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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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It's Not the Years It's the Mileage: An Indiana Jones Retrospective: Raiders of the Lost Arc (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to the first part of a grand adventure. I welcome you all to It's Not the Years , It's the Mileage: An Indiana Jones Retrospective. For the next few months i'll be taking a look at all 5 indiana jones films, revisting the first four just in time for the fifth, all courtsey of good ole Weird Kev and yours truly.

This is also going to be an intresting trip as i've watched most of the films a grand total of .. once

This film's the exception, but yeah, i'll be watching these with mostly fresh eyes. While I LIKE this franchise quite a bit, I simply didn't grow up with it the way other young nerds did. Part of it is the times: the late 90's was full of great franchises for kids, and Star Wars and Marvel Films of the time appealed more to my sense of nerdy wonder. Indy isn't bad, but younger me just wasn't intrested in mostly realistic locations and nazi punching.

That's changed though: Since becoming a fan of Scrooge McDuck and TinTin (Though I REALLY need to read all those at some point, I own em all, and the movie is a guaranteed review at some point and honestly feels like a fifth indy movie simply with the protagonist swapped), I really love a good globetrotting adventure story with lots of love to history, big set pieces and likeable heroes with interesting flaws… okay the last one's more Scrooge but while I covered the Seven Cities of Cibola, it's clear in hindsight just how much Stephen and George were inspired by those comics. So i'm curious to revisit a franchise in a genre I now love to see how it holds up , to see if the low points are really as low as people say, the highs are as high, and the creamy middles as creamy and your welcome to join me under the cut as I take it from the top.

Constructing the Arc

Raiders of the Lost Arc was the brainchild of George Lucas, who had the idea in college, being a fan of old adventure serials and deciding to make a b-movie based on that, though it kept getting shelved for certain space things.

It was said certain space things that ended up bringing Lucas and Speilberg together on this. Nervous about bad reviews for Star Wars, lucas decided to spend his vacation with his wife away from it all for his own mental health's sake and invited Senior Speilbergo along. Lucas pitched the project to him and when his first director choice fell through, Lucas asked Stevie to direct, something he gladly did and it's clear the two really jelled as they came up with a lot of great set pieces… but being busy with pre production, other films and stuff they needed someone to glue it all together with an actual plot. That's where Lawrence Kasdan came in. Kasdan had just started his career but if the name isn't familiar he's the man who'd go on to write Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and co-write the force awakens so with Speilbergs help they hammered out the full plot of the script including a few key set pieces like the bolder scene which as discussed in our prequel look at the seven cities of cibola wa cripped. Raiders is one of those cases where it took a lot of hands but the resulting script was great.

The problem was.. no studio would bite. Knowing what he had Lucas wanted control of both the lisecne and any sequels while the Studio would get no say. Most studios .. had the reaction you'd expect

It wasn't helped by the fact that while Speilberg is known as a creative visionary to this day, his recent oscar noms proof he's still got it, back then… stuidos more saw his last few films had come in over budget and in the case of 1941 performed badly in the box office on top of that. Lucas rightfully stuck by his friend though, and ended up coming up with a compromise for paramount: everything he asked, but in exchange Paramount got exclusive rights for a sequel and any going over budget or production time would result in harsh fines.

So with that the film went ahead and for the lead Lucas wanted.. a complete unknown. Yeah while Ford was always considered, Lucas wanted to avoid being pidgenholded as a director who just used the same actors over and over again. Hence king of all mustaches Tom Selleck was the frontrunner and even had an indy costume built for him.. but this backfired as the intense intrest for him in this role meant the producers of his star making role magnum pi could up their offer and lock him in. They went with ford and the rest was history.. and a lot of dysnetary. Seriously so much dysentary, to the poitn one of the most iconic scenes in cinema exists entirely because Harrison Ford could barely move.

