The Salad Days

My parents bought me the Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD for Christmas. The interesting thing about it was though it was on my Amazon wishlist, I still had never sat through all of the second installment of that Trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. When I was 9, this film came out and I was very excited. I had watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and loved it (though it was in the safe confines of our home with appropriate scenes edited :) ). I was very excited when Temple of Doom was released, and disappointed (but totally trusting in my parents) when my folks wouldn't allow me to see it. I can remember the buzz when it came out about how violent it was, and I remember thinking to myself, "I won't be allowed to see it."

5 years later, I saw and enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but had no desire to see Temple of Doom because of what I had always heard about it.

Well, my vote is now in, and it is a good piece of work. My parents were totally right in not letting me see it. Had they done so, they would have been up in the middle of the night dealing with my nightmares. They knew me, and they knew there was no way I could handle the dark intensity of this film. It is clearly intended for mature audiences. But what amazed me upon watching it now was how relatively short the horrifying scenes are. Though they are troubling and violent, they are the climax of the film, not the entire setting. The film is like a slow descent into this hellish world, and the adventure for Indy is how in the hell (almost literally) is he going to get out. It gets weirder and darker until it reaches its nadir in the Temple of Doom. Then Jones and his entourage complete their mission, and Indiana Jones is a wiser man (supposedly).

Make no mistake, this is the weakest of the three films. The heroine is good for a few laughs, but spends way too much time screaming. It makes sense that Jar Jar Binks came from the same mind. Though George Lucas gets stuff right so often, sometimes there are misfires, and I think the woman in this film is too whiny and takes away, even though she's supposed to be there for comic relief. Also, the whimsy of the 1st and 3rd films is missing. Though this film is strong (the action never lets up, and the sets and conceptualizing of the piece are extraordinary), it lacks the sort of wink that the other two have.

All in all, it is a good addition to the whole mythology. The trilogy as a whole completely buys into a supernatural view of the world, and that fascinates me. Yes, it is fantasy, but fantasy in a somewhat real world. The folks who raid the Ark in the first film are not aliens, but Nazis, a people who actually existed. In Last Crusade, the Nazis again serve as the villains. In Temple of Doom, the setting is a colonized India where the British are a presence. In a post enlightenment world, the complete belief these films have in the supernatural fascinates me. Indy is not a victim of parlor tricks in the temple of Doom, the cult has genuine evil power. The Ark and the Holy Grail are seen to have power in the other two films. I am not saying these pieces are theologically sound, but their worldview seems different than the world in which we find ourselves.

Long story short, I give this message to my parents: good call when I was 9, and thanks for the great Christmas gift! :)