A whip-cracking tribute to the cliffhanger movie serials of the Thirties and Forties,
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was originally conceived in the late Seventies on a Hawaiian holiday shared by producer
George Lucas and his best mate, director
Steven Spielberg. "I made it as a B-movie," said Spielberg years later. "I didn't see the film as anything more than a better made version of the Republic serials." Rightly regarded by the rest of the world as an all-time screen classic, Raiders is ranked the 66th greatest film of all time by the American Film Institute, who also named Indiana Jones as the second greatest screen hero of all time (behind
Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in 1962's
To Kill A Mockingbird). The highest grossing movie of 1981, the 49th most successful film of all time and a five-time Oscar winner to boot, Raiders spawned a mighty, internationally beloved franchise comprising of a prequel, two sequels and a masterful TV spin-off.
Harrison Ford takes the lead as Indy, a straight-shooting, whip-wielding daredevil hero, world famous "...professor of archaeology, expert on the occult [and] obtainer of rare antiquities". Dressed for action in a tough, brown leather jacket and a brimmed, felt fedora hat that he absolutely refuses to lose, Dr Jones battles the best of the worst in the name of history, rescuing treasured artefacts from a variety of crooked archaeologists, fortune hunters and goose-stepping super soldiers. Big, hairy spiders, bottomless pits, poisonous darts and master swordsmen don't phase Indiana one bit. Snakes, on the other hand, scare him half to death, so you can imagine how he feels when confronted by around 7000 of the slimy critters in a dark underground temple from where there may be no escape...
The year in 1936 and Adolf's army are up to no good, digging up half of Cairo in search of the fabled Lost Ark of the Covenant, resting place of the original Ten Commandments and a devastating supernatural weapon as well. Hitler, it seems, has bought into the legend that "...an army which carries the Ark before it is invincible," which is exactly why a couple of Washington bods beg Indy to take possession of the Ark before the Nazis. It's not going to be easy though, and before the day is won, Indiana Jones is going to need some help.
Offering so much more than simple love interest,
Karen Allen blazes across the screen as Marion Ravenwood, a hard-drinking gal of the tough cookie variety, an old flame of Indy's who holds the key to the puzzle and tags along for the ride. Meanwhile,
John Rhys-Davis (aka
Lord of the Rings' dwarf Gimli) offers ebullient support as Sallah, everyone's favourite Egyptian digger, a loyal family man who takes his sidekick and comic relief duties most seriously. Then there are the bad guys, including
Ronald Lacey, coaxed out of acting retirement to play Toht, a pasty-faced Nazi with sadistic tastes, and
Paul Freeman as Belloq, a French archaeologist and Nazi collaborator of questionable character.
John Williams contributes a soundtrack which proves as rousing as the visuals, doing his bit for the war effort as Indy plunges head first into an assortment of dangers, from a booby-trapped temple and blazing bar brawl through to a bloody one-on-one with a gigantic Nazi mechanic, and a stunt laden truck chase which remains one of the most incredible action sequences ever filmed.
"Indiana Jones is always getting in way over his head," says Ford of his appealing alter ego, "and just barely getting out by the skin of his teeth." Citing Indy as both his favourite character, and the character he's most proud of playing, Ford is the true hero of the series, performing as many of his own stunts as possible, even for the latest instalment at the age of 65.
Three years after Raiders came
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), a darker adventure that found history's most resilient archaeologist chasing fortune and glory in the heart of India while battling the forces of a monstrous cult bent on world domination. This time around, story and characterisation took a back seat to the action, as Spielberg and Lucas emphasised cliffhanging thrills above all else, but it's all so darn exciting that you'll barely have the time to notice.
Crammed to overflowing with voodoo rituals, human sacrifices and a soundtrack full of tortured screams, Temple of Doom is easily the most violent instalment of the original trilogy, and was single-handedly responsible for provoking a new censor certificate in the US, PG-13. In Britain the film was hacked at by the British Board of Film Classification until it qualified as a PG, but it still has the power to shock and may not be entirely suitable for younger children, by which I mean wimpy, over-sensitive ones.
A prequel set in 1935, a year ahead of the events in Raiders, Temple of Doom kicks off with a spectacular nightclub shoot-out, then a wild car chase through the streets of Shanghai, capped off by an outrageous skydiving escape which develops into a daring toboggan ride and white water adventure. And these are just the opening scenes. Suffice to say that an unlikely combination of outrageous circumstances serve to strand Indy, his pint-sized sidekick Short Round (
Ke Huy Quan) and dizzy blonde nightclub singer Willie Scott (the second Mrs Spielberg,
Kate Capshaw) in India.
Making the most of their unusual situation, Indy and the gang set out to rescue hundreds of enslaved children as well as a trio of sacred Sankara stones from the villainous Thuggees, an ancient, wicked clan devoted to Kali, their evil god. A visit to nearby Pankot Palace confirms Indy's worst fears when he discovers a hidden entrance to the Temple of Doom, underground lair of high priest Mola Ram (
Amrish Puri), master of the dark light...