Otherwise the shoot went decent, and with expert modelwork, effects and stunts the film was a GIANT success both critcially and comercially.. something that's nice to see for a change. Usually films i cover on this blog are good.. but have to get their revulation AFTER the fact like A Goofy Movie or Muppets Christmas Carol. But this film was seen for what it was by most, though looking at wikipedia Pauline Kael apparently did not like it and Lucas maturely responded by naming a villian after her in Willow.

So with a singed but ultimately triumphant history out of the way we can talk about the film itself.

The Find of a Lifetime

Raider's story is simple yet excellent: it moves fast, not a moment's wasted and it gets you from set piece to set piece while still letting the characters breathe and really feel alive, and has plenty of neat setup.

Raiders follows Indiana Jones, a down on his luck archeology professor and adventuerer whose latest mission, a raid of a culture's sacred temple in Chile, goes bad with both his guides trying to kill him, him barely escaping a certain boulder and the whole thing being made moot when his oldest ally Rene Belloc shows up with the indigenous people Indy's screwing over to screw them over himself and pit both his enemies against one another, stealing the idol because there's nothing jones possess that he cannot take away.

Indy does have a plan to bounce back though, a dig to find the Arc of the Covenant, the artifact the ten commandments was kept in. I did some digging, which is my fancy way of saying I looked up it's wikipedia entry and found it's specifications were given to Noah by god, made by artisans and naturally something like this was shuffled all around till being lost after the bible. It's the perfect kind of artifact for a big adventure like this. Granted it opens up some thorny religious questions, but given the sequel shows Kali is also real to a degree, it comes off as less "HEY GOD FEARING RELIGIONS YOUR RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG" and more as simply a cool historical artifact with a lot of mystique around it to build a story on that a lot of people would know of and those who didn't, the film explains it for you. Seriously the exposition scene where Indy explains the arc to some government agents sent to talk to him is incredibly well done, showing off both his sheer excitement for this find, and contrasting Indy's usually gruff demeanor in the film with some wide eyed dorky wonder, and you can tell Lucas' own love of archelogy is peaking through it.

Said goverment agents are here because naturally this being the 30's, Hitler is after any mystic artifact he can get his genocidal racist bastard mits on, and have gone after Abner Ravenwood, Indy's mentor who he had a falling out with after he slept with Ravenwood's at the time teenage daughter Marion.

Naturally Indy is forced to rely on Marion who while pissed at him, figures she's safer on his side than without him, especially when said Nazi's show up and try to torture her for info, lead by the truly chilling Major Arnold Toht end up burning down her bar. The two make their way to Cairo and team up with Indy's good Egyptian pal Sallah, played by the wonderful Jonathan Rhys Davis. He really SHOUDLN'T havfe as while Rhys Davies is great.. he's also you know.. white and the film has a very bad penchant for brown face that has aged like wet cheese left in a sunbaked canoe for 87 years. The two deal with the Nazi's at every turn and Marion apparently dies, leaving Indy despondant.. and if that wasn't enough finding out Belloq is naturally working for them, with Indy only surviving thankst o a cloud of children

Thankfully Sallah encourages him and while the Nazi's are digging thanks to a copy built from the original being burned into Tohts hand, it turns out their digging in the wrong place, allowing Indy and Sallah to sneak in.. and Indy to abandon marion when he finds her, not out of malice but because he reallyc an't free her without blowing his cover and endgangering her both which she takes well

He ends up in the well of Souls which is full of snakes, it had to be snakes, and finds the arc.. btu the Nazi's flank him,s teal it and throw marion down. Thankfully INdy and Marion are both able to escape and rekindle things while on a boat. Unforutnately marion ends up kidnapped and while Indy is able to follow them to the island Belloq is going to demonstrate the arc on, his threat to blow up the fucking thing.. end sup ringing hollow as Belloq succesfully plays on Indy's love of history: even with Marion at stake and him fully WANTING to destroy the thing if it means sh'es okay.. he just can't.

