Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Paramount/Action-Adventure-Fantasy RT: 118 minutes Rated PG (language, violence, scary scenes, frightening images, some sexual innuendo) Director: Steven Spielberg Screenplay: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz Music: John Williams Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe Release date: May 23, 1984 (US) Cast: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, Raj Singh, D.R. Nanayakkara, Roy Chiao, David Yip, Pat Roach. Box Office: $179.8M (US)/$333.1M (World)
Rating: ***
What a perfect way to kick off summer ’84! I couldn’t wait to feast my eyes upon Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, one of the defining movies of my teen years. I saw it opening night at the very same theater where I first met intrepid adventurer Indiana Jones (a perfectly cast Ford) three summers before. For two hours, I was on the edge of my seat. At the time, I thought it was great.
I still like Temple of Doom a lot, but I now see where it falls a little bit short of the original. Whereas Raiders hits the ground running and never stops, there is a slow patch in the sequel that, while providing some necessary background, stops the movie almost dead in its tracks. It’s the dinner sequence at the palace where Indy and his companions receive information vital to their quest while dining on gross food (i.e. eyeball soup, bugs and chilled monkey brains). It’s a funny scene, but acts more as a lull in the action.
Its other major weakness is female lead Kate Capshaw who plays a nightclub singer dragged kicking and screaming (mainly screaming) into Dr. Jones’ latest adventure. She can’t act, plain and simple. I think Stewie Griffin put it best in a Family Guy cutaway when he said that the only reason she was cast in the movie is because she was the director’s girlfriend. While these are indeed flaws, they don’t derail the movie at all. Temple of Doom is still a great deal of fun. When it moves, it really moves!
The story opens in a Shanghai nightclub (Club Obi Wan, get it?) circa 1935 with a spectacular song-and-dance number obviously inspired by the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 30s. Then the action kicks in when a deal between Dr. Jones and a Chinese crime boss goes wrong and the whole joint erupts into chaos. Indy narrowly escapes being killed thanks to preteen sidekick Short Round (Quan, The Goonies).
The circumstances of his escape force him to drag high-maintenance singer Willie Scott (Capshaw, Dreamscape) along for the ride. The trio flees on a plane that just happens to be owned by the crime boss. The pilots bail out over the Himalayas, leaving Indy and company to die a fiery death. The ever-resourceful hero makes use of the inflatable raft on board and they get out in the nick of time. They ride down the slopes of the snowy mountain into a raging river that leads to a desolate, depressing village in Northern India.
The villagers believe that Indy has been sent by their god Shiva to retrieve the sacred Sivalinga stone stolen from their shrine by the same people that kidnapped all the children from the village. Indy, Willie and Shorty travel to Pankot Palace where they initially receive a warm welcome. Later that night, an assassin shows up in Indy’s room and tries to kill him. Something’s definitely amiss here, but what?
Indy discovers a secret passageway that leads to a series of booby-trapped tunnels that lead to a secret underground temple where an evil cult practices human sacrifice and child slavery. I don’t think I need to go any farther with the plot description.
From here on in, Temple of Doom is a non-stop roller coaster ride of action, thrills and chills. The best part is the mine car chase that literally looks and feels like a roller coaster ride with sets of tracks that go everywhere (up, down, parallel, under and beneath). It’s positively breath-taking! Steven Spielberg knows how to stage an action sequence to maximum effect. Like Raiders, Temple of Doom pays homage to the action-adventure serials of the 30s and 40s, only it has a much darker tone than its predecessor.
That brings me to what Temple of Doom is most famous for. Parents were outraged by its dark tone and graphic scenes of violence. The cult leader rips somebody’s heart right out of their chest. Some felt it was too violent for children and called on the MPAA to establish a new rating that would reflect this. Thus, the PG-13 rating was born. Actually, Gremlins (another Spielberg picture) was also instrumental in the creation of the new rating. Truth be known, Temple of Doom is a violent movie. I can see where it might scare small children.
All that aside, it’s a very entertaining popcorn flick. It has a good storyline that benefits from a solid screenplay by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the husband-wife team responsible for American Graffiti (1973) and Howard the Duck (1986). Spielberg does a solid job in the director’s chair as usual. Ford is excellent as Dr. Jones. Quan does very well too in that his character isn’t annoyingly cutesy. He’s a loyal and resourceful little guy. Capshaw, she’s the weak link! The special effects are quite good for the most part. The action sequences are extremely well-orchestrated.
In short, Temple of Doom makes for decent hot weather entertainment even if it doesn’t reach the heights of the first movie. Then again, Spielberg set the bar kind of high, so it’s understandable why he doesn’t surpass it.
