Indiana Jones Week: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Howdy all and greetings to Day 3 of Indiana Jones Week.  Today we tackle what has been exclaimed as the best of the series and so on.  With Spielberg at the director's chair again we will see what this archaeologist got mixed up in this time.  You can bet it involves Nazis, a femme fatale and maybe a holy relic.  He's got a thing for history as you may have noticed.  This is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

When I grow up I am gonna pummel guys in a fedora hat.

Elsa: What's this?
Indiana Jones: Spoiler of the Covenant.
Elsa: Are you sure?
Indiana Jones: Pretty sure.



Our story opens with a flashback in 1912 of 13 to maybe 14 year old Indiana Jones (River Phoenix of Explorers, Stand by Me, The Mosquito Coast and Sneakers) out in Utah on a boy scout outing.  He finds a few men digging in a cave that found the gold cross of Coronado (the Spanish Conquistador that was reputed to found the mythic Seven Cities of Gold), Indy steals it from the tomb raiders in order to donate it to a museum.   The men give chase, Indy gets punched and gives punches, meets up with the Sheriff who demands that Indy turns the cross over to rightful owner.  One of the men tells Indy he doesn't have to lump it and maybe there will be a next time then he plops a fedora on Indy's head.

Cut to 1938 as Indy is getting punched for stealing the same cross again, the owner is most annoyed and tries to have him pitched overboard in the sea but the waves cause some serious chop, giving Indy a fighting chance.  Pummeling the bad guys, stealing the cross back and the boat blew up, Jones makes his way back to Marshall College, to tell and show off the cross to Marcus Brody.  

So you drag all men down to see coffins or am I the first?

Later that day getting mail from Venice, Indy attends an prestigious party with a wealthy collector Walter Donovan (Julian Glover of The Fourth Protocol, Cry Freedom, Hearts of Fire, The House of Angelo and Game of Thrones) who asks Jones to assist them in a new expedition to finding the Holy Grail.  The Cup of Christ that caused the Crusades.  Jones tells Donovan that his father Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery of Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball, The Anderson Tapes, Highlander, The Rock and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) is the foremost expert on Christian theology and he is Donovan's man.  Donovan states they did contract Professor Jones and have not heard from him for some time.
 Brody and Indy check Henry's home to find the place torn apart looking at mail.  Indy looks at the small parcel in his pocket to discover it is his father's Grail diary.  40 years of research has lead this man to uncovering the location of the Grail.   As Brody and Jones head to Venice it is all too painfully obvious that the Nazis are searching for the Grail on behalf of Hitler.  Can Indy find his father and the Grail before the Nazis plunge the known world into darkness?

And now some fun facts and trivia about the flick.  This is Spielberg's favorite of the three Indy movies.  Writer Tom Stoppard (Brazil, Empire in the Sun, Shakespeare in Love and Anna Karenina) was paid $120,000 for the dialogue between Henry and Indy on the Zeppelin, in the castle and on the road.  His job was to make it emotional but no sentiment, a disconnection between father and son but at the same time the conversation should have a humorous attachment to it.  Based on its success, Stoppard was paid an additional $1 million.
After working with him on The Mosquito Coast, Ford nominated River Phoenix for the role of Young Indy based on his professionalism, preparation and honing of the craft.
Character actor/stuntman Pat Roach has been in three Indy movies as the German Mechanic Indy fights in Raiders of the Lost Ark, The behemoth Thuggee in the Temple of Doom and finally a member of the Gestapo in the Last Crusade.  At 6'5", shoulders as wide as a doorway and barrel chested, he is quite difficult to miss.   Also tangled with Connery in Never Say Never Again.

Rameirez??!!  But you died in 1541!

Indiana Jones Week: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Welcome back readers to Day 2 of Indiana Jones Week and we will catch up with Dr. Jones in just a moment.  There are many how feel this next installment is goofy, racist and in general a waste of cinema.  Point of fact it is fairly racist, there are some quite silly moments but all in all, it is not a bad film.  Zombie Lake was a bad film.  With this in mind there are a few aspects to this movie that I found...distasteful but we shall soldier on.  This is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

DOWN IN FRONT, LADY!!!

Indiana Jones: Mola Ram! Prepare to meet Spoiler... in Hell!






Our story takes place a year before Raiders in 1935.  Why is that?  No clue at all but we are in Shanghai listening to a rendition of Cole Porter's Anything Goes on an elaborate sound stage and after witnessing its scope and depth it magically shrinks down to a center stage in a small night club.  PHYSICS!!!!   So Dr. Jones is at a table with Lao Che (Roy Chiao of Game of Death II, The Protector, Heart of a Dragon, Bloodsport and Dragons Forever) a mobster of ill repute wanting the remains of the Emperor Nurhachi when Lo Che pulls a double cross on Indy getting him to drink a poison, Indy takes Lao Che's singer/girlfriend Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw of Private Affairs, Internal Affairs, Black Rain, Love at Large, Space Camp and Due East) hostage and demands the antidote.

A big fight ensues, guns blazing, people panicking and Indy escapes with Willie out a window and they whisk themselves into a car chase gun battle with a 12 year old boy at the wheel, name of Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan of The Goonies, Together We Stand, Breathing Fire, Head of the Class and Encino Man).  Boarding a cargo plane out of Shanghai our trio have been left in a plane with no more fuel and it barreling down at the Himalayan Mountains.   Diving out of the plane in an inflatable raft clearly some 500 feet above, they all manage to stay in the boat, only to dive over a 600 foot high cliff, splash down some rapids and no one is worse for wear.  Screw you Physics!!!

Hi, we're collecting for the Red Cross.