Thankfully for our heroes while they end up tied up , Belloq DOSEN'T kill them himself and Indy is smart enough to tell her DON'T LOOK MARION DON'T LOOK, saving them both as we get one hell of a climax with great ghost effect sfor the time, some truly haunting music.. and of course Belloq and the nazi's melting, barring Toht who just.. fucking explodes!

So our heroes bring the arc back.. but sadly for Indy the Goverment is being a bit cautious about God's faviorite doomsday weapon and have it examined by "top men"… aka shuttled off to a warehouse. but while bummed Marion gets Indy to cheer up and while he lost the treasure really, he still also lost a rival, got the girl, and got his spirit back.

Setting the Pieces

As you can tell the plot of Raiders is decent and well set up.. but what really makes it fantastic.. is the presentation. The opening alone is so iconic because it just has so many moments crammed into 15 minutes: the fade in from the paramount logo to an actual m ountain, the slow build up to indy, him easily deflecting an attempt to shoot him in the back with his trademark whip, the MOTHERFUCKING GIANT AMOUNT OF SPIDERS ON ALFRED MOLINAS BACK GOD DAMN WHY, Indy compensating for the idols' weight slowly and carefully and of coures the finale as Indy runs for his life from a boulder, has to "throw him the idol and i'll throw you the whip". All just great adventure stuff. This one set piece alone really sets the tone, who indy is , gruff and graverobbery but still smart, charasmatic and resourceful, without much dialogue. There's a reason just about every part of this scene has been homaged to hell and back.

And it's not the only one: there's a LOT of great set pieces, with Kasdan REALLY having done his job well: there's a nice flow of big set piece, some smaller moments to break it up , and then another set piece without it ever felling like that. I only see it because i know the behind the scenes stuff and while you coudl spot it it dosen't really hurt the film: you get plenty of nice slow character stuff and nice slow methodical archelogly mystery solving. It's just the right pace for an adventure story: plenty of mystery, character development and brain work from our heroes, but also plenty of big flash adventure stuff to keep you invested and on the edge of your seat, as you dont know WHEN the next set piece will happen. One Minute Indy is simply tensely talking to an ex, the next Nazi's attack her and her bar is soon ablaze. A simple plane right segues into the two having to dart around the streets of Cairo through tons of nazi's following them, and into a tense jeep chase and one hell of a hangar battle. There's always something fucking awesome just waiting around the corner with the smaller moments being just as good: the "bad dates", marion's drinking contest where Belloq out manuvers her, the scene on the boat which while romantic also shows the sheer damage Indy's taken in this line of work. It's a really beautifulyl paced film Directing wise.. I mean it's one of the most iconic films out there from a director who has gotten TEN best picture nods all for films that were dearly loved and also Lincoln. It's no shock it's good but there's really a sense of grandeure, backed up by John Williams iconic score. Every shot feels delberate, every set piece epic, every moment useful and the result is a film you just can't hep but enjoy. Even if you know all the steps, as I did as I saw a stunt show for this film as a kid so a lot of the set pieces stuck in my head, you can't help but groove to the rythym of the film. But while the directing, writing and pacing is good there's one last piece that really brigns it all together.. the characters. And of course before we get to the others.. we have to start with our star of the show

Indiana Jones: How You Write an Anti-Hero

So during my little Seven Cities of Cibola prologue for this retrospective, I noted how the treasure hunting aspect of these stories hasn't exactly aged the best: going into ancient ruins to pilfer a culture's history makes "it belongs in a museum" less the big heroic statement it once was as said museum is likely an American one far from where this should be displayed, if at all. So going into these movies I was both curious and worried just HOW indy would come off. It dosen't help the iconic opening when you get down to it and strip away all the cool shit… is two white idiots fighting over an idol that really belongs to neither. And as it turns out that was always the point. While Indy was made to be a LIKEABLE character, he was never supposed to be uber sympathetic: when you get down to the core of it Indy is a throughly interesting hero and one of the best examples of an anti hero i've seen in fiction

Making a protaganist whose an anti hero, or unsympathetic in general is .. tricky. You have to make them charming enough you actually like spending time with them, but still enough of a bastard you don't forget their not exactly a great person. When it goes wrong.. you get stuff like this

