So, I've been neglecting this blog this month unfortunately as I've been caught up with other stuff but I thought I would get at least one post done before the month is out. So, I figured I would do a review based on an old blog post on this channel on the sequel (or prequel) to Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
So, this film tends to be considered the weakest of the original trilogy (I think anyway!) but let's see how it fairs 41 years on...
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the story begins in 1935 in Shanghai (set a year before Raiders) where Indy (Harrison Ford) encounters Chinese crime boss, Lao Che (Roy Chiao) in a nightclub, where he does a deal for a diamond and to give Lae the ashes of a former Chinese emperor. However Lao poisons Indy's drink and taunts him with the antidode, and forces him into giving back his diamond, Indy then kills one Lao's sons, and a big fight ensues, where Indy ends up fleeing with an American nightclub singer, Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) by diving out a window, and they both crash into a car driven by Indy's 11 year old sidekick, Short Round (Johnathan Ke Quan) who is outside waiting for them.
After escaping Lao's men, Indy, Willie and Short Round make it onto a plane and escape as Lao arrives on the scene, but unknown to Indy, the plane is owned by Lao's airline. Once in the air, the pilots (who work for Lao) quietly jump out the plane using parachutes to leave the plane to crash into the Himalayas. Indy, Willie and Short Round barely escape death by using a lifeboat they dive out of the plane, and land in the rough waters, but they eventually come to rest in the river of a poor desolate village in India, where they are met by an old Indian man, Shaman (Don Ruter Nanayakkara).
Shaman takes them into his
village, which is run down and the villagers are starving as their crops
have dried out, and they are missing a sacred stone, which would bring
vitality to their village again, and also their children have been taken
away for slave labour to a place called Pankot palace. The Shaman asks
Indy for his help in finding the sacred stone and freeing the children,
to which Indy soon agrees to and takes a reluctant Willie, and Short
Round with him.
On arriving at Pankot, Indy, Willie and Shorty (to abbreviate!) are
given a warm welcome by the Prime Minister of the Maharaja of Pankot,
Chattar Lal (Roshan Seth) who invites to a palace banquet. At the
banquet, Indy meets the Maharaja (Raj Singh) who is just a 13 year old
boy, and the food at the banquet is a rather gross mix of animal
feasts such as baby snakes, monkey brains, large beetles and eyeball
soup.
After the banquet is over, Indy and Willie start to
show a bit of a spark as they share a kiss and look set to spend the night together but Willie is annoyed by
Indy's arrogance and tells him to get out. Back in his room Indy is
nearly killed by a palace guard who tries to garotte him, by Indy manages
to kill him with his whip and hang him from a ceiling fan. Indy races
back into Willie's room and
checks around it and soon finds a secret passage way that leads into a
series of tunnels. Indy and Shorty check out the passage and find it is
covered in bugs, and they end up unwittingly in a trap room, with some
spikes coming out ceiling and the roof slowly coming down on them.
Willie reluctantly braving the bug infested passageway, goes in and
saves Indy and Short from being squished by releasing a trap door lever
the raises the ceiling again, and let's them out.
Indy, Willie and Shorty then progress through underground tunnels and
soon come to a temple, where they see a Thuggee cult ceremony take place,
lead by the high priest Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) who performs a human
sacrifice to the Hindu goddess, Kali, by ripping out the heart of a
sacrificia victim, who they cast into a lava pit. After the sacrifice
we see that the cult have three of the five Sankara stones, and once the
ceremony is finished, Indy makes his way down and takes the stones, but
he and the others are soon captured.
Mola Ram forces Indy to see his view point, which is that he wants to recover all five Sankara stones, so the Thugee cult can rule the world, with the children taken from the village, being used as slave labour to mine for the missing two stones. As for Willie, she is set to be sacrificed, and Shorty is put down in the mines to work, and Indy is forced to drink the blood of Kali, which puts him in a trance state, where he obeys Mola Ram and follows Kali without question.
