I realize I am flirting with disaster here. I know I am dangerously close to taking on hallowed ground, but hear me out. Maybe the first thing I should say here is I acknowledge the greatness of Raiders of The Lost Ark. I enjoy the film and realize it is one of the best Adventure pictures of all time. But as I re-watch the Indiana Jones trilogy (because we have all wiped The Crystal Skull from our memory, right?), the Temple of Doom remains number one in my mind. Not because it is a greater film in the cinephile sense of the word; it is just deeper, more entertaining, and in a way more interesting. It may be the best for a few reasons I’ll cover here.
Now like I said, just hear me out…
5. The Opening
There is no doubt the opening Raiders of The Lost Ark is an iconic piece of cinema, and a wonderful introduction to the Indy character. But in the Universe of the character, the opening of Temple is fascinating in its own right. We see a different Indy here. This is not the bookish professor fighting Nazis, it’s Ford playing Indy as Bogart in a Shanghai nightclub. He has more of an edge, and he seems to be into a shady proposition with Asian gangsters.
Now consider this is a prequel, dated two years before Raiders, so this Indiana Jones may have been a different person philosophically and ethically. Maybe the events of this film changed his course. These films are all about paying homage to the pulp serials of the 30s and 40s, and the opening of Temple is less the adventure portion of these old serials and more a send up of the gangster flicks of the time.
And how about Kate Capshaw’s stumbling, goofy opening musical number. The song is “Anything Goes,” maybe a head’s up to the audience that this sequel has something different in store.
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5 Comments
I like the arguments you’ve presented, very…brave I guess. I must say that I personally disagree completely. I don’t like the contrast of silliness and sinister tone in the movie and between Short Round and the woman, I can’t decide who I’d kill first. That said however, I only compare this movie unfavorably because of Raiders, so maybe my opinion here isn’t worth the text it took to express it.
I find it quite funny that people always whine that this is too dark, yet it was absolute favourite when i was a young kid. Guess a 10 year old has a higher tolerance….
Totally agree with you. Temple of Doom has been my fave Indy movie since I was a kid. Never understood all the hate around it. It’s a fun, fast-paced, exciting, action packed adventure. Everything an Indy movie should be.
It may not be my favourite of the Indy movies but Indy on the rope bridge is probably my favourite Indy moment in the entire series. “He not nuts. He crazy”
Glad to see somebody stand up for how much this movie means to them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
“Temple of Doom” was my very first Indy movie and it remains my personal NO#1 favorite. Saw it at the theater back in ’84 when I was about seven. To this day, the magic of the sights and sounds and thrills and laughs and overall feel and flavor that made this movie so overpowering to me have not lost their special touch (especially with the mindblowing quality of the blu-ray release.) And of all the countless movies that came and went over the years, I cant think of a single one with a climax as awesome as that rope-bridge scene.
When I saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” about a year later on video, I never really thought of it as an adventure. It was just too earthbound compared to “Temple”. I mean, Nazis? Why did it have to be Nazis? That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie a great deal. I just thought it was more of an action film that you watched in the daytime than something out-of-this-world that you prepared popcorn for at night. I knew “Last Crusade” wasn’t going to be any different the second I saw what the offical poster looked like. The image of Indy on a horse again with trucks and tanks and whatever that was behind him made it abundantly clear that the movie wasnt going to take me that far beyond our real world. No wonder I didn’t mind going to see it in the daytime. And same with “Raiders”, I liked it, a lot.
Truth be told however, in revisiting the Indiana Jones trilogy a couple of decades later, I was a little surprised by how well-made and interesting both”Raiders” and “Crusade” seemed to me this time, aside from them being fun action films. They were really brilliant filmmaking efforts that deserved all the praise they received. In fact, I could understand why people thought of “Temple” as the rotten apple here, partly because it just doesn’t have as tight or intelligent a script as those other two movies. But you know what? That still doesnt change what the experience was like for me or how easy it is to relive it. Sure, I can choose to see it from other people’s eyes and cringe at its so-called dark elements and general goofiness, or I can continue to cheer it on for kicking my ass to another world the way it did, the way a real adventure should do. So it may not have the brains of the other two, but it definitely has the balls.