When it goes right.. you get Indiana Motherfucking Jones. From the getgo we see Indy is badass: he easily deflects an assasination attempt, dodges the traps through his smarts and experince, and even tries to trick the weight trap for the idol. He's a super cool dude.. but the second he leaves the temple.. we see the mask slip and see the human underneath. He put in all the hard work.. but not only was it for something he really shoudln't be doing, it was all for nothing. We see him run, panickly asking for Jock to START THE PLANE nd finally see him scared of a snake. What makes Indy work is the same thing that made Scrooge work for a young George and Stevie as kids: He's a total badass and fun to watch.. but he's also a throughly flawed man with sketchy morals, and his humanity is what makes him intresting.

When we see Indy at college… it's not going great. It's made clear from his sell of what he could ge tfrom the temple that this adventure wasn't some grand endeavour but simply keeping the lights on, and his class is just filled with people who want to bang harrison ford. Which.. I mean I get. This is prime harrison ford. But it's not what he got a degree for.

That said can we just.. take a moment for the whole class scene? While I like how it shows Indy's intellectual and dorky sides… has anyone else ever noticed how.. weird this is? I mean for starters even for the early 80's the joke of "OH ALL THE WOMEN SIGNED UP BECAUSE THEY THINK INDY'S SEXY' is really dated and corny and while I get Indy is aping old pulp adventure serials did you really have to leave in the dated sexisim George? Did you? Or Stephen? Also the writing stuff on the eyelids… it just comes off like a VERY dated archie comics gag from the 30's and not a scene about the 30's from the 80's and i'ts weird and I hate it.

But the larger point is that we see the good again when the Feds arrive and Indy lights up about the arc: the idol may of just been to pay the bills.. but the ark is something he TRULY cares about, and WANTS to find, to share with the world. Sure he dosen't belivie in it's power.. but he belives in it's value. it's what makes him not shooting it later work: he's a guy who will bring a pistol to a swordfight.. but he's also someone who just can't destroy history even if it'd save his own life and the life of someone he loves. Indy may be gruff, not at all worried abotu doing a murder and a graverobber.. but he DOES care about history and wants to save it from those who'd abuse it. It's what makes him better than Belloq: both sank to the same low but for Indy, doing so is just a stop over and something he had to do for a second. For Rene tha'ts who he is: selling these things just to make a buck he dosen't need. We'll get more into him in a moment, but having that evil window into what Indy could be magnifies the good of what he is.

That said he's still a man with faults and we see those most with Marion: he's sexist at times, dismissive and most grossly brushes off her trauma. Yeah something that gets glossed over and that I didn't notice till this run thougH: Indy dated Marion at 16 when he was 20 at the least. And it's clear Speiblerg WASN'T defending indy either: while Karen Allen came up with the backstory for Marion, Speilberg put it in the film and could've cut the line "I was only a child" if he wanted to. He abused her trust, left her, and genuinely hurt her and while it's clear INdy genuinely cares for her, as we see over the film, it's also clear he wasn't sorry at least at first. I do interpet his "you knew what you were doing" as les shim being a TOTAL prick who undervalues her trauma.. and more him seeing so much of her capablities he forgets the age diffrence and the deep trust meant him hurting her emotoinally cut way deeper than he likely thinks. Just because she can take care of herself… dosen't mean she can't be hurt.