Sloshing to shore in a small Indian Village, the local holy man explains to Indy that raiders from the long abandoned Pankot Palace has been stealing their children and claimed their sacred Sivalinga stone (stone given to by Shiva as example of the universe and comprised of diamond), the villagers believe to ward off evil and cease droughts.

Indy goes to investigate the palace, having Short Round and Willie tag along; which can only lead to more fight sequences, chases, gun battles and some sword choreographing.  Indy must battle an ancient and evil cult in order to save those enslaved to the cult's will.

Here are some facts about the film now.  This film was made a prequel so Nazis were not the villain every time around.   Kate Capshaw was cast as Indy's love interest because Lucas felt Indy needed a different  girl every film.  Health guru and fitness expert Jake Steinfeld ran Ford through a strict dietary and physical exercise program for him to bulk up for the role.  The irony is Ford had herniated his back during the fight scene with the Thuggee assassin in the bedroom, production was shut down until his operation was a success and a lot of the later fight scenes were handled by stuntman Vic Armstrong.

To give the Kali worshipers a greater terrifying presence, the writers added Aztec human sacrifice, European devil worship and Satanic themes to the film to pep it up.  Even with its level of blood, death scenes and gory effects this somehow stayed at a PG rating rather than a R.

North India refused to let Spielberg film in their region because they felt the script was racist and offensive,  the government demanded a rewrite and that they would oversee all changes.  Spielberg moved the production to Sri Lanka and used an fair amount of matte paintings and 1/16 scale models to create the mountain range.

The club in Shanghai was called Club Obi Wan.  Yes Lucas and Spielberg are nerds.

The Tropicana is proud to present: Legions of Hell!!!

Indiana Jones Week: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Well greetings one and all to Day 1 of Indiana Jones Week.   Let's kick this week into high gear start it off right with the first encounter of our archeologist right.  We will see the cut of his jib as he must race across the world in order to defeat the Nazi party to one of the most revered and holy of relics.  The Ark of the Covenant.  This is Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Look fanboy, I don't care who shot first. It was 37 years ago!

Indiana Jones:  I hate spoilers Jock! I HATE 'EM!







The year is 1936 and Professor Jones is on location to an ancient temple to acquire a golden idol in Peru.  With his two less than trustworthy guides, Indy (Harrison Ford of American Graffiti, Star Wars, Force 10 to Navarone, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Witness, Frantic, Regarding Henry and Patriot Games) manages to transverse through an insane amount of traps, snares, spikes and even a shaped boulder with the prize only to have it taken from him by a rival competition name of Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman of Baa Baa Black Sheep, Whose Child Am I?, The Dogs of War, Falcon Crest and Without a Clue) surrounding him with the indigenous and superstitious tribe of Hovito.   Giving him an inch, Indy narrowly escapes with his life and flies back to the states to teach at Marshall College.

Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world...sorry that's Bogie's line.

The head of the museum, Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliot of Robin and Marian, To the Devil a Daughter, Voyage of the Damned, Trading Places, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Bourne Identity TV Movie) tells him Army Intelligence needs to speak to him.  They reveal that Hitler is obsessed with the occult and is searching  for Indy's former teacher Abner Ravenwood,  the expert on the Egyptian city of Tanis and he has the headpiece of Ra.  Jones immediately knows that the Nazis are looking for the Ark of the Covenant, the golden refuge that holds the Ten Commandments.  Indy gets travel expenses in order to find Abner's daughter and Indy's former lover Marian (Karen Allen of Animal House, Cruising, Shoot the Moon, Starman and Scrooged) in Nepal of all places, to persuade her to sell the headpiece to him, opening old wounds and in general making the visit pleasant.

A run-in with some Nazis tells Indy he needs to hustle or the game is already lost and darkness would rain on humanity.  In Cairo both Marian and Indy are working to find the Ark quickly but time is running short

Just a few tidbits about the film now.  The scene where Indy dispatches the German soldiers, that whole truck chase took eight weeks to film due to all the stunts involved.  Harrison Ford apparently bruised some ribs in the dragging scene but the film was shot at 20 frames a second rather than the traditional 24 frames.  Under cranking the camera gives the illusion vehicles travelling faster than they are to cut down on risks to the stuntmen and actors.  Indy never seems to lose his fedora as a nod to the heroes of the classic serials in the 1940's and this becomes a running gag throughout the sequels.  the punch Foley sound effect was created by smacking a pile of leather jackets with a ball bat.  I thought they went more traditional and hit the ball bat against a punching bag

Ah! The scruffy devil burns our city!! Run!

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Indiana Jones Week!

Afternoon/evening fans of mine and welcome to the beginning of the new week.  This week I have been putting off for more than a few months now, I felt it was about time that I pay a bit of respect to a childhood hero of mine that was a blatant rip off of Alan Quartermain and Julian Sorel with a dash of Philip Marlowe.  I speak of none other than the archaeologist, Professor Indiana Jones.  That's right kiddies, this week is devoted to explosions, faces melting, Wilhelm screams and one man bucking the odds and still coming out on top of it all.

Yeah I need a shave, so what?

This fellow has fallen under hero/anti-hero so many times in the eyes of different gatherings of people.  Some call him a tomb robber, grave digger and despoiler of the dead.  Others call him a brilliant scientist.  From the humble beginnings of Lucas and Spielberg, this iconic character has had books, video games on various platforms, action figures, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes for both children and adults and even a bobble head.  Harrison Ford may actually receive more mail about this character than any other including Han Solo of Star Wars, so yeah Indy is kind of a big deal.   You have all week to figure that out of course so enjoy the write-ups, feel free to drop me a line or comment on either the fb page rottenreelz or directly on the blog.