This weekend the USA network was playing the Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Arc, The Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade) and it got me wondering which ones people like the most and why people like him.
For me the order goes: Raiders of the Lost Arc, The Last Crusade, and The Temple of Doom.
Raiders of the Lost Arc - To be completely honest, Raiders and Crusade are almost tied in terms of how much I like them. I think this has to do with the fact that I’ve only seen Raiders once and I’ve seen Last Crusade numerous times. Also, Raiders being the first in the triology makes it seem a little bit more special to me for some reason. Raiders also had a good mix of action and comedy. For instance the scene where Indy just shoots the guy who waves his sword around.
The Temple of Doom - This movie just seemed a little bit boring to me. Short Round also annoys the hell out of me as well. I was kind of hoping Indy was going to throw Short Round into the lava pit when Indy was under the control of the Bad Hindu Guys ™ Just didn’t seem to have the same appeal the other two movies had.
The Last Crusade - I like this one because it gives an explanation of some of Indy’s trademarks such as the whip and his fedora. Anyone else notice how Fedora (name of the character who gave Indy his Fedora) seemed to be Indy’s model for his future attire? It also seemed to have some of the best quotes of the movies.
Such as:
Jones Sr: It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them.
Indiana Jones: You stood up to be counted with the enemies of everything the Grail stands for. Who gives a damn what you believe?
Raiders & Last Crusade were also my favorites. I thought the story lines and the casting in both were far superior to Temple of Doom. Sean Connery & Alison Doody in Last Crusade and Karen Allen & John Rhys-Davies in Raiders as compared to Kate Capshaw & Jonathan Ke Quan in Temple of Doom? The only thing I have a hard time deciding on is whether Willie or Short Round are the most annoying as I found both characters highly irritating.
I agree Temple is the weakest of the bunch (but I still liked it).
I have to give ‘Raider’s’ a very slight edge over ‘Crusade’. When Indy is hijacking the truck with the Ark from the Nazis, those are some of the greatest moments in film, IMO.
Can’t decide between Raiders and Crusade, each has it’s special moments (Indy shotting the fella with the big sword, Indy gets Hitler’s autograph) Temple is the worst one definitely, ruins the boxed set DVD thing having that one in there …
Originally there was supposed to be a complicated whip/sword fight but Harrison Ford was deadly sick that day (take a look at him in the film he looks like he’s about to fall over) so he said “Why don’t I just shoot him instead?”
I’d go with “Last Crusade” (though Raiders - esp because of Karen Allen - runs a very close second) .
The fun of “Last Crusade” is that both Indy and his father have scenes where they do incredibly dumb but nonetheless funny things.
Sean Connery shoots off the tail section of his own airplane, Indy lets “the book” fall into Nazi hands, etc.
My favorite is The Last Crusade mostly because of Sean Connery. I also like the background information we get regarding his childhood, relationship with father, etc. It’s also the funniest.
I used to like The Temple of Doom when I was a youngen mostly because of the gross out factor. I still like it but not as much as the other two.
[i[Raiders* is pretty good as well. I always had a problem with the scene in the ship though. I can’t really explain why but it just didn’t fit for me in the movie. Other than that, good flick.
Well, my favorite is The Last Crusade. In addition to giving some history to the character (“We named the dog Indiana”), I thought it made both Indy and his father seem like real people. You totally understand how their personalities are so very similar that they almost can’t stand each other, but love each other nonetheless.
Also, any movie with both Harrison Ford and Sean Connery is way up there in my books.
**Raiders ** would be the best in my opinion, but just slightly better then Last Crusade. It just seemed to have the perfect blend of action, comedy story, etc while Last Crusade for some reason doesn’t work exactly as well.
I like Temple of Doom, but it isn’t nearly as good for a number of reasons:
[list=a]
[li]Willie is annoying[/li][li]The setting doesn’t quite grab you as much as Pre-WW2 Europe[/li][li]It seems to drag at points, particulary that long sequence where Indy becomes pocessed [/li][li]Nazis are much better villains then cult members[/li][li]The whole sequence with the bugs was just disgusting(but then again, I don’t particulary like bugs)[/li][/list]
I like ROTLA best, then LC, then TOD. Raiders had the biggest dissapointment for me. When the Nazi flying wing showed up on screen I was trilled at the prospect of seeing it fly (even if it would only be special effects). Instead, they blew the @#$% thing up! I sat slack-jawed for a few minutes after that. I had to see the movie again to see what I missed.
