August 17th, 2004

by Eric 'Renderking' Fisk

Best Motion Picture Never Made

I’m green with envy.  I admit when I’m jealous or when I envy someone or something.  It’s odd that I would feel jealous or left out for a movie. Worst yet, I’m upset for a sequel that hasn’t been made yet.  A sure sign that maybe I might need to get a life, just like some sports fans need to get over the fact that their home team might never win a pennant or World Series.

When I look at a lot of the "making of" or "the art of" books for the Star Wars movies, I get pretty darn frustrated. Why can't Lucas and company put this much energy and creativity into making the next Jones flick?  There are some fantastic environments and vehicles in the Star Wars Universe; a lot I wish could be adapted for the Jones era.  How cool would it be for Jones to fight a former student now adversary in the proximity of a lava pit?  Or a chase with planes flying through New York City (however that might be in bad taste in a post-September 11th world).  Or to see our hero in a life and death struggle against mechanical walkers in the arctic?  No matter how you cut it, all of that would be pretty cool

With all the energy and focus that’s been given to the prequel trilogy, I wish some of that would spill over to the next sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Right now, I have to live vicariously and get my satisfaction elsewhere from movies such as Road To Perdition, Hidalgo, Hellboy (how can you not like a demon fighting for the side of God against evil forces and supernatural Nazi’s ghouls?) and the upcoming Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.  Yet all of these movies are mere appetizers for the main course, which is being cooked up by the chefs at the Lucasfilm™ kitchen.

Gold Mine

I’ve been saying that for the past month on various forums, the Fourth Disk in the Jones Box Set is a gold mine of Information about Indiana Jones 4.  The most important bits of information about Indy 4 can be found in the Making of Raiders featurette.

Spielberg and Lucas talk about the genre of the Indiana Jones films or the genre of films that inspired it.  The Raiders films are obviously there to pay homage to the movies made back in the era that it takes place in, i.e. the 1930’s and 1940’s.  Mr. Spielberg talks about how the Raiders movies have always meant to be the antithesis of the other types of movies they’ve done such as Star Wars and Close Encounters.  Mr. Spielberg even mentioned that he and George agreed that there would never be anything remotely extra-terrestrial in these movies.  (Just not in so many words.)

Everything they say in The Makings of Raiders dictates the intention for the whole series.  Much of what they say over and over again leads me to believe that Indiana Jones 4 won’t be that much different from Raiders, and that there won’t be a huge departure.  Indy 4 will be a variation on the same theme.  Even the way they film it will be much the same according to Spielberg in an interview with Premiere Magazine about 10 months back when the Indiana Jones DVDs were released.

Also, there were a lot of ideas that they came up with for Raiders that just couldn’t fit in the movie, so many ideas that they had left over were used in the two other films.  There are a ton of things they could do with the character of Indiana Jones regardless of his age, endless themes about artifacts and locations.  As it has always been, it’s just a matter of writing the right script and then just getting it done.

A few months ago in a Star Wars comic there was an Indiana Jones crossover that told the “what if” story about Han Solo and Chewbacca getting lost and crash landing on an “alien” world.  Centuries later the wreck of the Millennium Falcon was found by our hero archeologist who was in hunt for “Big Foot”.

The issue sold out, I couldn’t find it anywhere here in the New England area and I had to rely on people sending me scans of it so I could see what I was missing.  I admit it was very well drawn and written.  But, on the other side we were given something very briefly and then taken away just as quickly.

Dark Horse has several Star Wars titles, but there in no current one for Indiana Jones. There have been a few done in the past but the back issues are almost impossible to find here in the North East. (If you run a comic book shop and have a few complete collections, drop us a line at info@theindyexperience.com.)  Since the ones that have already been done by Dark Horse in the past are so hard to find, you would think there would be a market for reprints and an on-going series.  Even the one done by Marvel Comics back in the 1980s is in slight demand, although I didn’t like it as much as I enjoyed what I saw of the Dark Horse brand.

Returning Characters And Cameo’s?

Through out the past few years we’ve heard and read countless rumors that in the next installment there will be many brief appearances of characters from the previous three movies.  For the most part, I’m apprehensive.  I would like nothing more for those who are working on the next film to concentrate more on the actual script and the plot than contrive something to just showcase the actors and actresses who have been in the other Jones films before.

We would all like to see what other characters have been up to since we last saw them.  What has Marion been up to and how come she isn’t with our hero anymore?  How about Short Round and Willie Scott, how did they turn out after the trek home?  What other adventures has Sallah had with Dr. Jones?  And how has finding the Grail changed Indy’s father in the long run, and has he retired from teaching Medieval literature?  Good questions but do any of them make for a good story that would equal the original Raiders of the Lost Ark?

I only want to see a return of these characters that we’ve all loved to come back if their return can be woven into the story, not to just plop them in for a few minutes of screen time.  The best scenes with all of these characters have something in common; they’re actually DOING something to help the plot forward.  That’s how Jones 4 should be, characters moving the action and the story forward and not just a virtual waving into the camera.

