TL;DR –.We look at the varied highs and lows of the Indiana Jones franchise up to now.   

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed these films

Indiana Jones –

There are moments when you sit around with nothing to do for a weekend and decide it is time to dive into some nostalgia from the past. With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny coming out later this month, and it has been years since I had seen the older films, some not since cinemas, it was good timing when they all appeared on Disney+ this week. Well, good time with a massive dash of marketing. So we dive back in time not quite to a galaxy far, far away, but not, not a galaxy far, far away.

Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark Review –

It is a time of Nazis on the rise, and across the world, they collect all the occult and religious artefacts they can access. However, they find more than they bargained for when they go after the Arc of the Covenant.

For a film all about myths, it is remarkable just how much legwork the cold open does in creating the legend of Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford). His slow reveal through the jungle, the hat, the whip, the snake, and more. It is almost like a tutorial level for the franchise, and it works. The shadow on the walls is a constant motif throughout the franchise.

One thing this film knows best is the power of spectacle: the opening temple, the escape from Tanis, and even the final reveal. They bring you in with tension and also potential. You see that plane just sitting there with its propellers spinning. It sure does look like a good location for a fight sequence. How about I whip under this moving truck? That might be a good idea. You know it was worth every penny they spent to get all those antennas of the rooves of Cairo. Look, every moment is a joy to watch.

Looking back from the perspective of time, you see those interesting things you noticed for the first time, for better and worse. One is how many of the foley sound effects they used would reappear again in Star Wars or already appeared. I am not sure of the timeline. However, on the other side of the spectrum are those things that make you feel more than a little unpleasant. The more you think of age ranges, the more uncomfortable it gets. Adding to that, a whole bunch of actors in yellow and brownface and yikes, indeed. A good start if not aged well in places.  

Directed by – Steven Spielberg
Story by – George Lucas & Philip Kaufman
Screenplay by – Lawrence Kasdan
Music by – John Williams
Cinematography by – Douglas Slocombe
Edited by – Michael Kahn
Production/Distribution Companies – Lucasfilm Ltd. & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ron Lacey, John Rhys-Davies & Denholm Elliott with Wolf Kahler, Anthony Higgins, Alfred Molina, Don Fellow, William Hootkins, George Harris, Fred Sorenson, Frank Marshall, Vic Tablian, Terry Richards, Patrick Durkin, Tutte Lemkow, Pat Roach & Kiran Shah

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Review –

From the temples of Egypt, we take a hard dive into a fictional kingdom in India, which is not the series’ only dramatic shift. There is a dramatic shift in tone in this prequel outing, dipping from Action-Adventure with a hint of horror, to horror with a dash of action-adventure. It might be the Indy film with the most impact on the genre, but it might also be the weakest of the series.

But it is still an Indiana Jones film, and because of that, it is still entertaining in places. The first is the relationship between Indiana and Short Round (Ke Huy Quan). They have an exciting bond that is sometimes slightly antagonistic but filled with genuine warmth and comradery. More than any one element, this might be the thing that saves this film from being a complete write-off. Well, that and a spectacular mine cart race at the end.

However, this is a film with issues, issues that have not improved with time. The main female lead exists only to scream and adds nothing to the proceedings. You have to wait over an hour for the main antagonist to arrive, and they are underwhelming beyond the spectacle of the heart-grabbing. Finally, you understand entirely why India refused them permission to film in the country. I am not sure Voodoo Dolls are appropriate in the Voodoo context, let alone in a cult in India.

Props for trying to pull off a tone shift, but they didn’t pull it off. Also, RIP to all those leaf insects.   

Directed by – Steven Spielberg
Story by – George Lucas
Screenplay by – Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz
Music by – John Williams
Cinematography by – Douglas Slocombe
Edited by – Michael Kahn
Production/Distribution Companies – Lucasfilm Ltd. & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth & Philip Stone with Roy Chiao, Chua Kah Joo, Ric Young, David Yip, Raj Singh, D. R. Nanayakkara, Pat Roach & Dan Aykroyd  

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Review –

If the last film was a pivot to something darker, well, it is time for a course correction back to the film’s roots and what a shift it was. We return to galivanting across the globe, finding puzzles in ancient manuscripts, oh and religion might be true actually, but don’t think too hard about that.

