Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom [1984]

A couple of days ago I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark,  the first movie in the Indiana Jones franchise which would become a cult classic. Today we're going to be talking about Temple of Doom, and I don't think I have much to talk about this movie, to be honest. It's a sequel, one that puts INDIANA JONES squarely in the title because it's gone beyond the one-shot-and-done mentality of Raiders. Yet, at the same time, as the internet tells me, Temple of Doom is meant to be a prequel. Not that there's much to really tie Temple of Doom to Raiders of the Lost Ark, mind you, beyond Indiana Jones' presence as a protagonist in both movies.

Temple of Doom is a flawed movie, albeit still managing to retain an aura of fun about it. It's really hard to justify some of the flaws of the movie some thirty years later, though, simply because of how utterly racist it gets at times, so let's tackle that part of my criticism first. Firstly, the opening act's racist Chinese businessmen, who are not only greedy bastards that cackle like morons when Indy drinks the cup of poison, and instead of smartly waiting for Indy to die from the poison instead elects to taunt him. There's also the sheer incompetence of the hired pilots, who, for no particular reason other than to facilitate Indy's crash-landing in India (which is a lot further from China than the map implies, mind you) decides to jump ship with a parachute instead of shooting them or pushing them out of the plane. 

It's not entirely racist, mind you, with several positive supporting Chinese characters like Indy's plucky sidekick Shortround, and that other Chinese dude that got his ass shot in the opening scene. A lot of people find Shortround annoying, and while I can see that, I actually find him a refreshing breath of air because while he does shout every single line he is given with a less-than flattering thick accent, he's also a very competent sidekick and one whose friendship with Indy is at least portrayed very well.

The portrayal of India is a bit less... well done, with the good guys' village being shown to be run down and ramshackle and backwards, with weird nasty-looking food that our protagonists tolerate at best, and cultures that some of the white characters make fun of. And it's not even shot in India, but in Sri Lanka, so it's not even the right group of Asians. It gets worse when we get to the palace, where the only flimsy justification for the racist portrayals is that they're all under the control of the psychotic Kali-worshiping cult. Despite Kali being an actual goddess in the Hindu pantheon, and while these particular cultists are insane, the movie's portrayal of Kali as this demonic figure demanding human sacrifice is pretty sacrilegious. And that's not to mention the whole 'look at all these yucky food! Indians eat eyeball soup and monkey brains, how horrifyingly grotesque!' scene, which can, I suppose, be justified by the Kali cult trying to gross-out Indy and the others, but still, the racist implications are still there.

I dunno. Older Hollywood movies tend to have some measure of racist undertones, but I felt that Temple of Doom kind of took it too far. That doesn't stop me from actually enjoying the movie and laughing at some parts of the racism, mind you, but the movie has a fair amount more problems than racism.

And the biggest problem is easily Willie. Coming off Raiders of the Lost Ark, where main girl Marion has her moments of trying to outfox Belloq, or her action scenes in the bar, giving her equal amounts of 'damsel in distress' moments and 'independent character' moments. It's not perfect, and Marion has her share of annoying screeching moments, but that pales compared to Willie, who spends 100% of her screentime either being a spoiled princess ("I cracked my nail!" "I don't wanna eat weird exotic food!") or being a screeching harpy. And I know she's a dancer that gets dragged against her will, but shit, that doesn't mean she has to stick for the entire movie!

Let's talk about what the movie does right, which is, as ever, atmosphere and set pieces. I'm not a big fan of the weird fight at Club Obi-Wan, which felt more like slapstick comedy than anything, but Indy and Short Round going off to free the enslaved children and recover the mystical plot device from the Thuggees. It might go a little bit too mystical mumbo-jumbo for my tastes compared to the previous entry (where the only supernatural bit was only the Ark vaporizing the Nazis at the end) but otherwise it's fun stuff as we jump from one cool set piece to the next. From the surprisingly graphic heart-ripping magical ritual with the unfortunate sap being sacrificed to hellfire, to the fight against the slave driver, to evil Indy, and most importantly, to the amazingly choreographed roller coaster ride in the mine, it's breakneck action afterwards.

Now if only Willie was written out of this movie!

It's fun stuff, with lots of action scenes and fun swashbuckling moments, and while nowhere near as good as the first movie (sequels rarely are, Empire Strikes Back and Winter Soldier notwithstanding) it's still one that, while having a relatively large amount of weak parts, still gave me a decent time while watching it once I get past the racist undertones.