Movie Review: 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'

“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, Ke Huy Quan

After the successful theatrical run of 1981’s  “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” executive producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg began developing the second installment of the Indiana Jones film series. They considered various story ideas (a haunted castle in Scotland, a “lost world” scenario with dinosaurs), all of which were discarded in favor of an India-based quest for the sacred Sankara Stones.

Lucas intended “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” to be darker in tone than “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He wanted the second installment in the Indiana Jones series to be the thematic equivalent of  the “Star Wars” trilogy’s “The Empire Strikes Back.”  As it turned out, “Temple of Doom” became too dark: the story features a highly fictionalized version of the Thuggee cult, child slavery, and human sacrifices.  

Shanghai: 1935

Since Spielberg and Lucas did not want to revisit “Raiders of the Lost Ark” territory (no Nazis, no Marion Ravenwood), “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” is set in 1935, one year before the events in “Raiders.”

As in the first film, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” follows the pattern of the James Bond films by introducing archaeologist/fortune hunter Indy (Harrison Ford) at the climax of a previous adventure. This time around, Indy is in Shanghai’s swanky Club Obi-Wan, where a local gangster, Lao Che (Roy Chiao) and his goons are waiting on him to complete a somewhat shady transaction. Lao wants the ashes of a long-dead Chinese emperor of the Manchu dynasty. In exchange, he has promised to pay Indy with a large and rare diamond.

(Though the film never makes this clear, the diamond Lao Che is supposed to pay Indiana with is the legendary Peacock’s Eye, which once belonged to Alexander the Great. This diamond is the McGuffin in “Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye.”)

Before making the trade, Lao introduces Indy to the club;s new American singer, Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), a gorgeous, sometimes sarcastic and always high-strung woman from Missouri. She’s also Lao’s girlfriend and doesn’t like Indy at first.

Willie: Aren't you gonna introduce us?

Lao Che: This is Willie Scott; this is Indiana Jones, a famous archaeologist.

Willie: Well I always thought that archaeologists were always funny looking men going around looking for their mommies.

Indiana: Mummies.

Unfortunately for Indy, Lao has no intention of keeping his end of the bargain. He  already made a failed attempt to steal the emperor’s ashes prior to the meeting; now he reneges on the deal.;

Indy barely survives Lao’s attempt to poison him and, taking a reluctant Willie along, he escapes from Lao’s club. Jumping out of a window, the two land in a car driven by 12-year-old Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), an orphan Indy “adopted” after a Japanese bombing raid on Shanghai.

After a series of close calls involving car chases, shootouts, and a plane crash in the Himalayas, Indy’s motley crew ends up in British-ruled India. There, Dr. Jones, Willie, and Short Round  go on a quest for an Indian village's sacred stone, which has been stolen by evil Thugee followers of the Kali cult.

Indy is at first reluctant to go on this quest.  However, when the villagers tell the archaeologist and his two companions that the followers of Kali, now based in Pankot Palace, have stolen their children, Jones agrees to pay the new Maharajah of Pankot a visit.

His interest is peaked when a dying young escapee arrives at the village and hands Indy a scrap of cloth with a fragment of tapestry. Reading a Sanskrit inscription and looking at the pictographs on the cloth, Indiana discovers that the villagers' sacred stone is one of five Sankara stones, left to men by the Hindu god Shiva. When a puzzled Short Round asks Indy what a Sankara stone represents, the professor/adventurer replies, "Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."

But Indy's quest for "fortune and glory" takes a disturbing turn when the trio reaches Pankot Palace. The prime minister, Chattar Lal (Roshan Seth) appears to be just another Oxford-trained Indian bureaucrat, but in reality he's one of Kali priest Mola Ram's (Amrish Puri) lieutenants. Soon, Indy, Short Round and Willie go from honored guests to prisoners when they discover the goings-on behind the high walls of Pankot Palace.

Of course, since the film is a prequel to "Raiders of the Lost Ark," viewers know that Indiana Jones will live to fight (and love) another day, but not before he and his companions are tested in ways that they never imagined. Human sacrifices, bug-infested tunnels, and a rope bridge suspended high over a raging river in India are just a few of the perils facing Indy, Willie and Short Round in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." 

My Take:

Let me be clear about "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." It's not a bad Indiana Jones movie. It isn't a bad Steven Spielberg movie, either. And, all things considered, it is not a by-the-numbers sequel (or prequel, for that matter) that merely rehashes stuff from its predecessor film without any sense of originality whatsoever, which is the sin that many Hollywood-made "sequels" commit.

A case in point: Where "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was a globe-trotting travelogue that takes Indy from South America to the United States, then Nepal, Egypt, and an unnamed island in the Mediterranean, most of the action in "Temple of Doom" takes place in India. More to the point, our hero, trusty sidekick, and love-interest-of-the-moment face off against Mola Ram and the Thuggee cult in one scary and formidable setting: Pankot Palace.

And while George Lucas and Steven Spielberg gave Indy (and the audience) unforgettably scary bits such as the 7,000 snakes in the Well of Souls and the "face melting" finale where Belloq and the Nazis get their comeuppance for opening the Ark of the Covenant in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," they truly chilled us in "Temple of Doom" with the gross food choices at the Maharajah's banquet ("Chilled monkey brains!"), the human sacrifice scene where Mola Ram literally tears a victim's heart out of his chest, or the aforementioned passageway that is literally crawling with bugs.

On many levels, then, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is a good movie. It's not my favorite of the four movies that have been made so far, but it is enjoyable, especially if you like old-school romantic comedies where the two leads have a strong mutual attraction that they hide behind a constant exchange of wryly witty barbs. 

Indiana Jones: You know what your problem is, Princess? You're too used to getting your own way.

Willie: And you're too proud to admit that you're crazy about me, Dr. Jones!

Indiana Jones: If you want me, Willie, you know where to find me.

Willie: Five minutes. You'll be back over here in five minutes.

Indiana Jones: I'll be asleep in five minutes.

Willie: Five. You know it, and I know it.

Oddly enough, in the making-of documentary that is included in the extra features disc of the 2003 DVD set and the five-disc "Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures" Blu-ray box set, Steven Spielberg admits that "Temple of Doom" is his least favorite entry in the series. He says that the best thing about the movie is that met Kate Capshaw, his future wife, during its production, but he doesn't enjoy it as much as he does "Raiders of the Lost Ark."  

Source. Peacock’s Eye

Blu-ray Specs

• Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: December 17, 2013
• Run Time: 118 minutes