It is at this moment where I am going to mention John Williams because while his scores for the two previous films were grand, his work here might be some of my favourite scores he has ever written. There is a grand scope to everything, with a joyous lilt that makes you want to go on an adventure even before the action starts. Add to this the regal ‘The Holy Grail Theme’ that pulls at the heartstrings when you hear it.  

The film grounds itself by showing the symbolic birth of the character in the opening, a reintroduction that provides context rather than just being a rehash. The rapport between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery was electric, casting so important because few could go toe-to-toe with Harrison and make it work as well as this. “Don’t worry. It was a fake” might be up there as one of the best lines in the series if “He chose poorly” didn’t also exist. We also get one of the better villains in that he was smart right up to the moment he didn’t get someone to check the cup.

We get probably the best action sequence in the series, or at least the best action sequence in the series so far. The tank chase through the cannon had everything it needed and used literally every part of the tank to provide a platform for a fantastic action beat. More than many films out there, The Last Crusade earns its riding off into the sunset moment, if for no other reason than bringing the light of Petra to the world. Though watching it, I think I could have legged it out of there with the grail if I put some effort into it. The high-water mark for the series.   

Directed by – Steven Spielberg
Story by – George Lucas & Menno Meyjes
Screenplay by – Jeffrey Boam
Music by – John Williams
Cinematography by – Douglas Slocombe
Edited by – Michael Kahn
Production/Distribution Companies – Lucasfilm Ltd. & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover & River Phoenix with Michael Byrne, Kevork Malikyan, Isla Blair, Robert Eddison, Michael Sheard, Ronald Lacey, Alexei Sayle, Paul Maxwell, Richard Young, Eugene Lipinski, Vernon Dobtcheff, Jeff O’Haco, Vince Deadrick, Marc Miles, Larry Sanders, Frederick Jaeger & Pat Roach

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review –

The last entry into this list, and the potential final film in the series for many years, may have made the most at the box office by far, but it didn’t win many hearts. To be honest, I had not seen this film since it first came out in cinemas, and I wondered going back if it truly earned the moniker of ‘Nuke Fridge’, and the answer is sort of, but not as bad as I remember.

Overall, we get a pretty good set-up for an Indy film starting in the secret depository of artifacts, an idea that would get ripped off entirely in the years since they first presented it in 1981. It is a good opening until we get to the fridge. However, I must say that it is an outstanding representation of a nuclear bomb explosion, just maybe not a good representation of survival chances.

With time, the areas where I felt were prominent weaknesses just felt more like missed opportunities, or playing with technology that had not entirely caught up to where they wanted it yet. We would see digital scorpions work in Skyfall, and the digital backgrounds would start coming into their own and transform into what we see in The Mandalorian. Still, here it looks like we are living in an uncanny-valley jungle. Those are good ideas, just not quite the right time.

This extends to the main villains, ten years previously and ten years after. If you wanted to set your main villains as Soviet KGB agents, it would have worked. In 2008 it felt out of date. Casting feels out of place, with Cate Blanchett feeling out of place, and we have seen Cate sing ‘House for Sale’ on the accordion and make it engaging, so I am not sure what went wrong here. Adding to this is the lacklustre Shia LaBeouf, who was clearly being set up for the future, but all those legacy elements fall flat. It was like they were trying to capture the energy of Indy and Short Round, but you could feel that no one believed it when they were bantering at the end.

Finally, we have the main plot that loses impact for both severe and silly reasons. The main thrust of this narrative is using the idea that indigenous peoples could not have built great societies themselves, so they needed to have some sort of outside help, and that would not have been great back in the 80s, but in the 2000s, yikes. Then, just let them be aliens. You don’t need to make it more complicated than that.

More dull than bad overall.

Directed by – Steven Spielberg
Story by – George Lucas & Jeff Nathanson
Screenplay by – David Koepp
Music by – John Williams
Cinematography by – Janusz Kamiński
Edited by – Michael Kahn
Production/Distribution Companies – Lucasfilm Ltd. & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent & Shia LaBeouf with Igor Jijikine, Joel Stoffer, Neil Flynn, Alan Dale, Andrew Divoff, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Ilia Volok & Dimitri Diatchenko

So, I am now ready for the next film, and I was surprised how we ended up with a reverse-Star Trek, but all the odds were the excellent films, almost like a narrative yo-yo. But whatever the case, the production was always there, and when it shines, it is an absolute delight. I hope the next film continues the trend because I am more than happy to jump back into this world.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Indiana Jones