Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom Fans

I love Short Round's theme, esp. played during the elephant scene.

 

Temple of Doom has the best Indy soundtrack IMO. Every time it was on HBO when I was a kid, I used to sit through the entire end credits just for the music. I also remember a few times holding my tape recorder up to the TV so I could record some of my favorite musical moments (including the elephant ride!) And yes, I realize I'm showing my age right now.

 

Willie's theme as well. Although Marion's theme from Raiders is sublime.

 

Yes and Yes. --> John Williams.

 

Yes March of the Slave Children is quite a stirring theme.

 

I watched Raiders and TOD back to back a few weeks ago. It's amazing how well they still hold up and never get old.

 

Temple of Doom just has this silly, maigical dream like quality to it. there's really no other movie like it.

 

Regardless of how Spielberg and Lucas personally feel about it, you can tell they went full throttle with it. From the moment it opens it's non-stop thrills.

 

It has no pretense of being anything other than a full-throttle, boys own adventure story. It's the darkest but also the most accessible I think. I've probably said this before but it can be watched as a stand-alone action adventure without even seeing Raiders, and you can easily pick up who is who and what is going on. The story is silly, but very simple, there are no confusing plot points to think about. The antagonists are easy to identify, and are colourful and cartoon-like. It just rattles along getting faster and faster and by the time it has reached the end, not only have you watched them on the mine car "ride" but you feel exhilarated, as if you have reached the end of a ride yourself.

It helps that Ford was in great shape and looked good in this one, from the moment he sits down in the club looking tanned and athletic in the white dinner jacket. He was up there rocking it like the classic Hollywood leading men / movie stars.

It will never date, and I see it as the companion piece to the more "grounded" tone of Raiders.

 

It does suffer though from being basically a remake of Gunga Din, with all the imperialistic ideology thereof. Quick, call in the British army! We need to save the hapless Indians from their evil death-goddess cult!

 

I dunno, it’s hardly “The Jewel in the Crown”, and Chatter Lal has a dig at the British when he, Indy and Captain Blumbert meet before the dinner at Pankot Palace. The rifle company only turn up at the end for a very short scene so I don’t feel that it is too intrusive.

 

yeah I've never had a problem with it. I'd call it more outdated that outright racist. Besides it's tongue in cheek.

 

I believe there was some controversy among the Indian authorities after reading the script concerning possible false public perception of Hinduism. They ended up declining permission to film there and most of the film ended up being shot in Sri Lanka. That said, one of my childhood friends at the time was Indian and he loved it (not sure what his folks thought about it though).

The most over the top scene was the palace banquet obviously. India has an almost entirely vegetarian culture. I admit most of the time I will fast forward through that scene. Still makes me queasy.

 

there is a giant elephant santuary in Sri Lanka where they filmed it. I want to go there.if you google pics of it it looks right out of the movie.

 

That scene tends to draw the most ire from critics who refer to it as being offensive and ignorant in how Indian culture and cuisine was depicted. I never saw it like that, but instead I see it as just another example of how Pankot Palace has become this sinister place with some weird stuff going on.

I'm sure I read somewhere that there was a deleted scene which depicted a hooded Mola Ram skulking about in the palace corridors at night after that dinner. That would have been a cool thing to see if true.

 

it's like a fascinating nightmare that keeps bringing you back isn't it?

 

It's not so much that the authorities declined permission to film there, but that they made significant demands, such as to not use certain terms like Maharaja, and the right to final cut, which were deemed completely unacceptable. Robert Watts told Spielberg and Lucas that they could get almost everything they need in Sri Lanka, minus the palace, so that's where they were heading instead. In other words: they weren't really denied permission to film in India, they opted to film elsewhere on their own, due to the demands that were made.

 

Thanks for the correction.

 

Definitely. I always preferred The Last Crusade as a kid but I remember when I revisited Temple of Doom a while back for the first time in a long time this scene is where it really dawned on me that Temple was my favorite.

 

Last Crusade is great as well. and the original is pretty much a perfect movie. but for some reason I watch TOD the most.

 

To me TOD is really the peak of the series. Raiders wasn't bad but it really never impressed me that much, never had the "wow" effect like ANH did. This may offend some fans, but Raiders to me was always an "OK" film, while TOD really felt like THE ultimate big adventure and is to me the essence of Indiana Jones. It didn't impress me as much as ANH did (of course I was younger then) but TOD came close. And I think it was the only movie I saw at a theater after which the audience actually applauded. The only other non-SW movie after that which impressed me like that was probably Aliens. Last Crusade, again, was sort of OK, but I simply couldn't get very enthusiastic about it. There was a lot of Raiders re-hash.... (incompetent) Nazis AGAIN, an artifact from the bible AGAIN. While it's still pretty decent it's just nowhere near as entertaining as TOD. It may be blasphemy for some, but to me TLC felt a little like TFA, too much of what we had already seen before. Where the series kind of jumped the shark was Crystal Skull. But there is another thread for that.

I don't remember any mention was made in the movie at all regarding Hinduism. The Thuggee were a sect, certainly not regular Hindus. That explains Pankot Palace's weird dinner. And you should not confuse what is happening at Pankot with actual Indian culture. It's like accusing a moderate Muslim for extremist ISIS fundamentalists.
Besides, Raiders and Last Crusade are also full of "racist" cliches, all Germans are Nazis and Egyptians stupid.

 

Whoah there, I think you misunderstood my post. I'm not the one who's confused about authentic Hinduism/Indian culture vs. what was in TOD. Not in the least. I had several Indian friends growing up and was at their house all the time and had dinner with their parents. I was merely reporting that Indian authorities were worried about ignorant people believing what they see in the movies. That was the rumor I'd heard, but apparently it was not correct. But no, I don't "accuse" TOD of anything, and neither do I accuse moderate Muslims of being extremists, etc. I don't know how you can possibly lump me in with that mindset based on my post. And yeah, I'm well aware that all of these movies are caricatures of reality. I'm not that dense, dude. lol

 

If somebody said to me "Describe the best of Hollywood action cinema using just one image" I would respond with this...

 

No, I think you misunderstood. I know you didn't make those claims, nor was I directing my reply at "you" personally. I meant the general "you" in the sense of "one". I quoted you only because you brought up the topic, and gave my own thoughts on it. In no way did I mean to attack you! My mistake, I should have made it clearer and have written "ONE should not confuse..." Hope the misunderstanding is cleared up now.

 

spit out coffee all over keyboard at Raiders being described as an "okay movie."