Indy still in the trance, seals Willie in the cage to be lowered into the lava pit, and Shorty, who manages to escape the mines, eventually saves Indy, by purging his trance like state, with fire. After this Indy's conscious is restored and he rescues Willie and fights off the guards, and then sets about freeing the children from the mines, by knocking out the guards, but he ends up in a big fight with one of the head guards (played by Pat Roach). To make matters worse, the Maharaja, who is also under the influence of Kali, uses a voodoo doll of Indy and a knife to twist in, to wrack Indy in pain. But Shorty saves the day by fighting off the Maharaja, and restoring him to normal by using fire as well.
Afterward, Indy, Willie and Shorty escape into the mines on a mine cart, only to be given chase by Mola Ram's guards, who they manage to evade. However Mola Ram has his guards break down the dam in the temple, which floods the tunnels with water, and pretty soon it catches up with Indy and his pals, but they manage to escape outside and climb up to the mountain top, and cross an old ropey bridge, where they encounter Mola Ram for the last time...
THOUGHTS
The Temple of Doom is undoubtedly a very entertaining ride, and Steven Spielberg manages to keep the action thick and fast, even more so here than in Raiders. Although it does have to be said the violence in the film is pretty strong and there were several scenes that were also censored in the UK cinema release and even on DVD, most notably the scene where Mola Ram rips the heart out of the sacrificial victim and we see him being cast into the pit catching fire, as well as Indy being viciously whipped and beaten up by Mola Ram's main guard. It is pretty strong stuff for a PG rated film at the time, and it acutally preempted the creation of the American censor board's PG-13 certificate (as well as Gremlins did at that time also), the film also since has been released on Blu-ray in the UK and now has a 12 certificate. But none of this takes away from the sheer fun and entertainment than Temple of Doom offers, and there is plenty of that on display.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers!)
As for the cast, they are all on good form here.
Starting with Harrison Ford, who is great once again as Indiana Jones, the adventurous archaeologist who ends up fighting against the evil cult in order to save a local Indian village.
Ford himself of course has plenty of good scenes such as the one where after having escaped Lao's men and is on a plane (piloted unbeknownst to Indy by Lao's pilots) he changes from his suave tuxedo into his usual outfit. So, as he walks in on Willie, she asks "What are you supposed to be some sort of lion tamer??" and Indy tells her "I let you tag along, so why don't you give your mouth a rest, OK, doll?". Willie then spits back "What do you mean tag along?! Ever since you entered my club you weren't able to take your eyes off me!". So, Indy then looks at her and says "Oh yeah??" and he puts his hat over his face and lies back to go to sleep.
Then there is the scene where Indy looks at the cloth that the starving slave child gives Indy, detailing the Sankara stones. So, at night Indy looks at it and Shorty asks him "Little boy escaped from the evil palace, many other children there, what do we do, Doctor Jones?". Indy thinks for a moment and does the "something on your shirt" joke with Shorty and he says "I think that someone believes the good luck rock from this village is one of the Sankara stones". Short then asks "What is Sankara?" and Indy says with a smiles on his face "Fortune and glory, kid! Fortune and glory".
However then there is the contrary scene where Indy and Willie do begin to show their feelings for one another at Pankot palace. So, in the scene after they kiss, Willie says to Indy "You'll never have better" and and Indy says "I don't know, as a scientist I don't want to prejudice my experiment, I'll tell you in the morning". So, as Indy goes over to close the door, Willie annoyed says "Why, you conceited ape! I'm not that easy!" and Indy says to her "Well, I'm not that easy either. The trouble with you Willie is your too used to getting your own way" and Indy walks out. So, as Indy crosses to his room, Willie shouts after him "And you're just too proud to admit your crazy about me Dr Jones!" and Indy turns and says "If you want me, Willie, you know where you can find me". Willie then says "Five minutes! You'll be back here in five minutes!" and Indy says "I'll be asleep in five minutes" and Willie says "Five, you know and I know it!" and Indy heads into his room.
And then we have the funny scene where Indy and Shorty trapped in a room where the ceiling beings to collapse on them with spikes appearing on the roof. So, Indy shouts to Willie for help and tells her to find a lever to release the door but as the spikes start to appear Indy shouts "This is serious!!". So, as Willie arrives, Indy tells her "There must be a release lever somewhere" and Willie looks and sees the release lever but it is filled with bugs. So, as Indy says to her "Feel inside!" Willie says "YOU feel inside!" and Indy firmly says "Do it now!" and Willie says "OK!!". So, as the trap literally closes in on Indy and Short Round, Indy pleads with her "Willie...we are going to DIE!!".
