In 1957, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is forced back into action when a Soviet agent‘s (Cate Blanchett) mission to find a mysterious artefact puts an old friend in danger…
I have not watched this movie since it came out.
I cannot remember how I felt about it then, but the public rejection which followed probably played a role.
What a fun movie.
Even with the CG rodent in the first shot, the opening set piece is so well-staged and shot.
There is a frivolity and an ease to the way Spielberg juxtaposes the initial race between the military trucks and the teenagers that sets the mood: this is a lark.
You can also feel the filmmaker’s joy in rediscovering this mode.
The introduction of Indy and the villains
The set piece which follows is pure Spielberg cause and effect, with a unity of camera movement and action choreography that stands up with the iconic sequences from the previous movies.
What stood out to me was how well-paced it was.
The punchline of Indy surviving via a fridge feels like an intentional bit of self-awareness, particularly with the shot of Indy backlit by a mushroom cloud:
Our hero is a man out of time.
It says something that that one shot carried more weight than any of the navel-gazing in Indy 5.
The father-son dynamic is flawed, and the conception/performance of Mutt is misjudged, but those elements aside, the film has such elan it is hard not to get swept up.
The movie loses a bit of steam once we get to the jungle: Mac’s (Ray Winstone) various about-faces grow tiresome, and this is the first movie with an unsatisfying villain death.
Conceptually, having the villain’s brain overload is a great follow-up to Last Crusade’s instant-ageing, but the execution is toothless.
Overall, a solid adventure yarn. Everyone seems game and energised, and on this viewing it felt like the franchise still had something in the tank.
Definitely worth a critical reappraisal.
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