1984’s “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom”, directed by
Steven Spielberg.
Starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan,
Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Roy Chiao, David Yip, Ric Young, and Raj Singh.
Winner of an Academy Award in Best Visual Effects (Dennis
Muren, Michael J. McAlister, Lorne Peterson, and George Gibbs).
Nominated for an Academy Award in Best Score (John Williams).
Spurred by the success of the original “Raiders”, Spielberg
and Lucas reunited to create “Doom”, which (for reasons unclear to me) is
actually a prequel to “Raiders” rather than a sequel. We open to a nightclub in
Shanghai (called Club Obi-Wan…), where a song and dance number introduces us to
the film’s female lead (Kate Capshaw). Ford is involved in a deal with the owners
of the nightclub (Roy Chiao, David Yip, and Ric Young, guffawing like frat boys
here), where he wants to trade for precious artifacts, but ends up escaping
with nothing but his life after getting poisoned. Ford has adopted an orphan (Jonathan
Ke Quan, as irritating as ever), who helps with the gang’s escape, and Capshaw
ends up coming along on the journey (to ensure there is a romantic lead in the
movie). Chiao’s treachery runs deep, and the plane the trio escapes on ends up
on a crash course into India. Aided by a trusty lifeboat, the group skydives
downwards, before tobogganing through a mountain and river. It is there the
trio end up in a village, where the children have all been abducted by a local
cult, and the village’s sacred stones have also been stolen. Our trio
infiltrates the cult, nestled inside a mountain underneath a palace, and
discovers a world of sacrificial rituals and child slavery, with plenty of
voodoo practices, endorsed by the child prince of the palace. Ford needs to
protect his on the fly family, while working to return the children and stones to
their rightful owners in the village.
While “Doom” is a prequel to “Raiders”, it is a much more
grim work and feels like the unhappy extension to “Raiders”. Lucas, who had a
significant amount of success with his middle Star Wars saga, “The Empire
Strikes Back”, pushed against a reluctant Spielberg to make the saga more dark-
mission accomplished. Without the Nazis to playfully kick off of cliffs and
gleefully push into propeller blades, a sense of grim misery permeates the
violent, “Doom”. In addition, Spielberg made the decision to cast his ex-wife
as the central love interest, and him and Lucas’ love blues at the time seem to
have brought out the more negative feelings to work through, while showing
scenes of people having their hearts ripped out of their chests before being
lowered while screaming into a pit of fire. On top of the horrific images
(which lead to the creation of a PG-13 rating), the character of Capshaw is a
significant problem. Shrill and hysterical, it’s not clear why she is brought
along with the group after Shanghai, nor why she stays on the journey, nor why
Ford is attracted to her. She does make it clear that she is a gold digger, but
watching her and Ford go through their battle of the sexes would have been much
more welcome with “Raiders” Allen, whom Ford actually shares a lick of
chemistry with (and also could have explained the genesis of their relationship
in the first place). It’s a downer, and not just because of the negative vibes
and accusations of racism towards India and Hinduism (“Doom” was prohibited
from being shown in India at it’s time of release), but also because in some
ways, “Doom” is a more complete film than “Raiders”, and it’s tone, however
grim, is consistent throughout the film. It has it’s share of thrills too, with
a kinetic cable car chase and a bridge sequence that could cause a fear of
heights for some. And by the ending, we have reasons to cheer, unlike
“Raiders”. It’s a shame that Lucas and company couldn’t have taught us more
about Indiana Jones, given that we’ve watched him now in 2 feature films, and
the sequel is actually a prequel- but I guess anything goes.
3/5
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