Attribution: Gary Stewart Gary2880, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Living in the Past: Review of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
By Geoff Carter
He is a movie hero of epic proportions, an icon, an institution, and an intellectual—a true renaissance man. He is, of course, Indiana Jones, the most unlikely sort of archeologist/action hero imaginable. From the jaw-dropping action sequences of Raiders of the Lost Ark, his first film, to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, just released in theaters last week, the series has spanned over forty years, and, unfortunately, like a good wine that’s been a little too long on the shelf, the taste has gone a little funky.
Part of the hype surrounding this new release was about its star, the venerable Harrison Ford, who just very recently celebrated his 81st birthday. Question marks about whether a person of his age could pull off the physically demanding fight and flight sequences were handled with a mixture of reassurance and jocularity. Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks and campaign advisor to Joe Biden, has told Joe to embrace his age (80) as experience and flaunt it like Ford as Indiana Jones and Mick Jagger—who at seventy-nine is still touring with the Rolling Stones. (The Insider)And, truth be told, Ford does do a great job in the role. Jones has always been sort of an underdog of an action hero, and his age sort of underlines that quality.
The newest installment of the Indiana Jones franchise starts unexpectedly with Jones as a younger man, still battling the Nazis during World War II. Thanks to CGI age restoration, this Indiana Jones is very much like the original. After a harrowing and nearly unbelievable chase sequence, Jones vanquishes his foe and with his colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) inadvertently discovers Archimedes’ clock, the titular dial of destiny, and nearly lose it during the melee.
Flash forward to 1969. Jones is a grumpy old man, yelling at his hippie neighbors for playing their music too old. It is July, 1969, the day man first landed on the moon, but Indiana Jones couldn’t care less. He grumbles at his students for not doing their readings about the siege of Syracuse. When Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller Bridge), his long-lost goddaughter, accosts him, inquiring about the artifact that Jones and her father found, Jones gives it to her, not realizing that her intentions are not exactly honorable—yes—those Nazis are on her trail. And so the fun begins.
Thrill-a-minute chase scenes, hair-raising fistfights, ubiquitous gun battles, and daring escapes are part and parcel of the Indiana Jones, and in that respect, Dial of Destiny does not disappoint. From the opening Nazi train battle to a chase scene through the Moon Landing parade—a not-so-sly nod to Ford’s iconic St. Patrick’s Day escape in The Fugitive—to a bumper car style chase scene through the streets of Tangier to an undersea battle with giant eels to… well, you get it. At one point, during the seemingly endless Tangiers scene, I was reminded of Martin Scorsese’s comment that many of today’s movies, specifically films from the Marvel Universe, also—like Dial of Destiny—produced by Disney resembled theme parks (Indie Wire). While Scorsese was speaking specifically about Avengers: Endgame, he could have been referring to any number of superhero flicks when he said, “That’s not cinema.”
Indiana Jones is great entertainment, but the question of whether it is really cinema, or art, is a touchy one. It comes close. When the curmudgeonly Jones is yelling at the kids next door to turn it down or shaking his head at his apathetic students, the audience sees him as a grumpy old man unable to let go of the past. He drinks heavily, is in the middle of divorcing his wife Marion (Karen Allen), and is retiring from his position at Hunter College. No wonder he wants to live in the past.
As an archeologist, Jones acts more interested in the ancient Battle of Syracuse than the moon landing, history being made at the moment. It seems he’d rather live in the past than his present. Instead of exploring this facet of his character, the film takes the off-ramp into a cinematic carnival. The theme of aging and Jones’ reluctance to let go of the past is ignored until much later in the film and is resolved—in a most unsatisfying fashion—by a punch in the face.
For the viewer exhausted by seven- or eight-minute assaults upon the senses, including the monumental twenty-five-minute opening scene, the film becomes a bit predictable and even a little banal. Part of the charm of Raiders and the other earlier films was the surprising near impossibilities of the action sequences. The jaw-dropping initial sequence inRaiders with the giant boulder or the scene in which Indy steals back the ark from the Nazi truck are riveting because of their implausibility. The viewer must keep asking herself how the hell is this (even in a movie) possible? We delighted in our own astonishment. Now, unfortunately, we expect the impossible from Indiana Jones, so, by definition, we can no longer be surprised.
But for those who love the non-stop mayhem of this franchise, Dial of Destiny does not disappoint. James Mangold’s direction is brilliant, the editing is impeccable, and the CGI—for the most part—is excellent. Harrison Ford as the reluctant and resourceful hero is as gritty and determined as ever—so much so that the suspension of disbelief starts to bend a little—after all, how can an old guy throw haymakers that knock out Nazis with a single punch? But those scenes are only about believability to a point.
The supporting cast is stellar. Toby Jones and Antonio Banderas shine in their all-too short supporting roles. John Rhys-Davies and Karen Allen reprise their characters of Sallah and Marion Ravenwood nicely. (It’s always nice to see old friends). As Helena, Phoebe Waller-Bridge does the best she can, but the character of Helena is frustratingly one-dimensional. She is corky, quirky, and criminally high-spirited, but that’s about it; that’s all the audience sees. Waller-Bridge is excellent at this sort of portrayal, but we never find out much more about this character.
Again, had the film paused or—God forbid—cut back on some of the action sequences, the movie might have been able to explore the depths of Indy’s despair or the root of Phoebe’s inveterate, almost compulsive, delinquency instead of watching them solve their problems with fists, guns, and cunning. It could be argued that doing this would have made Dial of Destiny a different film, but I believe there could have been room for both, and that it would have made for an even more entertaining movie.
Instead of riding the roller coaster at breakneck speed, we might have had a chance to learn more about the people in the film and actually hear ourselves think. It would have been nice had Indiana Jones surprised us one more time.