Were you allowed to see Temple of Doom as a kid?

I was nine years old in 1984 when Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released. I had not yet seen Raiders but I was familiar with Indy and Raiders from comic books and audio adaptations and will forever hold myself for not seeing Raiders when it was released. As far as I was concerned there was absolutely zero chance that I was going to miss Temple of Doom.

Boy was I ever wrong.

My parents were split up at that point and my dad was living in another state so I was stuck with my mother who was doing a pretty decent job as a single parent.

Except in this particular instance.

When I told her I wanted to see Temple of Doom she decided to poll friend and family members like it was the freakin' Pepsi Challenge of something and...

I-suffice it to say-was not allowed to see Temple of Doom. Not only "Not allowed" but forbidden like it was crack-cocaine or my fathers service revolver forbidden. When I argued the point her eyes bugged out of her head as she told me of the "heart getting ripped out" and "the eyeballs in the soup" and all the horrible, brutal, bone-crushing violence of the flick.

Man did that woman ever make me want to see the flick!

But she had some stupid ideas about violence in the cinema turning people into psychopaths. It's a notion I find as ludicrous now as I did then. As if people are so programmable. So stupid. The realization that a lot of the way someone turns out being more environmental then learned through entertainment was alien to her was of thinking and thusly ever time I argued that I wanted... NAY... Needed to see this picture I was shouted down by this insane banshee who once vowed through clenched teeth and staring at me with wild eyes: "YOU WILL NEVER SEE THIS MOVIE!"

Well it's hard to argue with a wrong-minded nut but I was young and I was stupid and I kept losing. I got to read the comics adapation and the novelization for some reason but it wasn't really the same. The movie disappeared from theaters after a nice long run and went to home video.

And yes I was still forbidden to see the sucker when it came out on VHS.

Then one day I got lucky.

My parents got back together and my father brought with him a videotape of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It wasn't Temple of Doom of course but in a way it was better because I got to find out what I was missing all those years by not seeing Raiders.

I was missing a whole damn lot. What an exciting movie! I was as in love with it as I was any of the Star Wars movies and man did I ever want to be Indy!

But still I hadn't seen Temple of Doom and according to my mother I never would. And I was sad.

But life has a way of surprising people. One day when my mom was at work my dad brought home a movie he rented. It was titled: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Domm!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOO-BABY!

"Now don't tell your mother I let you see this" he prefaced things and I promised and I got to see the movie and I was blown away. The action. The excitement. The laughs. As an adult I know it wasn't the greatest of the Indiana Jones movies or even a great movie on it's own but to me it was the greatest experience I had ever had watching a VHS tape. Of course VHS sucks so you can see that I might be exaggerating a tad.

Anyway my dad was sly and returned the tape as soon as we finished it so we couldn't get caught. And then my mother came home and I like a moron said:

"GUESS WHAT I GOT TO SEE TODAY! INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM! HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Man did my dad get screamed at! Man did I ever get my revenge on my mom! That's the last time that woman ever said "NEVER" to me again!

Man life is good!

 

I just got finished reading your essay about the Prequels. Both are great! As a kid, we owned all of the Indiana Jones movies on VHS, but I always skipped over Temple of Doom. I really just didn't like it.

 

Thanks for the compliment. As for Tod... I know what you mean. It really was the least of the Raiders movies but... I wasn't allowed to see it so it meant so much more to me when I saw it. I was allowed to see both Raiders and Crusade and while they're my Indys of choice... ToD is the one that gives me the most satisfaction because... It's the one I got away with seeing.

 

Oddly enough, I only had one friend with any IJ movies, and the only one he had was ToD. We must have watched that a dozen times.

 

I saw it when I was 8 or 9 on VHS. I could be wrong on the age though I don't think I was over 10. It's hard to think that far back...

 

This story is hilariously funny. Your mother seems to have had some unusual notions. Your turning out to NOT be a psychopath -- after seeing all that despicable violence! -- must have thrown a wrench in her philosophy. At all events, the "heart-ripping" scene in ToD is presented in such a fantastical way -- with the victim still alive throughout, and the lighting being so garish and theatrical -- that it lacks much of an effect beyond a casual: "Hey, cool, there's a guy ripping another guy's heart out. Neat. Popcorn, anyone?"

