Looking Back at Indiana Jones

There have been four films in the Indiana Jones franchise, all starring Harrison Ford as the swashbuckling archaeologist with a penchant for artifacts, and directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the ‘movers and shakers’ of the blockbuster movie form.

By day, Jones is a lecturer at a university, perhaps the less interesting part. Part-time, he’s saving artifacts from the greedy and bringing the artifacts back to museums, where, he says, they belong. And he gets well-paid.

The action scenes and sense of adventure make his endeavors come to life. Part time jobs were always the most interesting.

He’s a bit of a ladies man with echoes of James Bond. He has no trouble getting the girl.

When saving artifacts for museums, he happens to get in over his head: he’s saving people’s lives and encountering the supernatural, which keeps him on his toes.

It is grand storytelling, with mystery elements, such as what’s the story with the ‘lost’ Ark of the Covenant, what’s so important about an Indian village’s sacred stones, and the significance of the cup of Jesus at the Last Supper otherwise known in legend as the Holy Grail.

The aura of mystery around these artifacts gives the franchise an advantage over the more straight forward action adventure tales.

The franchise started with Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The best of the franchise by a long shot. The production and writing quality is top notch, and the characters, especially Indiana Jones, have become legends.

In an original twist on the Ark of the Covenant, Indiana’s friend Marcus Brody says the ark should be researched because of its “unspeakable power”.

Creating myth out of an Old Testament artifact did not sit well with some. The myth the film created is unhistorical and not biblical on some counts, but may be true enough on other points. We just need to read some passages in the Book of Samuel in the Bible to see how true it can be, more or less.

At a simple level, it did convey a sense of coveting supernatural power for selfish purposes. That not only works as a plot device, but also as a religious or spiritual theme.

The coveting of eyes are the Nazi’s, circa 1936, just before World War II. Indiana Jones was there to save the world from what could have been a Nazi take over—but those Nazi’s couldn’t procure the power they so desired.

The lesson? Succumbing to temptations to use powers we don’t understand end fruitlessly.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Director and producer Seven Spielberg convinced the censors to give this film the first ever PG-13 rating. A PG-13 rating would make the film reach more people than the R-rating it was going to be given because of the film’s violence.

That controversy aside, there are some interesting themes.

Indiana Jones is almost a Messianic figure in that he comes into an Indian village, after escaping a near-death misadventure, unaware that the village is in need of help. The village elder says Indiana has been sent to save them.

Indiana has his reasons to help out. The stones required could be sold to a museum, so he thinks. But the villagers don’t see the stones that way. To them, the stones bring well-being to the village.

As well, the children of the village have been taken by a cult. Indiana must save the children as well as the stones and, as always, he is up to the challenge of sacrificing his interests for the needs of others.

An aside: on that theme of sacrificing one’s interests, could we conceivably give up our convictions for the needs of someone else or a group of people? That may be democracy, but where would we draw a line?

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

So far the series had covered a major piece of the Old Testament and a small bit of folksy Indian religion. Next was Christianity with a medieval flavor.

The cup of Jesus Christ at his Last Supper is framed in Arthurian legend while still maintaining the presence of Christ’s sacrifice hundreds of years earlier.

Sean Connery plays Professor Henry Jones, the father of Indiana. Henry is a medieval lecturer who is searching for the lost Grail or chalice Christ shared at the lost supper.

The message seems to be: seek and you will find.

When Henry’s getting closer to finding the chalice, he may find more than a chalice, but an experience of faith which illuminates his awareness.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

After twenty years without Indiana Jones films, there was a hunger for more.

For me, the film was a letdown. Harrison Ford as the older, wiser Indy lacked the presence of the original Indiana. But I can’t deny that Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones has made the character his own—probably forever.

In this sequel, Indy is betrayed by a friend, meets up with a lost love and her son, and tries to help a long, lost professor who has lost his mind. It should be interesting, but isn’t.

I remember a pivotal scene in the film more than the featured parts which were promoted heavily.

The scene is of a ‘god’ getting upset. This time it’s Cold War Russians, not Nazi’s, who seek to use the god’s power for their mind control techniques. That theme goes back to Raiders of the Lost Ark.