World Weary Indiana Jones must choose… WISELY

June 1st, 2008

A review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
by Pastor James Harleman
Starring Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Rated PG-13

Preppy teenagers cruise along in a 50s roadster, urging the square-jawed men with serious faces next to them to loosen up and enjoy the ride. The latest Indiana Jones installment, with a 65-year old Harrison Ford reprising his role as the archeologist/adventurer, opens with a whimsy and nostalgia that beckons us to do the same. The film plays early on with reflections and nods to the previous installments, and tests whether we’re ready to go for another serial-inspired expedition into the world George Lucas and Steven Spielberg birthed more than 25 years ago.

I revisited Raiders of the Lost Ark the weekend before “Skull” opened, to glean some fresh perspective on the classic versus carrying a few decades of accrued childhood warmth into my expectations. Raiders is fun but clunky, awkward in places yet always entertaining. It still holds a place in my list of top 10 films. However, it is not perfect, or entirely even; despite its flaws and age, however, it has an undeniable charm and energizing spirit that pervades and lingers as John Williams’ score trumpets at the credit roll.

So, with the worn, trusty Indiana hat dusted off, I saw the fourth flick downtown with friends at Seattle’s famous Cinerama, hopped up on Top Pot Donuts and sweetened coffee. Collectively, feelings were mixed, but although it was a bit of a bumpy ride (much like the kids in the 50s roadster, bounding over country fields) overall I was unsatisfied. Certainly not as good as the original, inspired piece of pop culture offered up in the 80s, the journey to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a lukewarm reunion of Jones and the generation raised on his machismo.

After scuffling with commies at a mysterious hanger in nuclear testing territory, Jones finds himself under the scrutiny of McCarthy era Feds who question his allegiance, even for the military service we find out he gave during World War 2. When Jones runs into Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), a greaser with ties to a few of Indy’s old friends, he realizes that the Reds are after a crystal skull that has some connection to El Dorado, the fabled City of Gold. Traveling to the Amazon, reunited with old friends and discovering new family, the aged adventurer must come to terms with loss, mistakes and regret… and in the process he finds new things to fight for, and new things to live for.

The movie is at its best in the human moments, particularly near the beginning at Indiana’s home when the University Dean muses “we’re in the season when life stops giving and starts taking away”. Portraits of familiar, lost loved ones line the Professor’s desk. Running, jumping, and fighting like a piece of old shoe leather, Ford still looks good both giving and receiving the usual Jones punishment, and the addition of his young friend Mutt plays surprisingly well. Jones and Mutt skulking through a South American cemetery gives us perhaps the most nostalgic sense of the classic hero and the first film.

Where the film really drops the ball is when (perhaps inspired by sillier co-producer Lucas) Spielberg makes it hard to suspend our disbelief. Although Indiana’s world is not ours, it has its own set of rules and physics; I remember people complained about Temple of Doom, and that when they bailed out of the plane using a rubber raft, they had “gone too far”. In Crystal Skull, there are at least three beats that go beyond the pale, and scenes involving a major appliance, vines, and waterfalls seem unnecessary. The film is fun in its old Saturday matinee-style without these excesses, especially when Indiana finds something to love again and goes from grim to glee. So does the audience, and we can forgive the film’s missteps because that’s exactly what Indiana Jones has always been about: making it up as he goes along, screwing it up, but getting right back on the horse, smirking through his world-weary exterior.

The film smartly avoids hiding Ford’s age, and despite the distractions of elongated skulls and lost cities, communists and ravenous red ants, the plot points of “how we age” and “what we live for” become the film’s true undercurrents. The themes are reminiscent of the second Star Trek movie; just as an aged starship captain the audience was familiar with had to face age, family, losing friends, and a lifetime of questionable choices, the adventurous Jones must realize what is really important in life. At a gathering near film’s end, a character muses “how much of our life do we lose to waiting?” Jones has always been questing and seeking, but somehow missed the most important things.

It’s frightening to think we might waste our lives seeking the wrong things. Things that don’t satisfy; things that even lead to death. The villains in the film are seeking keys to knowledge, power, and control, and none of these lead to anything other than destruction. The even more terrifying thought is not only that we MISS what satisfies completely, but worse: we suppress it… and we push it away. In the film, Jones doesn’t even sleuth out the truth; the truth of his life comes crashing down around him when he least expects it, and revelation lands in his lap. Fortunately, this time he embraces it.

Thank God for revelation.