EDIT: I was 14 in 1984, and by that age my mother let me see whatever I wanted to see. I was watching R-rated movies in the late 70s (though she'd cover our eyes, my sister's and mine, over certain scenes in horror films). We all went as a family to see ToD, just as 3 years ealier we'd gone to see Raiders. Actually, come to think of it, the only movie my mother forbade me to see was A Clockwork Orange -- but once I turned 14 she let me see that, and then of course all bets were off, because where can you go from there? It's kind of the pinnacle of the 'R' rating. But I digress.

 

Yup. I saw it opening day with my Dad. I love Temple of Doom to this day. It's by far the most underappreciated Indy film. I do remember the parents outcry that (at that time '84) it should have been rated R. That movie if you'll remember is the single reason for PG13.

 

I remember seeing it in the cinemas as well, all the family, including my preteen brother, during a vacation. Most of my friends saw it as well in the cinema as far as I can remember. It was not until much later that I even heard about the whole controversy about it and the PG13. I always thought that was kinda bizarre and funny since most people I knew had very liberal views about what movies to watch. It was an interesting Summer since you had films that were also borderline, in particular Gremlins.

 

Temple of Doom was the only Indiana Jones film I've ever seen in a movie theater on the big screen, and I saw it during its original run in the summer of '84 when I was eight. My whole family went and saw it together, and I don't remember my parents being concerned how violent the film was, or how if would affect us. My parents were pretty easy-going in that regard.

Besides, I knew even at that young age I knew that ripping a person's heart out with your bare hand was near impossible, and to live for a while afterwards......yeah, right. This was even more confirmed to me when I saw a "making-of" movie special that had stuff on ToD on PBS several months later. "So they used a robot to burn that guy?" I was like when I saw that.

Kids are smarter than people give them credit for.

 

I got very lucky with Gremlins. I was allowed to see that sucker after initally being forbidden to see it. The reason I was forbidden was that her friend's daughter had seen the movie and been badly scared by it. I thought that was a wussy reason because I was a boy. I found out later that the real reason was that my sister wanted to see it. I got the opportunity to see the movie with a family friend while my sister was with one of her friend's and my mother allowed it. I was on cloud nine. I figured I was that much closer to seeing Indy.

I was wrong.

After Gremlins I marched up to my mom and said: "Now do I get to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?"

"NEVER! NEVER WILL YOU SEE THAT MOVIE! BLAH-BLAH-BLAHBITTY-BULLCRAP-BLAH!"

Thank goodness my father was on the horizon...

 

Always play the parents off each other

I had ToD on VHS taped off TV when I was a kid. When I got the commercial VHS tapes, I was surprised that some parts (like the heart-ripping part) had been cut out on the tv version so I'd never seen them before.

My parents are fairly conservative, but have never laid a lot of actual rules. They prefer to trust us to make good decisions and to talk with us when we make bad ones. Worked really well, as neither my brother or I has ever done anything really stupid or broken the law or anything.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

I first saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when I was about 7 years old(I thik 1996) and it was a VHS copy of the movie my friend Cody had. Nither of us had seen Raiders or Last Crusade but we really wanted to see Indiana Jones. Needless to say, we loved every minute of it, and for me, the movie gets better every time I watch it. It's my favorite Indiana Jones film just because of how dark it is and how freakin cool Indy is in that movie, oh and ShortRound! Not to say the other two(especially Raiders) aren't dear to me, but this was my first adventure with Indiana Jones and will remain my favorite unless Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull beats it out.

 

I think some people are worried that KOTCS might have some ToD-like overtones. WHAT! That just makes me happy I mean, it's probably my least favourite Indy film, but that's like saying it's your least favourite child. I still adore it far above most films I have seen, and I would be happy to have another such film. That one's the funniest, for sure.

-sj loves kevin spacey