You know you’re feeling old when one of the darkest Indiana Jones sequel/prequel has turned 40 years old. Believe it or not ladies and gentlemen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has just turned 40 years of age, the one film that inspired the PG-13 rating, the one movie that parents all over the world would not let their own kids watch after witnessing this movie INCLUDING MINE. I honestly don't remember when the first time I watched the movie in all honesty the first time I watched the film was on TV and I never expected anything like it especially when a character is experiencing darkness. I was one of the many kids that my parents wouldn't let me watch this movie. I was only allowed to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade and to be honest I can't blame my parents for not letting me watch the movie till I was either watching it with them or I was a proper age.
Intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), on the trail of fortune and glory in old Shanghai, is ricocheted into a dangerous adventure in India. With his faithful companion Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) and nightclub singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), Indy goes in search of the magical Sankara stone and uncovers an ancient evil which threatens all who encounters it.
After the success Raiders of the Lost Ark, though this was before Raiders George Lucas told Steven Spielberg that if he was going to direct the first Indy film he was going to direct two more films because he had two stories in mind, unfortunately George didn't have the stories figured out yet so after Raiders crushed the box office they had to come up with the second film though really a prequal of the Indy story. I'm not sure a lot of people know this but the real reason why this film turned into a much darker film was simply because of the personal break ups with girlfriends and wife's though the wife is on George's side so we can separate the two so, yeah the real reason why this film is so dark was because the greatest men in cinema had bad break ups, though let's be honest it's horrible but ladies this is what happens when you break up us guys were going to be in this dark phase where we may or may not think about total domination of the world or just make an exciting adventure film with a ton of dark moments. For years I never quite understood why this sequel was set in 1935 and yet Raiders was set in 1936-37 and really I never quite understood why they made a prequel until I did my research and Lucas states that the reason why Temple of Doom was set in 1935 was because they wanted new villains besides Nazi's, and really makes a lot of sense when you think about it because having the same villains kind of loses it flair in some ways and really cultists who practice dark magic that's most certainly a nice touch. Harrison Ford really does a fantastic job in the movie as he always does but this is a movie where he becomes evil for a little while and I swear evil Indy is so terrifying when you re watch this film again, and even when he's being tortured with voodoo magic that's really hard to watch and even some of the fights with the infamous big man Pat Roach who was the Big Nazi in Raiders, he punches him so hard it felt like he's in so much pain that you feel for Ford and as a matter of fact he did break his back on set and they had to use his stunt double to film some of the wide shots so, really this was one of the few action films Ford does where he's really put to the test and he does a great job at that. Ke Huy Quan who plays Short Round in the movie does a great job in this movie as well and this was his first film and his acting abilities were just incredible through the course of the movie as well as his chemistry with him and Harrison Ford together is so special that after Quan won the Oscar for best supporting actor as well as his film getting Best Picture award you finally have the nice reunion between him and Ford at the Oscars for which I always thought was the most special thing to witness on TV and reliving these two in this movie they both do a great job being the best companions. Sure Harrison Ford is the perfect Protagonist but with Temple of Doom I truly believe he met his match with Mola Ram aka Amrish Puri, and really I've always watched a ton of Harrison Ford's movies through the years and I don't think any antagonist can hold up to the way Puri did with the Temple of Doom I mean this guy really dived deep into his character I mean you talk about a bad guy that would haunt your nightmares from your childhood I think he really does a fantastic job, I mean this guy literally forced Indy to drink blood, almost close to ripping his heart (thought you can only do that once) and really of all the antagonist Ford fought, Mola Ram was most certainly his best match-up. And let’s not forget Mola Ram gave us the PG-13 rating so in all fairness the character of Mola Ram that George Lucas and the writers of Temple of Doom created is almost close to being a hero like Thanos wiping out all the hypocritical people of the world, though that's a theory for another time. The set design is hands down one of the greatest set pieces especially the Temple of Doom set for many reasons it has this beauty and yet haunting feel to it especially when you get to that scene and you experience your heart pounding like a sledgehammer and another legendary man who deserves a ton of credit goes to John Williams, a side from his iconic Indiana Jones theme music he also creates a just haunting music to go with the Temple of Doom scenes especially when they have the scenes of Mola Ram ripping the heart, and really when you look at that film carefully it's like then film a random person just going all in and just tearing the heart although it's just focuses on the body and the hand even though it's a disturbing feel it's also fascinating of how they were able to film it. Sure, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is everyone's least favorite movie and now question every parent in the eighties and nineties especially my parents and really, I can't blame them because really if I'm showing this to my kids, I don't want them to have nightmares or watch this late at night then going to bed with the nightmare of being sacrificed. And let’s not forget that this was Steven Spielberg least favorite Indy film and Lawrence Kasdan wasn't interested to write this film claiming that this film was clearly a chaotic period in both Lucas and Spielberg's life. Now that being said from everyone's opinion and having reliving this great film I truly think that people need to come back and re-watch the film mainly because it was just trying to capture something new and different from Raiders not just recycling the same bad guys or the same tropes of Indy always being okay but also seeing that the character is venerable and isn't sure if he's going to make it out alive or be a slave for the rest of his life which is a huge risk but is also a great risk to have for a character whose also scared for himself but also the people he's close to. But more importantly without this movie we wouldn't have the PG-13 rating, furthermore this is something of fate reaching to both Lucas and Spielberg of pushing the boundary as well as coming up with new dangers for a heroic character like Indiana Jones. So, I would highly suggest to all parents and fans of the Indiana Jones films to re-watch Temple of Doom and give it a chance and hopefully see that this is an important movie in terms of the rating system in movies now. And hopefully everyone looks at this as a fun, dark yet exciting film to watch on Halloween, hell Ghostbusters has some scary moments and nobody every talk about those scenes where Sigourney Weaver is being sucked into a closet, though to be fair nobody's heart was ripped out in that movie despite the fact that Dan Aykroyd does make a surprising cameo appearance in Temple of Doom though that’s for me to know where you can spot him and for the rest of you, you’ll have to figure that out and watch the movie.
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