Then there is the scene where Indy under the influence of the blood of Kali, Short Round turns up only for Indy to hit him and Short Round picks up a torch and says "Indy, I love you! Wake up, Indy!" and he burns Indy's chest with the flame, who cries out in pain but we soon see him come to his senses. So, as Mola Ram's men are about to kill Shorty, Indy says "Wait! He's mine!" and he grabs Shorty aside and says quietly "I'm alright, kid" and he winks and the two of them defeat the guards. So, afterward, Indy gives Shorty a hug and says "I'm sorry, kid" and Willie having been rescued from the firey pit says "Let's get out of here" and Indy turns her and says "Right...all of us!".
Then there is the scene near the end where Indy who is surrounded by Mola Ram's men on the old wooden bridge suspended over a mountain warns them off as he holds a sabre aloft and threatens to use it as he holds the Shankara stones. So, in the scene Indy says to Mola Ram "You want the stones let them go! Let em' go!" but Mola Ram laughs and says "Drop them, Dr Jones! They will be found! YOU won't!". So, as Mola Ram's men advance on Indy, he calls out to Shorty and speaks to him in Mandarin, as Indy wraps he leg around one of the old ropes of the bridge. So, Shorty and Willie wraps their wrists around the rope of the bridge, as Indy raises his sabre above his head and says "Mola Ram, prepare to meet Khali in hell!" and he cuts the rope on the bridge, severing the bridge in half.
And last of all is the scene where Indy, Willie and Shorty make it back to the village safely with all the enslaved children. So, as Indy gives the stone to the Shaman, he walks off with Willie, who says "You could have taken it" and Indy says "Achh, it would have just ended up in some old museum" and Willie says "Still, it could have gotten your fortune and glory". Indy then says "Anything can happen its a long way to Delhi" but Willie says "No, thanks, Dr Jones, no more adventures with you" and Indy touches her face and says "Oh, sweetheart! After all the fun we've had together?". Willie however then rants at Indy and says "THIS is not my idea of a swell time!" and she goes off to ask someone the way to Delhi and Indy wraps his whip around her waist and pulls her back to him and they kiss, just as an elephant spits water on them!
Kate Capshaw next is really good in her role as the highly strung nightclub singer, Willie Scott, who is forced to tag along with Indy and Shorty after escaping Lao's club. And even though Willie's character is pretty annoying, Kate actually manages to make the most of it and is pretty funny in the role and even at times shows moments of bravery. Kate interestingly enough herself later married Steven Spielberg in 1991 and have been together ever since meeting on this film.
Kate herself has some good moments and fun dialogue that include her first scene (well after the opening titles) where on meeting Indy says to him "I always thought archaeologists were funny little men searching their mommies" and Indy corrects her "Mummies". So, as Indy and Lao tensely do business, Indy grabs Willie and threatens her with a knife and says "I suggest you give me the diamond or anything goes!". So, Lao eventually agrees to trade the ashes of a Chinese emperor, Nurhaci to him in exchange for a diamond. So, as they trade, Indy brings out Nurhaci's remains in an urn and Willie looks at it and says "This Nurhaci is a real small guy!".
Another scene is of course the famous one where Willie rides an elephant to Pankot palace only to be knocked off it into the water. So, Willie cries out of self pity as she says "I was happy in Shanghai! I had a little house, and a garden! My friends were rich, we went to parties all the time in limousines! I HATE being outside!". So, she barely manages to speak and says "I'm a singer! I could lose my voice!" and she coughs pathetically.
