Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) by Spangle — 08 Jun 2017

"Dr. Jones, I am an Asian child stereotype!".

-Short Round, probably.

Oh look at the ritualistic satanic foreigners who have some kind of mystic and magical power! Oh look at the dumb bimbo blonde who breaks her nails and shrieks at"Dr. Jones, I am an Asian child stereotype!".

-Short Round, probably.

Oh look at the ritualistic satanic foreigners who have some kind of mystic and magical power! Oh look at the dumb bimbo blonde who breaks her nails and shrieks at everything! Racist, insensitive, and sexist, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom still remains a terrific little adventure film. With fun action scenes, banter, and a charismatic turn from Harrison Ford, Temple of Doom may be a lot darker and more violent than even Steven Spielberg liked, but it is still a very campy and fun film that delivers all of the Indiana Jones spills and thrills anticipated courtesy of great action set pieces and his iconic lasso.

What is always striking about the Indiana Jones films is that they are both compelling romps through archaeological legends and rip roaring good times nonetheless. While the archaeology is hardly a focus of the films, the mythology always is and Spielberg continuously delivers compelling and fun mythology. Here, the film is set in India with a magic rock missing that is being used by a Kali worshipping occult group that sacrifices people to honor Kali. Sent in to find the magic rocks and put a stop to this group of weirdos, Dr. Jones faces some considerable pushback from this demonic underworld while running about with Asian child sidekick Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan) and blonde bimbo Willie (Kate Capshaw). While the film's beats are hardly different from Raiders of the Lost Ark in this prequel, the film's fun energy and blending of this mythology with excellent action set pieces consistently sets this one apart from other dumb blockbusters with half-hearted mythology that never lends itself to the action. Instead, the mythology and legend of the film is always given room to breathe and is always given the time of day instead of being squandered by focusing solely on the action. As a result, it is a blockbuster with a fun and unique plot that has great action instead of a hollow piece of trash that is just action with no substance whatsoever.

That is not to say the film is not flawed, nonetheless. While dripping with historical mythology, the film does still get a bit too wrapped up in the action as it reaches the end of the second act. From the point where Indy drinks to the blood to when they get off the bridge, the film barrels full speed towards its climax and falling action with reckless abandon. The set pieces are all very nice, but just become too much to become far too long. While the scenes all serve a purpose, they just go on for far too long and for a non-action junkie, though the scenes are truly excellent pieces of filmmaking, it just felt like Spielberg opted to ditch that aforementioned strength in focusing evenly on action and mythology in the name of just going balls to the wall with action scenes. It is a sadly hollow result, no matter how nice they look (aside from the severely dated special effects on the bridge that are hysterical, especially when that chief demon heart ripper out guy hits the mountain).

The film's flaws continue to its various cultural issues both in the stereotypical comic relief antics of the young Short Round, but perhaps the worst is Willie. A blonde bimbo who worries about breaking her nails, the character smacks of Spielberg having just watched Alien and thinking, "Ha! Women could never do that." Though he is hardly a misogynistic filmmaker, the character of Willie is certainly one of his worst with her just there to provide cleavage and comedy about how useless women are in "manly" situations. She screams when it will reveal their position, is too weak to get on elephants like young boys can do easily, she freaks out with bugs, and has to be shown how to do literally anything. Oh and she also is just there to flirt with Indy and use suggestive innuendo. Charming character, to say the least. The writing is hardly the reason to see this film, but this piece was just above and beyond terrible.

Fun, action-packed, and excellently anchored by Harrison Ford, the Temple of Doom may be a stepback from Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it is a good film nonetheless. That said, I do miss everybody from the original film and wish this were not a prequel, even if the Nazis would have needed to be involved in this film (as Spielberg makes it sound, if it were a sequel). Rather offensive to Hindus and women alike, the film is otherwise harmless fun with excellent blockbuster filmmaking by Spielberg with fun and inventive set pieces, smart mythology, and the perfect establishment of stakes to give this one considerable weight. Though imperfect, Temple of Doom is nonetheless another fun Indiana Jones film.