Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom Fans

Thought it'd be good to have a thread for fans of Temple Of Doom. If it's your favorite Indy movie or at least cracks your top two of the series, this is the thread for you.

TOD has always been my favorite of the series. While Raiders is also a classic and another favorite of mine, I think TOD is plainly the most entertaining and easily rewatchable of the series. I always liked the much darker tone and more eerie approach it took and how at times it's so much like a Horror movie. It's got the best villains, action and music of the series, Indy at his most cutthroat but also heroic, and some of the best and most iconic moments of the series are in TOD. Can't hate the movie that gave us the likes of the spike/bug chamber, the sacrifice, the mine cart chase, showdown on the bridge, etc. and some may not like the lack of Nazis as the villains but I always thought it felt fresh having totally different enemies and this movie showed Nazis aren't always a necessity for the series.

I hate the bashing and hate TOD gets so much but it's good to see it has it's share of fans and defenders. Truly one of my all-time favorites alongside the original. The series as a whole is excellent and I'd always be very hard-pressed to imagine it without TOD.

 

I love TOD a lot, it stands apart from Raiders in a major way, more so than any of the others.The music is a lot better than Raiders too.

To be honest, Raiders has always been by least favourite of the 4, I just find it a bit cold. I know that opinion is not a popular one, but I much prefer Indy after Raiders, he feels more like a hero, good at heart, like when he frees the Thugee slaves.

 

I loved TOD as a kid. When I watched it again as an adult, it wasn't nearly as fun. It was a bit more over the top slapstick compared to Raiders (which was light hearted to begin with).

But it is funny that you started this thread because I've been thinking about re-watching it again. Always going to love Short Round. As a kid, you immediately wanted to be Short Round running around on a crazy adventure with Indy.

 

I love this movie. Minus this........

 

Definitely my favorite Indy. Best action and best companions.

 

I liked Mola Ram. He was a good villain.

 

It's the only Indy film that blew me away when I saw it in the theater. This is the movie that turned me into a hardcore Indy fan.

The entire opening sequence in Club Obi-Wan is brilliant! Nice touch, Mr. Lucas. The scene is very James Bond-esque. Steven Spielberg has said that he would have liked to direct a James Bond film. It seems pretty clear to me that this scene was inspired by the Bond franchise and was the next best thing for Mr. Spielberg.

On a side note, I'm very interested in the scene in which it appears that Willie escapes when she and Shorty are ambushed by the Thugees. In the novelization, she escapes and makes it all the way back to the palace, only to be brought by back by Indy after she falls asleep in his arms. I can't find a clip on YouTube, but if you watch that particular scene, you can clearly see Willie getting away while Shorty yells, "Run, Willie, run!" It appears that an additional scene of Willie making back to the palace was filmed and not included or not filmed at all. My guess is that it was never filmed. Anybody have any information on this scene?

 

According to the making of book, Spielberg deleted those scenes (129 and 132, in which the bewitched Jones returns to the palace and kidnaps Willie) during principal photography (on June 16, 1983), which I assume it means they were never filmed. Part of the reason seems to be that Ford's back pain was increasing and they wanted to get through the shooting as fast as possible. So they decided that those scenes wouldn't be needed anyway.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the info!

 

I wouldn't be surprised if that scene might be in the novelization, given that film novelizations often include different or additional material from the films.

 

It is in the novelization. That’s where I first learned of it.

 

Heres a really interesting piece of history, its the actual notes from the British Board of Film Classification when they viewed the film prior to its release and certificaiton and the changes that they recommended to be made. Just clink on the pdf at the bottom of the listing to view it.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/archive…-temple-doom

 

Ah. Always interesting when things like that make it into novelizations and aren't present in the film. Probably since a lot of the time the authors get the scripts to work with and during filming the scripts tend to be changed sometimes, while the author is still working with the original script.

 

Yes, it’s very interesting. A couple of differences between the novelization and film versions of The Last Crusade are worth noting. In the novelization, the butler at the castle says to Indy, “If you are a Scottish Lord, then I am Lord Byron.” It appears that “Mickey Mouse” was dubbed into the film, as the butler’s mouth movements don’t match what he is saying. In the novelization version of the invisible bridge scene, Indy’s “leap of faith” is believing that he can jump across the chasm. He doesn’t know that the invisible bridge is there. He psychs himself up, starts at the back of the tunnel, runs full speed and jumps, landing on the invisible bridge. That is his reward for believing that he can jump across the chasm. I actually prefer this version to the filmed version.