Then there is the scene where Indy, Willie and Shorty set camp at night while on their trip to Pankot palace and Willie is terrified by all the animals she encounters in the jungle. However, Willie eventually calms down and joins Indy and Indy asks her "Willie, Willie, Willie. Is that short for something?" and Willie says "Its my professional name, Indiana" and Shorty testily says "You call him, Dr Jones!" and Indy throws him a coin "Hey! My professional name!". So, as they talk, Indy shows her the old pieces of cloth that tell a story of the Shankara stones. Willie then tells Indy "My father was magician and he did the same magic tricks for years and he died a poor man, fortune and glory. Sweet dreams, Dr Jones". So, Willie gets up and Indy warns her "I would sleep close if I were you" and unknown to Willie, a snake starts to slither onto her back and she says "Dr Jones, I'd be safer sleeping with a snake" and Willie believing the snake to being the elephant that pestered her earlier, says "I said CUT IT OUT!" and she yanks the snake and throws it away, oblivious, leaving Indy terrified (as he has a fear of snakes) and Willie, still oblivious says "I hate that elephant".
Another good scene is where at the banquet at Pankot palace, all manner of gross courses are displayed at the table from bugs to monkey brains. So, during the scene as one of the obese diners eats a plate of bugs, he asks her "Are you not eating?" and she replies "I had bugs for lunch" and Willie then says to Shorty "Give me your hat" and Shorty asks "Why?" and Willie says "Because I'm gonna puke in it!". So, after this Willie asks "Excuse but do you have anything like soup?" and they bring out a large bowl of soup that looks enticing until we see eyeballs in it and Willie let's out a pained scream.
Then there is the scene where after Indy and Willie row over their possible romance being sullied by Indy's arrogance (or both their arrogance really!) Willie rants at Indy from outside her room, while Indy is nearly strangled to death by a henchman. So, Willie shouts to Indy "Indiana Jones! This is one night you will never forget! This is the night I slipped RIGHT THROUGH YOUR FINGERS!!" and we cut to seeing Indy desperately struggle against the henchman. So, Willie then shouts "Sleep tight! Pleasant dreams! I could have been your greatest adventure!".
And last of all is the final scene where after Indy, Willie and Shorty make it back to the village with the stone and he enslaved children, Willie shows her frustrations at the notion of sticking with Indy. So, Willie says to Indy "If you think I am going to Delhi or anywhere with you after what I've been through THINK AGAIN BUSTER! I'm going off to Missouri where they don't put you in cages, send you into firey pits before ripping you heart out, or been eaten alive by alligators! THIS is NOT my idea of a swell time!". So, she then asks a villager "Excuse me, sir, I'm trying to find my way to Delhi could you..." and Indy whips her back to him and you know the rest.
Ke Huy Quan is also pretty good in his role as Short Round (or Shorty), Indy's cocky and plucky sidekick, who plays his part in rescuing the Indian village from the clutches of the evil Thuggee cult.
Ke himself has some good scene such as the one as his first where Indy and Willie escape Lao's club by jumping out the window and landing conveniently in Shorty's car. So, Shorty looks surprised and says to Indy "Holy smokes, Dr Jones! Crash landing!" and Indy says "Short Round, step on it!" and Short says "Okay dokey, Dr Jones, hold onto your potatoes!". So, as they try and escape Lao's men who are in pursuit, Indy searches Willie for the antidote to poison he drank at Lao's club and Willie says "I'm not that kind of girl!" and Shorty says his classic line "Hey, Dr Jones, no time for love, we got company!".
Another fun scene from Ke is when after the banquet scene, Indy walks with Shorty in the halls toward their quarters. So, Indy says to Shorty "I'm just gonna go and check up on, Willie" and Shorty says to him "Tell me how it went later!" and Indy a little annoyed says to him "Amscray!"
Then there is the scene where Indy and Shorty enter a trap door room where Indy looks around and warns Shorty "Hey, just step back and stand against the wall, will you?". So, Shorty does so only to push a button behind that activates the trap door that locks them in and the ceiling starts to collapse. So, Shorty shouts to Indy "You said to stand against wall! I only did what you said!" and Indy shouts out for Willie "Willie, get down here!!".
And then there is the scene where Shorty rescues Indy from the influence of Kali by burning his side with a torch. So, Shorty says to Indy "Indy, I love you! Wake up, Indy!" and he burns him and Indy screams in pain and falls down but soon comes to his senses. Indy then grabs Shorty and says quietly "I'm alright, kid!" and the two of them start to fight Mola Ram's men. So, after they rescue Willie, Indy hands Short his cap and kneels down and hugs him warmly and says "I'm sorry, kid" and Shorty says "Indy, my dear friend".