Leaving The Soap By The Sink

This is a subject that has me pulling my hair out on many of the fan forums.  Many of the fans (mostly women) want to see Jones have to “deal” with having a kid, one that he didn’t know about as if this series of action films is some kind of high violence soap opera.  Which leads me to say "leave the soap by the sink".

The “family” thread was played out in the The Last Crusade 15 years ago.  Many would argue that it didn’t help the action along but added more suspense and drama.  Making the quest of the artifact more personal wouldn’t seem to fit within the world of Indiana Jones if it went on for much longer.

The situation would be even worse if Jones had to “deal” with a kid he hardly knew about or one that was a complete surprise to him.  If a kid shows up, how many pages of the Indiana Jones 4 script would be spent on this issue?  And that would result in fewer pages of action and the plot revolving around the artifact he would be after.

Like it or lump it, our hero Indiana Jones is a role model for many young men such as myself when I was a teenager.  Kids are already getting bad messages about parenthood that it’s OK to have children out of wedlock and let the state welfare system take care of them.  If Jones is going to have a kid, it should be done in such a way to send a more positive message than what kids are getting in schools and in the media.  It doesn’t take a village to raise a child; it takes a stable intact family.

I also don’t want to see the “Disney Factor”, the fresh face of the month or the latest graduate from The Mickey Mouse Club (Britney, Christian, Justin, Hillary...) as a cute child star to bring younger kids into the theater.  Fact is, I really don’t want to see younger kids in the theater if there are going to be faces melting, heads exploding, hearts ripped out or villains being driven off a cliff or turned to dust from drinking from the false Grail.

Get it?  No cute kids.  The only kids I want to see are college students, Jones being the “Abner Ravenwood” for a protégé; and if Indy happens to have a daughter who he’s raised since the day she was born and falls in love with this favorite student of Indy’s then the circle would be complete.  In essence Jones would have become the man he once looked up to.  But let’s lay off the melodrama, ok?

Indiana Jones 4 as Film Noir

One of the ideas that I’ve been trying to promote on the web is the notion that Indiana Jones 4 could or should have an element of film noir.  Question is; what is film noir and how do I define it in such away as to fit the adventures of Indiana Jones?  Typically, I see film noir as it’s already been defined in this thread as dark, pessimistic disillusionment, disenchantment, and to quote a fellow fan who said it best; “Film noir shows the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasize the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience.”

I’m a huge fan of the genre of film noir because of its style and how, during its peak, it featured the styles and sensibilities of the era in which the Indiana Jones films took place.  I’ve been saying for a long time that Jones 4 should be darker than Last Crusade but not to the extent of Temple Of Doom.  More of a return full-circle to Raiders of the Lost Ark.  With the exception of Short Round (fingers crossed that he returns as an adult) and Sallah, Jones should feel alone and wonder if he’s become a relic.  And to keep within the film noir formula while maintaining the character of Indiana Jones, we should see that Jones is the same man of integrity and strength, while it’s the rest of the world that’s changed to the point that he’s been left behind as the world is divided into two camps, Communism and Capitalism.

Also, there should be some scenes that reflect the style of filming that’s made film noir famous… the fog-filled city streets at night.  Perfect elements and environment for a fedora-clad hero consumed with a plot of intrigue and suspense.  Maybe Jones shouldn’t go too far into the world of mystery like most film noir movies, but just enough to satisfy our appetites.

The Raiders Connection

The hardest part now for fans of Indiana Jones is to read about all the other projects that Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg are working on.  Just as Aaron has written earlier, “Uncle Steven” is now working on a new version of War of the Worlds while “Uncle George” is in Post Production with Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith.  On the one hand, we are almost guaranteed at least TWO good adventure flicks in the near future while on the other hand it seems we have that much longer to wait for the fourth Indiana Jones film. The most we can hope for is that the creative energy they're pouring into these other projects will spill over into IJ4.

What I desperately want to see is how we say good-bye to our beloved character.  It’s my hopes that we leave him the way we found him.  I picture the second to last scene is Jones being toasted during his retirement party with many of his friends from the previous movies in attendance (many of the other actors there dressed in different costumes than before as ‘different characters’.)  At the end of the toast, he says to the crowd: “Thank you so much, I’m done with adventures.  I’m going to retire for good and maybe write a few text books, then call it a life.”  His companions would ask: “Done, you mean for good?”  Jones replies: “You heard me, I’m home and I’m done for good.”

With a hard cut, you see Jones once again in the jungle wearing the signature fedora and jacket, turning back to his companions: “Ok, so I lied.”  Then, we see Jones with a map in hand moving deeper into the jungle, and he becomes the mysterious character he was when we first saw him in the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, an enigmatic man walking through the shadows of the jungle.  We see him come to a curtain of vines, moving them aside then aside to reveal the entrance of yet another temple.  He steps into the darkness with his companions as The Raiders March sets in just as the end credits begin to roll.

Have an opinion?  Want to ask questions, or comment on this week's column?  Email Mr. Fisk him self at renderking@theindyexperience.com.