Legend has it that the two titans who gave birth to the 'summer blockbuster' in the mid-to-late '70s, Steven Spielberg("Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") and George Lucas("Star Wars") were hanging out on a beach in Hawaii when Spielberg expressed his desire to direct a Bond movie. "I've got something better than Bond", was the alleged response of his bearded best friend(doesn't that story make you feel slightly bad about your own life?). Lucas handed him his 1973 rough draft for 'The Adventures of Indiana Smith', and that was the conception of one of cinema's preeminent heroes.
After a name change and close call with Tom Selleck, the dynamic duo turned to none other than Han Solo himself to play the man in the hat and Harrison Ford began his decade-long reign as Hollywood's biggest matinee idol. Whether it was booby trapped caves, traitorous sidekicks, giant boulders, Nazis, snakes, large insects, a Thuggee cult, fire, rats, more Nazis, a nucleur blast, old age, or a Soviet army, there was simply nothing the durable Dr. Jones couldn't handle. Let's look back at the most lucrative franchise of the 1980s.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark"(1981)
Spielberg was looking to erase the memory of a rare failure(1979's "1941") by creating the ultimate escapist film, a throwback to the adventure serials of the 1930s with contemporary filmmaking technology/techniques. He far exceeded his goals. Whether or not it's the greatest action movie of all time is open for debate, but it's definitely the most important as most of what passed for action before 1981 just wouldn't cut it anymore. The bar had been raised significantly. Has any movie ever had a better first ten minutes? Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones, a rugged archaeologist-adventurer and simply the coolest hero not named James Bond ever committed to celluloid. He battles Nazis on a globetrotting mission to retrieve a lost ark supposedly containing remnants of The Ten Commandments.
Karen Allen is spunky and tough as his old flame Marion Ravenwood(more on her later) and there are at least half a dozen classic scenes. Modern cinema just doesn't come any more iconic than this. It was easily the top grossing film of the year and one of the defining works of an era with no shortage of crowd-pleasing entertainment and audiences worldwide clamored for an encore.
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"(1984)
This prequel set in 1935 has our intrepid hero on a dangerous quest to find three sacred stones and rescue enslaved children from a bloodthirsty cult in India. Most fans agree that future Mrs. Spielberg Kate Capshaw is a weak link as Shanghai nightclub singer turned shrieking damsel in distress Willie Scott and eleven year old Jonathan Ke Quan was a tad irritating as Chinese orphan Short-Round. In the plus column though, the last half hour contains some of the best action in the entire series- the runaway mine car chase and the rope bridge sequence are the dazzling highlights.
Spielberg wasn't comfortable with some of the darker aspects of the story that Lucas insisted upon(black magic and human sacrifice was apparently too much for the "E.T" director) and has stated numerous times that this is his least favorite Indy adventure. It was primarily responsible for the creation of the PG-13 rating, but recent events have cast this film in a much more favorable light(more on this later) and Spielberg had no reason to be apologetic for an expertly crafted thrill ride that was the second biggest hit of the summer(behind "Ghostbusters"). Nevertheless Steven told George that he wasn't moving ahead with a third film until he felt every element was 100% right which resulted in a five year layoff for Indy. It was worth the wait.
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"(1989)
The search for the ultimate artifact, the Holy Grail propels what should have been the concluding chapter of the wildly successful adventure series(more on that later) and I don't think too many people will accuse me of going out on a limb when I say that it's every bit as good as the first. That's an even more impressive feat in the wake of newer franchises like "The Matrix", "Spiderman", and "Pirates of the Caribbean", which all struggled to maintain interest by the third installment. The late River Phoenix provided the basis for "The Young Indiana Jones" TV show of the early '90s in a memorable flashback intro as a teenage Indy, Harrison Ford is once again terrific in the role he was born to play, and the casting of Sean Connery as Indy's dad was truly inspired.
From the moment the original 007 enters the picture to address his heroic son as 'Junior', this film is gold. We get an action sequence for every mode of transportation, a set-piece involving a tank that rivals the truck chase in "Raiders", and a finale that brings the saga full circle. Indy rode off into the sunset. It was the second biggest hit of the year behind Tim Burton's "Batman". There aren't many things in this life that are perfect, but this series as a whole came awfully close. It stayed that way for 19 years.
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"(2008)
I'd like to think that Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford had their hearts in the right place when they reunited for this ridiculously belated fourth outing. I mean, these guys are rich enough, right? They did it for us. The fans. Well, I can safely say that I speak for the vast majority of the population when I say 'thanks for nothing'. My expectations were in check. After nearly two decades, there was no way this movie was going to be on the same level as "Raiders" and "Last Crusade", and I would have had no complaints if it had at least measured up to "Temple of Doom". Even THAT was too much to ask. The opening scene of the original was history in the making. The opening of this film added the phrase 'Nuke the Fridge' to the public lexicon, a rather dubious legacy in comparison. Sure, it made a lot of money but you'd have to be wearing thick rose-colored nostalgia glasses to call "Crystal Skull" an artistic success. There's bad CGI all over the place, Ford is a senior citizen, Karen Allen hasn't acted in fifteen years, the main villain is a female(?) and Shia LaBeouf is playing a character named Mutt Williams. He's Indy's long lost son. And what are Crystal Skulls exactly? Does anybody know or care?
There's no reason to go any further. This was simply a heartbreaker that left older fans like myself shaking our heads in disbelief and a younger generation glad they grew up in the age of "Transformers". To his credit, LaBeouf hit the nail on the head with his honest assessment of the movie that should have NEVER been made- "He's(Spielberg) done so much great work. But when you drop the ball, you drop the ball".
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