Then there is the funny moment where Shorty tries to rescue Indy from the big guard and one of Mola Ram's main henchmen, who Indy struggles against. So, Shorty is held back by Willie and he insists "I gotta save him!" and Willie eventually let's him and go and says "OK save him!". So, Shorty runs up with a stick and feebly hits the big guard on the back who hoists Indy above his head and drops him into a mine cart, so Short shouts "Drop him down! I kill you!! Drop him down!" and the guard simply turns round and grabs Shorty and tosses him aside.
Another fun moment is where Shorty goes on the old rope bridge and bounces on it and says to Willie "Come on, strong bridge! Strong bridge! Come on, it safe!" only for the plank he stands on to give way and he nearly falls through but Willie pulls him up to safety. So, after, Shorty says to himself fearfully "Not very funny!".
Roy Chiao is also very good as Lao Che, the Chinese crime lord, who Indy deals with at the beginning of the film in the nightclub scene.
Chiao only has a couple of scenes but his first is his main one as Indy confronts Lao Che at the club. So, at the start of their meeting, Indy says "One of your boys tried to get Nurhaci without paying for him" and Lao says "You insulted my son" and Indy says "No, he insulted me, I spared his life".
So, as the two men make their deal for the Chinese emperor ashes and a diamond, Lao has Indy's drink spiked with poison. So, as Indy drinks his glass, Lao says "And now you give me the diamond" and Indy laughs and says "Are yout trying to develop a sense of humour or are you going deaf?". Lao then holds up a vial of liquid and Indy asks "What is that?" and Lao says "Antidote" and Indy asks "To what?" and Lao says "The poison you just drink, Doctor Jones" and he laughs as do his sons and Lao warns "The poison works fast, Doctor Jones". So, Indy gives back the diamond and grabs Willie and holds her with a knife and shouts "LAO!" but Lao is not interested and says "You keep the girl, I find another!" and he laughs loudly. However, Indy's friend Wu Han, appears with a gun and Indy says "Good service here!" only for some corks of champagne to fire off, which distracts Wu Han, who is fatally shot by Lao's son. So, a Wu Han dies in Indy's arms, Lao says "Don't be sad, Doctor Jones, you will soon be joining him!".
Last of all is Amrish Puri, who is pretty good in his role as the main villain, Mola Ram, who is the leader of the evil Thuggee cult and also uses sacrifical victims for his cause.
So, I will mention just a couple of his scenes such as the one where Mola Ram having captured Indy and Shorty together tells Indy of his plan, So, Indy mockingly says to Mola Ram "What a vivid imagination!" and Mola says to him "You don't believe me, Doctor Jones? You will. You will become a true believer!". So, Mola Ram has Indy brutally whipped to force to drink the blood of Kali and Mola Ram says to him "The British in India will be slaughtered. Then we will overrun the Muslims. Then the Hebrew god will fall. And then the Christian god will be cast down and forgotten. Soon, kali ma will rule the world!".
And last of all is the scene where Mola Ram has Indy trapped on the bridge and surrounded by his men and Indy warns him to let Willie and Shorty go. So, Indy shouts "You want the stones let em go! Let em go!!" and Mola Ram says "Drop them, Doctor Jones! They will be found, YOU WON'T!!" and he orders his men to advance on Indy. Indy then raises his sword above his head and says "Mola Ram, prepare to meet Kali in hell!" and he cuts the bridge and Mola Ram shouts in horror "What are you DOING???!! What are you DOING?!!". So, in their final moment on the broken bridge, Mola Ram and Indy struggle together and Mola Ram shouts "The stones are MINE!" only for Indy to say angrily "You betrayed Shiva!" and he starts to chanting in foreign tongue as the stones burn through his satchel and one burns Mola Ram's hands, who falls to his death below.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Finally moving onto the director, Steven Spielberg returns again to the helm here and does a great job as the pacing of the film is pretty relentless and at breakneck speed for the most part. However, this time round, Spielberg does go pretty hard on the violence and gore for effect here, which as mentioned eventually lead to the creation of the PG-13 certificate in America. However, despite the darker tone of the film, there are still a lot of fun set pieces here particularly the opening fight scene in the club to the fight in the mines, to the final confrontation on the old suspension bridge. There is also a nice dynamic between the three leads as well and Spielberg does a great job at envincing from the cast not to mention, Spielberg also as he himself later bragged, ended up getting the girl at the end of the film for real as he later married Kate Capshaw in real life.
