Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Of all the films in the Indiana Jones series, this is the one I have the most mixed feelings about. On one hand, it has some of the best action sequences of the series and is overall a thrilling adventure story but at the same time it's also very problematic in it's depiction of Indian culture and seems oddly preoccupied with grossing out it's audience. 

We pick up with Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) in 1935 Shanghai at Club Obi-Wan (cute) to exchange an ancient artifact for a diamond with a local gangster. The deal goes south and the dance club winds up descending into a riot as Indy narrowly makes his escape with lounge singer Willie Scott (played by Kate Capshaw) in tow. They're picked up by Indy's pint size sidekick, Short Round (played by Ke Huy Quan), and manage to escape by airplane. However, their plane crashes over the Himalayas and the trio find themselves in a desolate Indian village outside of Pankot. The village elders tell Indy that the village's children were stolen along with the village's sacred Sankara stone, causing the area to slowly die. Indy reluctantly agrees to help and the three agree head to Pankot palace, where they come face to face with the horrors of the Thuggee cult, led by the vicious Mola Ram (played by Amrish Puri). 

For the follow-up, George Lucas once again crafted the general storyline of the film, with the script written by his American Graffiti co-writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. The film is set in 1935, one year prior to Raiders, for no discernible reason except to inadvertently cause some rather glaring plot holes, such as why does Indy not believe in the supernatural in Raiders when he directly witnesses it repeatedly in Temple of Doom. Also, what the hell happened to Short Round? Anyway, the film is also a decidedly darker entry in the series than the ones that came before and after the film. This was done in part because Lucas had seen it work out well for the original Star Wars trilogy and wanted to repeat the pattern here. The move actually worked for me for the most part and I didn't mind the darker tone, although the film does still have a fair amount of humor to it. They also come up with some great action sequences to populate the film from the opening Club Obi-Wan riot (shades of 1941 there), to Indy, Willie and Short Round bailing out of a crashing plane in an inflatable yellow rubber raft that they proceed to ride down a snowy mountainside, go off a cliff on and land in a raging river, a mine car chase where the phrase "Rollercoaster ride of a movie" becomes all too literal and a climactic showdown on a deteriorating rope bridge high over a river full of hungry crocodiles. 

However, there are aspects of the film that I do have a problem with. The depiction of India in the film and Indian culture was so problematic that the Indian government actually refused Spielberg and Lucas permission to actually shoot the film in India. To be fair, India did have a good reason not to. In the film, the Indian people are either depicted as poor, starving and generally helpless or as cult worshiping savages whose idea of haute cuisine is eating large beetles, live snakes, eyeball soup and for dessert chilled monkey brains served directly from the decapitated monkey head. On top of that, Indy, Willie and Short Round then contend with cavern tunnels swarming with millions of assorted disgusting bugs. Still, in the end, the film is still rather goofy and over the top in a way that it's probably not worth getting too worked up over, especially as the film is now 34 years old. 

The performances are generally good, with Harrison Ford once again in fine form as hero Indiana Jones. Ke Huy Quan does a great turn as Short Round and manages to make the character both endearing and entertaining as a good sidekick for Indy. However, trouble comes in the form of Kate Capshaw as Willie Scott. Now, this is more of the fault of the writers that Capshaw, but Willie Scott for the bulk of the film is rather irritating. Screaming and complaining the whole time to both Indy and Short Round. The idea was to have a character who was the direct opposite of the rough and tumble, badass Marion Ravenwood, but they went too far in the other direction here, crafting a character that was just annoying. But at least Kate Capshaw was really good at being annoying so take that for what you will. Amrish Puri made for a memorable villain in the film and I could tell he was having fun playing an over the top baddie in the film as well.  

Overall, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is more of a mixed bag for me. It contains some of my all time favorite action sequences in the film and I did enjoy the partnership of Indy and Short Round. It has a darker edge to it, so dark in fact that it was partially responsible for inspiring the PG-13 rating (along with Gremlins). It also has some aspects to it that really bug me, no pun intended. While I am still able to enjoy it, it is not my favorite of the series.