Not long into the movie we know who everyone is, we know what everyone wants, and we know what everyone deserves, and with that limited story stuff out of the way, it's time for one incredible action sequence after another, as the heroic Dr Jones struggles to save Willie from a sacrificial lava pit, takes on a hulking Thuggee guard in a blistering conveyor belt slug-a-thon, risks a death-defying, rollercoaster mine car escape and finally, puts his money where his mouth is with an edge-of-the-seat rope bridge finale that, stock footage of crocodiles aside, is a truly amazing piece of work.
Replacing snakes as the slimy creatures du jour, we have hundreds of thousands of bugs, a crunchy, squishy obstacle for our high-pitched heroine. A gross-out meal at Pankot Palace, consisting of "snake surprise", eyeball soup and, to cap it all, chilled monkey brains, also proves too much for Willie who, though she pales in comparison with Raiders' Marion Ravenwood, is, at the very least, as needy a damsel-in-distress as you could ever hope to rescue. And who better to save Willie, the Sankara stones, the children and the world than the master whip-smith himself, Indiana Jones?
Trivia fans take note that while Indiana was famously named after George Lucas's dog, the canine naming game continued through the second movie, with Willie named after Spielberg's dog, a Short Round named after screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's dog.
Five years later, George and Steven's prodigal son returned for a third adventure,
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), hitting the Grail trail for father/son bonding and general Hun-bashing in a formula re-hash of the first two movies with the bonus of an extra star,
Sean Connery, playing opposite Harrison Ford as Indy's eccentric father Henry, even though Connery is only 12 years older than Ford. Returning from Raiders to lend our hero a hand,
Denholm ElliottAlison Doody and
Julian Glover fulfill bad guy duties. Most memorably,
River Phoenix plays young Indy in a thrilling flashback sequence at the top of the movie, battling thieves on a circus train while picking up his trademark scar, hat, whip and all-consuming fear of snakes.
"Germany has declared war on the Jones boys!" The Holy Grail's up for grabs and Hitler wants it bad. Grail expert Henry Jones is missing, believed kidnapped by the Nazis. The year in 1938, the world is on the brink of war, and you can't crack your bullwhip without clipping a German spy, suicide squad or some kind of eerie supernatural force way beyond our understanding (only God and ILM know the truth). With Germans to waste, a father to rescue and, hell, a planet to save, the younger Dr Jones sets out in search of the cup of Christ via a series of comic interludes, male bonding moments and numerous high concept, big budget action sequences that, as good as they are, can't quite compete with, say, the Raiders truck chase or the mine car madness from Temple of Doom.
Ultimately, Last Crusade is what an average Indiana Jones movie looks like. It's still a lot of fun, and there's some pretty decent action in there too, from a cliffhanging tank encounter and Venice speedboat chase to fun in a Nazi stronghold and a bi-plane shootout, but compared with Indy's one and two, number three's just a little less inventive, a little less exciting and a little less... well, everything.
Following Last Crusade, Lucas took Indy to the small screen, producing
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, an Emmy Award-winning TV series that ran from 1992 to 1993 and was designed, in part, as an educational programme for children and teenagers spotlighting key historical figures and important events. Having survived a catalogue of dangers, Indy proved impervious to cancellation too, appearing in four TV movies (1994-1996) after the series was officially axed. Proving that you can't keep a good man down, Indy returns yet again in 2008 adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a big screen blockbuster set in 1957 that pits an older, wiser and vaguely creakier Dr Jones against evil Soviet agents, led by
Cate Blanchett, in a race for the fabled Crystal Skull. Assisted on his travels by former lover Marion (Karen Allen), greaser Mutt (
Shia LaBeouf) and fellow archaeologist Mac (
Ray Winstone), Indy's journey takes him across New Mexico, Connecticut, Mexico City, the jungles of Peru and most intriguingly, the warehouse from the end of Raiders.
Asked if Ford was really too old to play the eponymous hero, producer Frank Marshall responded with a Raiders quote, "It's not the years, it's the mileage." Adding, "What'll be interesting is you're seeing him in a different decade, so there's all kinds of new, interesting things that he has to deal with. Indy seems to be a little smarter, let's say wiser, and more fallible. He makes mistakes and he gets hurt. He has a few more aches and pains now, and that's the other thing people like about him: He's a real character, not someone with superpowers."
As for the future of the franchise, the introduction of Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) in Crystal Skull has led to speculation that the character is Indiana's son, and will likely inherit the series from Ford. Although it would be tough to balance a slate of new Indy flicks with his pre-existing commitment to crank out multiple
Transformers sequels, and though at this stage it's mostly rumour and wishful thinking, LaBeouf is at least up for it if it happens. "Am I into it? Who wouldn't be?"
For now, the adventure continues in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, an old school action offering guaranteeing both longtime fans of the series as well as newcomers to the franchise the biggest thrill of the summer movie season.