It's what makes the romance over the film work as character development: we don't see Indy soften entirely.. but ove rthe trip we see him open up: while he's still snarky with marion he goes form being openly hostile and entitled to her father's research, to seeing her as a MOSTLY equal partner. While the two end up teaming up because her bar got burend down, it's clear during the Cairo chase he sees her as an equal and even with her getting captured a lot he values her.. and when he thinks she died he's utterly broken. To him the adventure wasn't worth her life and nothing's worth living for. He ONLY goes on because Sallah encourages him to. To me his "you knew what you were doing" and other dismissive crap are the macho front he puts up. It's not OKAY mind you, but it's clear Indy puts up walls because he assumes that's how he's supposed to act and because it's hard for him to actually open up to other people. What I know of his later backstory helps support that: he was in the first world war at a young age, had a dad who wasn't exactly the most supportive or helpful and his mom, the one parent he liked, is gone at this point. Othe rthan Brody at the museum an da few contacts Indy really is alone and it's likely how he wants it. He could've apologized to Marion or her father way sooner, but it's just easier for his life to go on alone, take a few artifacts and move on. It's why later hwne Marion is in danger rather than sneak her out he leaves her kidnapped where she's ostensibly safer. He's afraid of actually getting close to her. It's pragmatic sure it also keeps it.. but in reality he's just scared of someone who can actually keep up with hima nd what that might mean. It's not a huge shock that by the next film Marion is gone and the two don't reconnect till indy is a good few decades older and can realize what he's lost. It's telling that when the two are alone his reaction to al lthe damage he's taken is a quip and yet the two only start really romantically connecting when he drops the front, is honest with her and the two hav ea sweet moment. It's sad it again takes a while for them to go anywehre, but the romance shows his human side.

Indy.. is a flawed man.. but he's ultimately a good one: he priortizes Marion over the artifacts and probably woudl've shot the arc had Belloq not appealed to his hisotrian nature and even when captured makes sure she lives. Indy is a man who simply dosen't WANT to care.. but despite himself will. It's also telling for his weakness he really.. dosen't get much out of htis. He gets marion back but he fucks that up. He gets the arc but the goverment hides it. And while it is a bummer for him he dosen't ge tot study it, and as much as I hate goverment coverups their not exactly wrong humanity, and especially other parts of the goverment probably woudln't handle the arc with care and tha tmaybe something tha tmurders on opening is best left in a box. But he keeps going because i'ts who he is. Like his inspriation.. ther'es always another rainbow and by the end while things aren't great for him he has what matters back: his love of the craft. It never truly left but it's telling after this as far as I can tell none of his future adventures are about treasure pilfering. Each of the sequels is about something important. He apparently takes osme work from a mobster next time, but it's clear he likely took it simply to get the remains and study them instead of actually hand em over to the guy. Indy may not leave this film 100%.. but he leaves it with the spirit of adventure and sense of purpose he was missin gat the start. I look forward to seeing where he goes and what he becomes.

How You Use It

Looking at the cast for Raiders while it has a large cast on paper from tratorious guides, to helpful and charasmatic ship captains, to children clouds, to giant dig sites , to lots and lots and LOTS of nazis', to men who get shot real easy and so on, the film's character focus is really on four people, with Sallah being a loose fifth. It's not uncommon for the genre: most scrooge stories generally have the freudian trio of him, donald and the triplets, Tintin mostly just him, Haddock, Calclus and the Thompsons off in the side doing something wacky, it's best to just focus on a few characters and let the story and set pieces and grandeaur of the adventure flow. So to cap off this look at the film let's explore the non indy cast and how they also are incredibly well detailed and thought out

Starting off we have Marion Ravenwood whose just spectacular. Karen Allen does a fantastic job, portraying her as giving no fucks, drinking men under the table and fairly compitent. The last part would normally be entirely hobbled by the fact she gets kidnapped or put in deadly danger with no way out a booker t amount of times and said cheap use of her for a constant hostage gets tiresome. It's easily the film's biggest weakness.. but it speaks to both Allens performance and the quality of the writing that even cliche sexist garbage like that.. dosen't undermine marion. She tries to escape as much as she can, contributes well to the quest with the head piece when she is around, and DOES try to outwit belloq with a drinking contest… and ONLY fails at that because of something she coudln't possibly know, i.e. that his family owned a winery. At the end of the day Marion simply dosen't badass her way out because sh'e's a normal non combatant: she's able to easily take bar bullies and what not, but she's up against throngs of soldiers, an experinced manipulative treasure hutner, and a relentless nigh inhuman nazi. She can only do so much. It's still not.. perfect. Marion should have more agency and more ot do and like I said using her as a hostage is just super lazy, but it speaks to the character that despite the film sexistly working against her she ends up awesome anyway and i'ts a suprise she didn't come back SOONER.

