The Culture Beat

The big question for many folks is: Can Harrison Ford still make us believe he’s an action hero? Somewhere along the way, all male action stars face the inevitable encroachment of mortality as joints stiffen, waistlines expand and facial features (except for Cary Grant’s) fill out and sag. Ford’s famously lean, grim visage now clearly exhibits both the years and the milage and what was once a smoothly tanned face with deep set eyes now looks–tired. But the sparkle still returns to those eyes in moments that remind us that he’s ready for one more–and final–big adventure.

Longtime readers recall my sceptism of getting the same dynamic performance that Ford could deliver in the 1980s. Even with stuntmen doing the heavy lifting and jumping, would we remark at how spry the 65 year-old actor is for his age? And what about the time shift, from the pre-war era of pulp adventure to the Jet Age? Set in 1957, was an Indiana Jones picture simply believable any more?

Anyone going to the film should check their trepidations at the door, the better to hold their supersized popcorn and gallon soda, which you will need because this is a popcorn movie. Filmmakers and fathers of the modern blockbuster movies Steven Spielberg and George Lucas know the degree of difficulty they face and much of the movie’s dialogue acknowleges its hero’s age. “Nothing’s as easy as it used to be,” remarks Indy in one of his first lines. After the introduction of the films baddies, brazen Commie raiders of hidden artifacts on an American military base, we are off to the races as an aged Indy proves just as formidable if not quite as adept at judging distances.

As to my concerns about placing our hero in a world of tailfinned and chrome vehicles of the latter 50s, it works pretty well especially given that the youth audience seeing the film are watching a world as far from their experience as the 1930s were to the original audiences of the first films. The scenes in Indy’s college-town are shot with a gauzy filter that is distinct from the earlier films, one of the few departures from the series’ visual style.

And rather than seeking an object of exotic supernatural power, the film adapts to the times and though still “otherworldly,” the Crystal Skull is an object fitting for the era of 1950s popular culture. We still see lots of ancient ruins and death traps but Lucas and Spielberg smartly chose a new angle on the film’s MacGuffin.

Let’s be plain about the film: Raiders of the Lost Ark is easily the best film of the lot and it’s sequels merely try variations with its template. Audiences expect certain elements at certain points along the way.

Exotic object that propels the plot? Check.
Sinister foreign agents also seeking said object? Check
Travels to exotic lands traced with red line on map with planes superimposed? Check
Fight in recklessly racing vehicles? Check
Indy fighting larger antagonist until bad thug violently destroyed by another means other than Indy? Check
One to two grossout scenes? Check
Bad guys beat Indy to said object and learn too late to be careful what they wish for? Check
Indy involved with significant others who share risk of quest? Uh huh.

This time it’s Shia Lebeouf, the young rising star of last summer’s biggest hit, Transformers, as a biker kid named Mutt whose mother sends him to find Indy to help her, thus launching the plot after Indy is maligned by CIA agents for possibly being a pinko, the liberal producers’ inevitable reference to the Red Scare and blacklisting. Lebeouf continues his emergence as the go-to kid for targeting the youth audience and it’s fun to see such a bright talent succeed yet again. Karen Allen, looking great, returns as Marion Ravenwood to help close the loop on one of the great unconcluded relationships in film history.

The years since the last Indy film saw the rise of CGI animation to allow special effects that were too costly or inpractical in former times. The Indiana Jones films were mostly stunt-based in their attractions as they were intended as tributes to the old-fashioned masters of Hollywood’s Golden Age of real stunts by masters such as Yakima Kanute. In one chase sequence through the jungle, the foliage flying past the speeding vehicles and the cliff they precariously run along both look surprisingly fuzzy and insubtantial reminding us that this must have been shot using green screens and pixels. But for the most part, it appears real practical sets were used to draw us into Indy’s dangerous world.

Ford has said that this is his last Indiana Jones film and he’s smart to say never again–he has nothing more to prove–he’s a star who may have learned that it’s time to ride off into the sunset for real this time. He’s already finished his next film and I hope he can ease into roles that don’t require him to run and leap beyond the realms of credibility–his “dad” Sean Connery learned to bow out a few years ago and I hope he can too. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a great farewell to all that.