Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Doesn’t deserve the amount of snark it’s getting. Whilst not a full-on classic in the mode of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade, and more in the action episodes mode of Temple of Doom, there is much to love and enjoy here. Plus the novelty of an action movie with an actual storyline and characters, not just exposition heading towards bashy smashy set-pieces.
This is very much a Harrison Ford vehicle as Stephen Spielberg is not directly involved in this episode. It is also a little further forward in time — with the 1960s, the Space Race and an ageing, disillusioned Indiana retiring from his professorship and disengaged students. Literally he seems old hat and past it. But the movie starts with a bang — flashbacking to the 1930s, Nazis on a train and Mads Mikkelsen who may or may not be an archeological power-mad villain.
Instead of the charming sidekick Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott), there is Toby Jones, who is much more astute as he tries to dodge the Nazi bullet, and acts as a foil for a rescue attempt by Indiana Jones. Here the CGI kicks in as Harrison Ford has been de-aged — apart from a dodgy looking run across the train roof, it works really well. And doesn’t really matter as the action, characters and music swoop and soar, and we wonder how Indiana’s going to get himself and the archaeological treasure out of this predicament. (With a lot of guile and humour as it turns out).
Suddenly we snap back to the present and encounter a sadder, older Indiana Jones, drunkenly asleep in his pants. He retires from his lectureship on the same day, only to encounter daughter of Toby Jones, (last seen needing to be rescued as Basil Shaw on the train), Phoebe Waller-Bridge in his lecture and then a bar. She lures him into one last story — to share the research on the missing parts of the dial of destiny of the title (Archimedes’ timey-wimey gadget). It turns out that Indy didn’t destroy it as he promised Basil that he truly would, and now lots of people (FBI, CIA and Mads Mikkelsen’s is he/isn’t he a Nazi? scientist) really want to get hold of it (and him). The consequence of unleashing one of the sections and his notebooks results in them being pursued by the CIA, (one of whom is lethally trigger happy), trashing his former University’s archeological storage facility and much of the Moon Landing parade. Great moment of Buzz Aldrin et al glaring daggers at Indiana literally crashing their parade and historic moments on a horse.
We’ve had banter, sharp talking and now best of all Indiana Jones is on a horse on the subway. Hooray! It’s well done — they’ve played to his age, he can’t run around like he used to — he uses a horse, a buggy or other props (such as his mind); we see his gasping breaths and feel the physical pressure. Indy is captured and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Helena Shaw flees to Tangiers to sell the golden gadget to the highest bidder.
Indy escapes, Mads Mikkelsen shows his character’s true colours and delightful John Rhys-Davies turns up to assist as a runaway taxi driver. I thought that his character would turn up again later, but Indy keeps his friend well and truly out of danger. Beautifully captured, 1960's Tangiers pops as do the clothes and hair styles. Stopping the sale, Indy and Helena have to evade her love-lorn gangster fiancé, only now they have a kid in tow — which is very Temple of Doom.
Tracked by former Nazis, Team Indy-Helena plus street-smart kid in a hat head to Sicily, where Antonio Banderas is waiting with a diving boat! Here they proceed to trash an archaeological wreck to get the second half of the golden gadget, which is encased in wax. Meanwhile the kid avenges himself on snobbish Sicilians who mock his hat and look out skills by stealing money for ice-cream and also gets himself kidnapped by dastardly gun-toting CIA agents. One of whom is comically very tall and wide, circa 1960s Bond movies.
Somehow they all end up in ancient caves with tricks and traps, dodgy rope bridge over a chasm, a segment of more contemporary bug infestations and encounter an ancient burial site, which contains the remains of Archimedes — with a wristwatch! Worse still than the contamination of archeological sites is being taken prisoner by the still very much Nazis who want to use the gadget to travel back in time via a portal in the sky and rewrite military history — Third Reich style. Only Archimedes wasn’t in possession of all the facts — so they end up in an ancient times sea battle by mistake. And very historically inaccurate and conspicuous amongst the war ships, arrows, spears and probable Greek Fire. (Plus they’re being pursued by the kid, who has achieved his dream and really can fly a plane). More worrying still is that the portal achieved by the golden gadget is located in the clouds and will only stay open for a certain limited amount of time…
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts — cos it’s Archimedes and subtitled ancient Greek chat! Will the Nazis ally with Ancient Roman invaders? Will Indiana stay with Archimedes forever (which might not be very long as he’s been shot by the Nazi wannabe time travellers)? Will the kid save them all and get to wear the hat? Will Helena get a moral compass and realise that ancient stuff belongs in museums, not on the auction table for the highest high class bidder? Is Mads Mikkelsen going to come back to life? Whose side is the CIA shooter really on? (and why does he have such dodgy quiffy hair?)
All these spoilers and more are satisfyingly resolved at the end, which is essentially down to eating more ice cream. Indy and Marian are reunited and the quest is more about forgiveness and reconciliation than stuff. (Though we still feel their loss of dreams, particularly Indy’s). A satisfying moral for the consumerist era that Indy’s latest adventure is set in.
Overall, it really works as a fun action adventure — it is thrilling, really moving in parts as the CIA shooter takes out Indy’s civilian colleagues and Indy talks about the grief of losing his son to World War Two and the impact that it had on his marriage to Marian. There is no Indiana and son here and we feel his loss as our loss. Pleasingly Helena (aka Wombat) is not Indy’s love interest, but auditions for future James Bonds as she gets to do the stunts which don’t involve a prop or vehicle. She also clashes nicely with him in terms of ethics and has some inter-generational learning to do along the way. There is sympathy too for the gangster and enjoyment to be had in the tourist smorgasbord of hue saturated locations. Additionally, I’m not sure if it’s meant, but when they’re driving fast at points, it looks very fake as in the 1960s movies, where actors would ‘drive’ against a moving backdrop. However this may just be COVID protective measures or bad CGI moments! But I like the fact that it’s even trying to look like the media of its era. The locations look great without othering and I love the close up of the donkey’s face as the chase goes past it — for no reason at all!
The cast are uniformly wonderful — I wonder if the snark against this film is due to ageism (Harrison Ford is still tremendous, like Tom Cruise or Richard Gere), or spiteful vitriol directed against the woman who killed James Bond or perhaps even anti-elder romance. Mads Mikkelsen has a lot of fun being quietly sinister whilst avoiding cliché and John Rhys-Davies adds heart and warmth to the whole proceedings. Could only have been improved really by having him turn up somewhere to save the day later on — instead it was Archimedes and the kid!
All in all it’s fun and heart warming and you come out feeling a happy glow! (Even for the bugs — presumably no real cave-dwelling bugs were harmed in the making of this movie)…
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