I persist in loving Temple of Doom, and here's why: It's a completely over-the-top farce, when what everyone wanted was Raiders of Another Lost Ark. It's a playpen for Spielberg, and a gathering place for all the stuff he wanted to do in Raiders but couldn't. Everything is the reverse of Raiders — Kate Capshaw is everything Karen Allen wasn't: a stereotypical brassy helpless dame from the '30s. I understand why everyone hates it, but I think it's got some of Spielberg's funniest, most exciting set pieces, and some of his most playful filmmaking. This is not a rebuttal to you so much as an explanation of why at least one person digs it so much.
As to Indy's acceptance of the power of the Sankara Stones vs. his later skepticism about the Ark, I always read that as Indy being skeptical about anything he hasn't seen firsthand. He was skeptical about the Sankara Stones until he saw what they could do. So basically it was 'Hmm, maybe this Hindu stuff isn't all superstition.' In Raiders he was the same way about Xianity — or, perhaps more specifically, Hebraic beliefs — until he saw the power of the Ark.
So in the trilogy you have Judaism, Hinduism, and Xianity (the Grail). The new one seems to focus on ...I dunno, aliens and psychic phenomena? I guess they ran out of world religions, or didn't think a movie about Islam or Buddhism would fly.
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Date: 2008-05-21 09:50 pm (UTC)As to Indy's acceptance of the power of the Sankara Stones vs. his later skepticism about the Ark, I always read that as Indy being skeptical about anything he hasn't seen firsthand. He was skeptical about the Sankara Stones until he saw what they could do. So basically it was 'Hmm, maybe this Hindu stuff isn't all superstition.' In Raiders he was the same way about Xianity — or, perhaps more specifically, Hebraic beliefs — until he saw the power of the Ark.
So in the trilogy you have Judaism, Hinduism, and Xianity (the Grail). The new one seems to focus on ...I dunno, aliens and psychic phenomena? I guess they ran out of world religions, or didn't think a movie about Islam or Buddhism would fly.