![]() Still, none of the sequels come close to the rollercoaster peaks of Raiders. And it’s at least faintly touching to see Ford accept and maybe grapple with his elapsed youth in Dial of Destiny. Spielberg brings a puckish enthusiasm to all of Crystal Skull, even its maddening bits of telepathic monkey mischief and alien-vessel silliness. ![]() Likewise, the later sequels, uneven and divisive though they may be, have a hint of something special in them. Temple of Doom has its defenders, too, and for good reason: It’s maybe the most admirably ambitious of the sequels - an attempt to take Indy deeper into the coal mine of the dark adolescent id, pushing the boundaries of the PG rating with squirming bugs, monkey brains, and torn-out hearts. ![]() The movie was more of a conservative course correction than anything else, moving the series back towards what audiences loved about the original and away from what they didn’t love about the weirder, grosser, meaner second entry. Those people are nuts: The Last Crusade is basically Raiders redux, recycling its basic structure and even the gist of some of its set pieces - a feverish chase here, an exploding Nazi noggin there - while only approximating its fun. What about The Last Crusade? There are people who like part three, with Sean Connery as Indy’s incorrigible adventurer father, even better than the original. He’s a perfect instrument of adventure in Raiders, defined through his actions, mythic and human in equal measure. And the two got that mixture so right the first time that every attempt to replicate it, by them or anyone else, has fallen short. They wanted to update the Saturday-matinee serials of their respective childhoods for a new age of state-of-the-art spectacle. ![]() With Raiders, Spielberg and Lucas, mad with power after the industry-reshaping success of their prior hits (the terrifying Jaws, the visionary Star Wars), threw their full clout into the pursuit of a holy grail: the ultimate Hollywood adventure movie. Maybe Hollywood can’t quit Indiana Jones because the magic of his first adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark, still hasn’t been recaptured. All the sequels, including the less-valedictory Temple of Doom, have gone searching for the summer-movie bliss Steven Spielberg and George Lucas summoned from their merging imaginations back in 1981. Indiana Jones has a way of turning movie executives into obsessive treasure hunters: Back and back they’ll go to the same plot of desert, hoping that maybe this time, they’ll find another priceless relic glinting in the sand. And before that even, we had Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade if the title didn’t betray an intended finality, the closing shot of Ford literally galloping into the sunset surely did. But then, the same could be said for the previous film in the franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which gave Indy a happily ever after with the woman who got away. Henry Walton Jones, archeologist and famed “obtainer of antiquities,” raided his last temple, hanging up his wide-brimmed hat for good? Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth big-screen adventure for Harrison Ford’s aging academic hero, has the unmistakable feel of a swansong. Head to Vulture’s Twitter to catch the live commentary. Dowd, who will begin his screening of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on July 5 at 7 p.m. This week’s selection comes from writer and critic A.A. Not by a long shot.Įvery few weeks, Vulture will choose a film to watch with readers as part of our Wednesday Night Movie Club. Maybe Hollywood can’t quit Indiana Jones because the magic of his first adventure still hasn’t been recaptured.
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