I liked Raiders of the Lost Ark best. The Last Crusade was nice as well, but especially one thing still bugs me. After that movie virtually everybody thinks it is an accepted fact that the Grail and the cup of Joseph of Arimathea are neccessarily the same thing. In my opinion trying to settle this question doesn’t even make much sense to begin with, but even if they had to choose one version, I am not sure this was the best one. Ok, a healing potion was very convenient for the plot and it is more or less compatible with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but I am still not completely convinced.
Ah! But I contest that without Temple of Doom, the Pre-WW2 Europe setting would have been overdone. Since there were no Nazis in Temple of Doom, it made the third Jones Movie and its return to the tested and tried formula that much better.
That said, I like the third one best for the already mentioned great lines in it.
Plot-wise, it stands out from the other two in one very, very important way: Indie’s actions directly influence the outcome of the movie. In Raiders and Last Crusade, he could’ve just kicked back, drank some scotch, and the bad guys would’ve wound up defeating themselves anyway (divine light killed Nazi’s in Raiders, and they couldn’t even take the grail beyond the seal in Crusade).
Now, I understand that the climax of those two movies was unimportant compared to the trials and tests that Indie went through in his adventures, but ultimately it leaves Indie’s actions feeling insignificant, to me.
In Temple, however, his actions directly lead to the defeat of the evil cult and restoration of peace and blah blah. This makes him come off as seeming like a much stronger character.
Plus, the imagery! The shot of Indie atop the rope bridge with dozens of sword-wielding bad guys… no other shot in the trilogy even COMPARES to how fuckin’ awesome that was.
Also, I had forgotten how badly Indiana fucks people up -
-The dude getting hit by the propeller in Raiders
-The rock crusher in ToD
-The dude getting run over by the truck in Raiders
-and of course God melting the Nazis faces off.
-The sword dude
and of course the dozens of generic low-level goons he shoots, stabs, whips, blows up and throws off of great heights
Crusade had the hottest Jones girl but Karen Allen was the best. Kate Capshaw just sucked.
I liked that Last Crusade brought back some of the familiar characters from RotLA - Marcus, John Rhyes Davis character. The Hitler scene and the “no ticket” scenes were pretty funny too.
Damn, yes. Alison Doody was incredibly beautiful (and maybe still is, haven’t seen her since that flick that I can recall)
In that scene in the library, Indiana is looking for the roman numeral X, and saying something like “Where’s the ten? Where’s the ten?” I wanted to shout “She’s standing next to you!”
Actually, I went to the first expecting to hate it. I had heard so much about Star Wars and when I finally saw it, was underwhelmed (blasphemy!) So when I heard great things about Raiders, I expected it to suck… And was surprised at just how great it was. I really enjoyed it.
I have a really unpopular view on the Indiana Jones trilogy. I actually thought that Temple of Doom was everyone’s favorite until I posted it here a couple of years ago.
Let me explain.
Temple of Doom played on HBO every single day of Christmas break when I was in the second grade. I absolutely fell in love with it then and so it holds sentimental value for me to this day. This is my favorite.
I was old enough to see The Last Crusade in the theatre and boy was it a sight! Great action, great visuals, great pacing, and good comedy make this my second favorite. A very close second.
Now, Raiders of the Lost Ark - I have to admit I’ve only seen this once. I’ve been meaning to watch it again and I might just rent it tonight because of this thread. I didn’t like it when I saw it. I could be way off, which is why I want to watch it again, but this is how I remember Raiders:
FADE IN
Boring boring boring - Indy gets captured by the Nazis - Boring - Indy escapes - Boring - captured - boring - escapes - captured - escapes - captured - escapes - ends predictably and with really bad special effects.
FADE OUT
Like I said, I’m willing to give it another shot but that’s how I remember it.