As for the music, the score is once again by regular Spielberg composer, John Williams and he provides another fine one here, which is filled with some great tracks. The standout tracks include the Pankot palace ride, the mines fight sequence and finally the confrontation on the rope bridge. Williams's score once again was nominated for an Academy award but lost out to Maurice Jarre's score for A Passage to India (kind of ironic since this film was set in India also!). Regardless this is still a fun Williams score, which might not be his very best overall, its still a very good one.
FLAWS
As for flaws, yes the Temple of Doom isn't quite perfect.
For starters, it has to be said that the darker tone of the film does make it a bit less appealing compared to the other films of the original trilogy (not counting the inferior 21st century films here!) as increased violence and gore over Raiders feels a bit too much here. And here we are treated (or maybe subjected) to some brutal whippings of children and Indy, as well as sacrificial victims having their heart ripped out and burned alive in a firey pit. Its pretty strong stuff for its time and as mentioned, the film would later be re-certified with a higher classification of the PG-13 and 12 certificate ratings. So, the overall intense nature of the film's violence and even indeed the reliance on shock gags such as the bugs and monkey brains for dinner are all bit overkill here and thankfully were scaled back in the sequel.
Another issue is to do with how Indiana Jones is a reknown achaeologist who appears to be world famous as his reputation is well known to even the likes of the Indian PM, Chatter Lal, which sets him up to be a bit like James Bond. So, I find this a bit ridiculous to belive Indy would be so well known, as you see him in Raiders as just a kind of lowly scholarly archaeologist at his university and a more low key adventurer than we see him here. So, the idea of him being world famous is just silly here.
Then there is of course Indy, Willie and Shorty's ridiculous escape from the plane before crashes by using a lifeboat, which they miraculously manage to stay in without fallling out to their deaths as it drops from the sky and eventually into a deadly waterfall. So, yeah this whole sequence is just nonsense and their real chances of survival would of course be non existant here but hey, it is just a Hollywood film!
I also found the idea of the timing of Shorty's escape to reach Indy in time just before Willie is lowered into the lava pit, to be just a bit too convenient, yet of course he somehow manages it. However to his credit, Shorty in a way is the real hero of the film as he rescues Indy from his possession of the blood of Kali and without, they'd never have escaped and Willie would be burned to a crisp (well on second thoughts maybe that's not too bad lol!).
This is then followed by the ridiculous moment where Indy, Willie and Shorty somehow manage to outrun the water flooding at them from the broken water dam in the mines. So, somehow in this sequencce, the outrun the water make it outside to the cliff edge and also avoid being blasted off the edge by the sheer force of the water itself! So, yeah this again is a pretty silly moment, which is barely believable.
And last of all is the fact that Indy only manages to save one of the Shankara stones, which in itself is pretty lucky, as the village apparenty only need just the one to salvage the village's fortunes and for the crops to grow again. However unless, the British troops were willing to scower the alligator ridden waters for the remaining stones, they are bound only ever to have the one stone available.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, the Temple of Doom is a fun entry in the franchise, which has plenty of fast paced action and some fun moments as well as engaging performances from the three leads of Ford, Capshaw and Ke. The film also has a fine soundtrack by John Williams and solid direction by Spielberg, who cranks up the energy and pacing to 11 throughout. However, its not quite perfect as its darker tone and increased use of violence and gore is a bit off-putting at times and a clear indication that Spielberg went a bit too far in the wrong direction with this one. However, that all aside, this is still a fun film and worth a look and still head and shoulders over the 21st century Indy films although its still the weakest link of the original trilogy.
So, with that I will rate it:
8 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post next month, until then its bye for now!