We then have Belloq who might be my faviorite character in the film. Belloq is neatly composed to be everything Indy isn't: Indy comes from a working class background as we find out later, works a day job, genuinely cares about preserving things and his default mode is "gruff dick". Belloq in contrast comes from money, always wears fancy classy clothes, and while good at being an arcy, does it mostly for the money. Belloq is as I said who Indy could be if he lost his soul: a monsterous treasure hunter who will gladly work with the Nazis if it means a nice payday.

What makes him work is that he's just.. damn chaarming> He's a total bastard, that was never in question, but he just has a smooth air about him: from his first line he's charming and he always feels like he has control of the situation. Really the entire film he's playing just about everybody: He outflanks indy at the start, NEARLY kills him in Cairo and is only thwarted by the children cloud, succesfuly keeps his nazi bosses off his back, and nicely plays marion for info, not only using her undestimation of her to his advantage. IT's easy to see why originally there was a love triangle between her indy and belloq: he's a monster.. but he's just so effortlessly smart and charming he's fun to watch. He's a great villian and Paul Freeman deserves more credit. He also contrasts Indy in that he's not really a fighter: indy gets in there with his whip and gun while Belloq simply throws minons at him.

What weakens him though.. is his own ego: if you look at every encounter with indy and his tent talk with marion you notice that Belloq could've gotten rid of both sooner.. but just dosen't. With Marion he WANTS to woo her, only throwing her in the well of souls because he has to, and is fine dicking around with flirting with her. With indy though it's clear it's more just ego.. hec an't just KILL his arch enemy no no, he has to make a meal of it: he has to both humilate him and have him WATCH Belloq win. It shows in the first scene. He could've just shot indy the second he had the idol.. but just HAS to have indy chased by the tribe to die ironically. He just has to throw marion in the well of souls to twist the knife on his being trapped, just has to brag in the cafe long enough for the child cloud to come in. And of course.. he just HAS to show off that HE found the arc and open it first. While he has a pragmatic reason, he's absoltuely right hitler woudln't be happy if nothing was inside, the real reason is he just has to satisfy his own ego.

Finally we have Toht the film's othe rmain villian. Toht is pretty one note: he's evil, pure and relentless and i'ts very noticable next to belloq. He's also not subtle going into creepy laughs and being very fond of a good strangling. What makes him work is simple: Toht is nazisim in it's purest most creepy form: an unrelnting force tha tcan loose pieces, can stumbled, but is very dangerous if not stopped. Toht has set backs but it's that drive to dominate, to subjigate people he's deemed "lesser", to keep going tha tmakes him scary and it's what makes facisim itself scary: you can stop itk you can kill it's leaders.. but it just keeps coming back and creeping in again and again. You simply can't stop some people's need for power. It also makes the arc that impactful as someone who indy and co barely held off.. dies by fucking exploding. An unstoppable force an da genius creep.. are simply no match against the power of a god.

Wrapup

So that was Raiders of the Lost Arc and it IS everything it's hype to be. It has some dated bits, some shit that was acceptable at the time others that really never should've been, but it's ultimately a well done globetrotter with intresting laired characters, iconic set pieces, and a killer soundtrack. If you've never seen it. i'm shocked your here but go.. go do that. It's well worth it.

Next Time: We visit a less.. shall we say universally loved intry as an oscar winner becomes a mildly racist kid sidekick, Speilberg's wife screams a lot and a man's heart is ripped out of his chest baby! See you next month for temple of doom and thanks for reading.

#indiana jones #raiders of the lost ark #stephen spielberg #george lucas #harrison ford #marion ravenwood #renee belloq #pulp #adventure #80s

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