Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Amrish Puri, who played Mola Ram in this films (June 22, 1932-January 21, 2005), may he rest in peace |
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 "Mola Ram, prepare to meet Kali...in hell!"
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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 action adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The films stars Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, and Ke Huy Quan. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Plot
In 1935, Indiana Jones along with Willie, and Short Round were crashed their plane into India from Shanghai, China. and they went on a trail on a dangerous adventure in India. With his faithful companion Short Round and nightclub singer Willie Scott, Indie goes in search of the magical Sankara stone, and uncovers an ancient evil that threatens all who come into contact with it.
Good Qualities
- It's a decent prequel to the Indiana Jones franchise, with Indy, goes to India to find and goes into a dangerous evil adventure to find a way to free their kids, and bringing back the Sankara Stones, and it was of the darkest Indiana Jones films to date.
- Great fight scenes, such as fighting in the underground quarry, and fighting the Thuggees to save Willie Scott.
- The special effects are still well done.
- The performances, especially for Indiana Jones who played as Harrison Ford is still spectacular.
- Amazing score that was performed by John Williams, even if it's way scary to the younger kids.
- "We are going to die!"
- The scene where the Thuggees burns a Sacrifice Victim is pretty terrifying.
- Mola Ram is a quite amazing villain, that he is a very threatening villain that he wanted to find all Five Sankara Stones and use their power to make the Thuggees unstoppable.
- Tons of great action scenes during the Cinemax, such as the mine cart chase, and saving Willie from getting burned into the lava pit, and even the final battle on the destroyed wooden bridge with the Thuggees and Mola Ram, which is very epic.
- The ending scene is fantastic, Indiana Jones, Willie, and Short Round brought the Sankara stones back and the kids finally return to their family at the small village, ending the film on a near-high note.
- Good cinematography.
Bad Qualities
- The film can be way too scary for younger viewers due to it's pretty dark and violent scenes during the inside the secret temple, and the caves, and it's not suitable for the PG-rating (Yes, this was rated PG). This, alongside with Gremlins (which was released in the same year), led to the creation of the PG-13 rating in the United States and the 12 rating in the UK. (The film was originally certified PG with cuts made over there. If they didn't cut it, it would've been a 15 instead.) The movie was also banned in India for that reason unfortunately.
- However, the 2012 UK Blu-ray release is uncut with a 12 rating.
- Not helping is the fact that George Lucas suffered a devastating divorce from his ex-wife Marion Lucas during production of the film, hence resulting to the film's overall darker tone.
- Willie Scott is a very annoying and unlikable character, she screams a lot in bloody murder for no reason, same with Short Round.
- Despite a bigger budget than the first movie, there's a lot of ropey blue screen shots.
- The infamous dinner scene which caused controversy due to the racist portrayal of Indian cuisine. Things like eyeball soup, chilled monkey brains, dead beetles and "Snake Surprise" are served. This is also the food are absolutely disgusting.
- Although Mola Ram is an amazing villain as mentioned above, he barely gets any screen time throughout the movie.
- The pacing isn't as tight as the first film.
- Steven Spielberg's direction is a bit weak.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, audiences and fans, but it was criticized due to it's violence and too many darker scenes. It holds a 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and according to the site's critical consensus reads, "It may be too 'dark' for some, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form". On Metacritic, it scores the film a 57/100 "Mixed or average reviews", while IMDB gave the film a 7.5/10 rating.
Originally, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was supposed to be the worst Indiana Jones movie at least since its release until at least the early 2000s for being too dark and violent, a sentiment that even Steven Spielberg agreed with. Since the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008, however, many fans have looked back at Temple of Doom and rediscovered it, concluding that it wasn't as worse as they initially thought and was thematically consistent with the two other films of the original trilogy, unlike Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which explored sci-fi themes. It's also one of the weakest Indiana Jones films ever due to this issues (The second was Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).
Trivia
- Due to controversy over racial stereotypes and the infamous "Banquet" scene, combined with the film's dark tone, this film was banned in India and was filmed in Sri Lanka instead while it was never released in theatres or aired on any TV channels in India. However, the ban was later rescinded and the film is available to watch on online platforms like Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar.
- The film was also temporarily banned in Malaysia, The Middle East, and other Southeast Asia countries over it violent content, combined with the movie being "not made for kids", although eventually the bans were lifted.
- Even though Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was heavily panned by the fans of the franchise, director Steven Spielberg did not like this film thinking it was dark, subterranean and horrific, and relied too much on Indian stereotypes.
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