(Spoilers) Favorite Moments from the Crystal Skull and why?

Yeah, I thought is was used as irony, not patriotism, considering it was a mainland USA Atomic Bomb testing site.

Nice that it can mean different things to different viewers.

 

I don't think anybody has mentioned it but I loved how thing were "hitting" the camera. I noticed four but there may have been more. When Indy kicks the truck door and knocks a machine gun out of a Soviet soldier hands. When Spalko squishes the ant with her knees and when Marion is driving over the ant sawrm their guts splatter across the camera lense. And finally water splashing the lense during the water fall scene.

I've never noticed anything like this before in Indy but I thought it gave it a documentary feel at times.

 

1) "I like Ike."

2) "I thought that was closer."

3) I've got a bad feeling about this."

 

Continuing the thread of Indy acting more like his dad, I noticed just prior to the snake pit, Indy actually mutters "this is intolerable!" A lovely little detail.

 

I noticed that second viewing, very nice.

And my brother and I were sure Indy had stabbed himself ala Snr burning himself with that knife thing. Confusing.

 

Here's some of mine, a few of which have been mentioned already:
- "Damn I thought that was closer" (one of the funniest lines in the film)

- Mac's (re)double-cross in the Crystal Temple (I so totally wasn't expecting Mac to double-cross Indy TWICE in one movie)

- Indy looking at the pictures of his dad and Brody (one of the most poignant moments in the film)

- Indy watching the alien saucer fly away (so cool to see Indy in genuine AWE of something)

- Indy and Marion's reunion (Marion's line was great)

- Marion's reaction to Mutt showing up (so totally a 'mom' thing to do)

- Mutt using the skeleton to break up Indy and Marion's 'almost-kiss' (an almost-identical riff on the situation in Temple where Short Round breaks up Indy and Willie's kiss)

- Spalko's reaction just before she dies (mainly because it follows a theme of the movies' main antagonists being caught off guard by their own deaths)

 

I think it was a great moment, it also parallels the moment when he watches the mushroom cloud.

 

Aha, that makes a little more sense. Really needed some kind of payoff, though.

 

YES! I noticed that and thought it was great, but just now I recall that it's a Henry, Sr. line That's awesome. The whole idea of Indy sort of turning into his dad but still remaining himself is great. The scowl at Mutt over Marcus's statue was another (though, honestly, I really didn't think it was something to laugh about either. I was in Indy's place, just like, "Oh those bastards ")

As to the flag... ah, yeah, definitely thought that was ironic since all that's shown and said about the US Military at this time is not about having 'moral high-ground' at all but about the McCarthy era, the atomic escalation, etc. It's not scathingly harsh, but I mean... the fact that a bunch of US Army people get punked in that scene also makes the seem ironic to me, too.


-sj loves kevin spacey

 

I really loved that part where Spalko first meets Indy and tries to read his mind.

I have a thing for sharp Bettie Page bangs, and her eyes are mesmerizing.

 

In the overall context of the movie, which is full of baby-boomer nostalgia for the 50's, it just seems to stand for the one country that's still trying to do the right thing, even if there were obviously things going wrong like McCarthyism and stuff. It certainly would have a very different meaning, for most viewers, if the film were set in the late 60's, during the Vietnam era.

I think she also had the most interesting body language of any Indy villain.

 

She reminded me of this one really hot costumer from Celebration III.

[image=http://www.starwars.com/community/event/celebration/f20050419/20050419_picview/img/112.jpg]

Her poor boyfriend had to put up with a lot of dudes wanting to take her picture without him in it. They also both wore storm trooper outfits and helped control lines and stuff like that.

Bless her heart.

And I guess his too.

 

I want one of those!

 

Here is a shot I got of them both in trooper costume.

[image=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/Go-Mer-Tonic/f44e4203.jpg]

Sharp bangs seem to go with every outfit.

 

Holy...

I'm in love!

Another moment I liked was Indy talking about moms with Mutt. "You only get one of 'em kid, and they don't always last very long". (Or something like that.) Just one line, and it was kind of snuck in there...but little stuff like that goes a long way to giving the audience an emotional connection to the audience.

I'm not saying it's high drama or anything like that, but it kind of irks me when critics say that this was all spectacle and no character--I honestly connected with Indy as much as I've done in any other movie. And I liked his relationship with Mutt and Marion.

 

The last moment of the film when Indy takes the hat from Mutt and puts it on with a grin was just awesome .

--MissPadme

 

It is a beautiful line, it speaks volumes about Indy because he lost his mom at such an early age, and it contributed to the strained relationship with his father. It gets mentioned quite a bit in the Young Indy series, too.

 

Oh man, those Celebration shots sure take me back. Classic times.

 

Loved that scene two, morover if you think that when they have that dialogue they're walking through an exotic-location market, which remainded me a lot about that scene in Raiders where Marion and Indy walk through the market and tease each other about how a potential baby of them would look...

 

When the extradimensional "beings" all merge into one, that's a favorite moment of mine. It just surprised me, and I thought "this is a classic Spielberg-Lucas Indy moment."

And of course ILM did a great job on the shot.