Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Oh, you should know all the details by now.

A few days ago I got a region free Blu set of all the Indiana Jones pictures. I saw Raiders again-which I reviewed here before-and it's still awesome. After that, I finally recently revisited this film. I hadn't seen it in a long while. I still think it's pretty good. I give the deets below: 

This is another movie that I saw a decent amount of times in my youth, but the last time I saw it in full was way back in 2008; a screen in Orlando was showing it. While a beat-up original film print, in these days of digital, I can remember such things through the lens of nostalgia.

This is not as great as Raiders or The Last Crusade (which followed the general blueprint of Raiders) but I can still say that this prequel is pretty good. The wacky trio of Indy, annoying shrill lady singer Willie and young Chinese boy Short Round end up in rural India and end up trying to help a small village which was devastated by a Thuggee cult taking their children and a sacred stone.

I admit that it has its faults. Willie is an aggravating character; I know that being a carbon copy of Marion wouldn't have worked either, but I imagine that her demeanor had something to do with how both Spielberg and Lucas were going through divorces when they came up with this script. There aren't always flattering stereotypes of Indian people; aside from the whole “ripping the beating hearts out of someone, who somehow then stays alive” thing, why were they portrayed as people who ate really gross and bizarre things, such as monkey's brains? This has some weird humor that does not always work. Let's not even get into the whole “white savior” thing. Also, personally... as a kid, the stuff with all those bugs was a giant NOPE; admittedly, even as an adult now, it is still a giant NOPE.

All that said, it's still a pretty entertaining picture. It is a grand adventure which also visits Shanghai; the cast does a swell job and there are still great action setpieces, especially the mine cart chase, as improbable as it may be. Because of what I mentioned about the life problems of the screenwriters, this has a rather dark tone; as an adult I appreciate it more now than I did as a kid. Plus, while I imagine some could be annoyed by Short Round also, I never thought that way. Thus, that is why I say that this is still pretty good despite some valid complaints.