLE OF DOOM made kids think their families ate outlandish meals and tortured children.
When I rewatched this film again last week, I tried to find the positive things about it. The score, again by Williams, is wonderful. The additions of Ke Huy Quan and Jessica Capshaw give Ford a lot to play with, and everyone’s performances win because of this. TEMPLE OF DOOM also has a lot of absolutely gorgeous matte paintings as backdrops – the best in the series. This allows the late, great cinematographer Douglas Slocombe to deliver some of his best work. Slocombe was the DP for the first three films of the franchise, but this is his best work with Spielberg.
There’s a lot of problematic stuff going on in this film, but nostalgia and the bright spots I mentioned above keep me from giving it a worse review.
INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) 🤩
Thirty-four years later, LAST CRUSADE shouldn’t still be the most underrated film of the franchise, but it is. Film circle kids (i.e., film lovers 30+) don’t take this movie for granted, but sometimes it feels like the general public forgets it exists. It comes right up to the perfection of the original but just falls barely shy of meeting it. Perhaps because on the 3rd go-around, the story is familiar, but the adventure is still a hell of a lot of fun.
The opening sequence of LAST CRUSADE is one of my all-time favorites in cinema history. Part of this is River Phoenix as the young Jones. Before his untimely passing at age 23 in 1993, Phoenix was already an Academy Award-nominated actor who was beloved by colleagues and fans alike. If he’d lived, I think he may have had the career that eventually happened for Leonardo Dicaprio. I was one of his biggest fans. I had his poster on my bedroom wall. I even have a self-made t-shirt from 30 years ago that says “River Forever” on it.
Bringing back the Nazis as the main villains in LAST CRUSADE was a smart move on Spielberg’s part. It’s easy to root against pure evil while still allowing Jones to be duped by a pretty girl. Whether you love or hate Sean Connery as a person, he was the perfect actor to play the senior Jones. Ford and Connery play off each other so well; it appears they’re having the time of their lives. And while I haven’t mentioned him yet, John Rhys-Davies is the heart of both this and RAIDERS: Indy’s friend and forever confidant. My biggest critique of this film is that we don’t get more of Davies’ Sallah. Much like in RAIDERS, he’s always there to point Dr. Jones in the right direction. I just wish he got to experience as much adventure as the two Joneses do.
THE LAST CRUSADE also has an incredibly touching ending. One knight acknowledges another in a truly emotional moment that sees Indiana Jones as more than a grave robber or collector for hire. Some things are better left untouched.
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008) 😊
Do you remember the excitement leading up to this movie? I do. It had been almost two decades since Indiana Jones had graced the big screen, and the anticipation among my friends and me was off the charts. Feelings were mixed as to whether we really needed to revisit these characters. In hindsight, we didn’t. But the possibility that we could get another great adventure story with Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and John Williams leading the way gave us a lot of hope.
I walked out of seeing CRYSTAL SKULL opening night at the Arclight Hollywood Cinemara Dome (RIP), generally satisfied with what I’d just experienced. I didn’t love it, but I had fun, and it was wonderful to see Harrison Ford back as our favorite globe-trotting archeologist. I have a clear memory of standing on Sunset Blvd. as someone turned to me and said something along the lines of “Well, that was a huge piece of shit, wasn’t it?”. I quickly learned I was in the minority of those who liked the film.
As days turned into weeks and months and CRYSTAL SKULL eventually turned up on whatever pay cable or streaming network it went to. I honestly don’t remember if it was Netflix or HBO, or another, but I watched it again. I saw all the things that my friends picked apart about it, and I agreed with them. “This was not a good movie,” I told myself. Sure, it was nice to have Karen Allen back as Marion Ravenwood, and Cate Blanchett did make a formidable antagonist, but Shia LaBeouf was miscast, John Rhys-Davies was MIA, and there were a lot of silly plot points around ancient aliens. I put INDIANA JONES 4 to rest that day and didn’t go back until a few days ago.
I was wrong. I was wrong in 2008, and I was wrong in 2009 or whenever I watched it the second time. THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL is a better film than I gave it credit for the last time I watched it, but it wasn’t all rainbows and puppies either. What’s great about it? Harrison Ford. Karen Allen. Cate Blanchett. The Soviets as the bad guys during the height of the Cold War. Spielberg’s direction and John Williams’ score.
The first two-thirds of this movie is mostly a home run. Yes, LaBeouf is miscast. His character is more annoying than anything, but the actor does his best with what is given to him. The final act is still silly. But are ancient aliens any sillier than the Catholic mysticism of RAIDERS or LAST CRUSADE? They’re sure not anymore “out there” than the child-sacrificing religious cult of TEMPLE OF DOOM. After such a strong ending to LAST CRUSADE, the end of CRYSTAL SKULL falters, but it surely isn’t as bad as that person outside the Arclight made it out to be.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY will be in theatres in a few days, and I couldn’t be more excited to catch up with Indiana Jones in what I think is his last film. Harrison Ford is 80 years old, and with DIAL OF DESTINY reportedly taking place in 1969, that makes Dr. Jones around 70. I’d like to think that Indiana studies ancient archeological digs and fights off bad guys until he’s 100. But I think this is it. He’s finally heading to retirement.
If you still want to get caught up, all Indiana Jones films (except for DESTINY) are currently streaming on Disney+.