 

Really interesting! It does sound more "realistic", although I believe it's a clear example of "what works on page doesn't work on screen". The tense buildup towards that "leap of faith" in the movie would probably be diminished if we were to see a physical stunt (runing and jumping), because it would be much more dinamic and external, instead of an internal, quiet step.

 

I definitely wish they had gone with that. Sounds far better and more cinematic.

Wonder if there's any similar differences like that in TOD's novelization?

 

Other than Willie making it back to the palace, I don’t remember any significant differences, but it’s been over 30 years since I’ve read it.

 

I have a fondess for TOD because it seemed it was always playing on ABC's Sunday Night Movie back in the late 80s and early 90s. We would only ever watch up to the point where they have dinner at the palace. As soon as the cut open the snake my mother would change the channel since she hated snakes. I managed to see the mine car chase and other bits here and there but it wasn't until 1999 when the films were rerelease on VHS that I finally saw it completely in one sitting.

 

I remember back in the day that my first exposure to Indy was watching Raiders when it first came out on home video, every Saturday my dad gave me 1 video to pick from the local VHS rental store and Raiders was a film I chose regularly. They were great times to be growing up as a film fan, everything seemed to be much more of an event and then of course came the advent of home video. Raiders is one of my favourite films of all time, its the perfect action adventure

When TOD came out my dad got a really good quality pirate copy of it and I was really excited to see it. TBH I was diappointed in it for a long time. I don't think its as breathless as Raiders, I felt theres a massive lull from when they land in India to when they discover the temple, it didn't seem as expansive, the Sankars stones didn't seem as important, some of the humour was too slapstick.......... However, for me time has been kind to this film. Back then I realise I was watching it with the baggage of Raiders, I was comparing it constantly because like I said film releases were an event and not as readily accesible as these days, but nowadays I'm not comparing them because both films are now well over 30 years old, Raiders isn't that mythical point of reference I always had to compare to and I can enjoy the films in their own right now.

TOD has got some really good stuff in it, some real quality action scenes, arguably Harrison Ford is at his peak here. Hes perfect. Mola Ram could be my favourite villain. I don't find Willie as annoying as I used to, I get that shes just a damsel in distress and was designed to be the polar opposite of Marion. Its something different to Raiders and for that I think its to be applauded, it would have been very easy to make a Raiders clone, and they didn't. Even though Raiders is still my favourite TOD is still a dam good action film that easily sets the bar high and is better than many that have followed since and is something I can enjoy watching at any time.

IMO the format of this kind of action film and also Jedi from the year before are films that set the template for the action adventure movie in how they are paced and structured.

 

I loved ToD, Mola Ram is the best villain in the entire series.

 

Without question he is. I don't think Indy ever had such a terrifying villain like him.

 

TOD was the first of the series I saw. I was maybe 2 or 3 at the time? My mind was totally blown at that age. I saw Raiders sometime after and loved it too, but there was just something TOD had about it that always made it my go-to Indy movie.

 

TOD is a stone cold classic. They don't make movies like this anymore. The villain is one of the best from any film. He's brutal and scary....and the film as a whole has an incredible atmosphere about it too. But through all of this it's still inventive and fun.

 

I had never sat and watched Temple of Doom all the way through until I was an adult-in the early 2000's-when they came out on DVD. So I wasn't able to enjoy it as a kid unfortunately, when I imagine I would have loved it. (My mom thought it was too scary/violent, although they let me see raiders as early as age 6). Because of that, I see it as overly campy. But I get now that that is intentional, so it makes more sense to me. And although I love the story, action scenes and Short Round, I really did not like Willie Scott, with all her incessant shrieking. I will agree Mola Ram was a great villain though! "You will, Dr. Jones...You will become....a TRUE BELIEVER!!!!!!"

As far as the score, I enjoy it-it's very unique and appropriate for an Indiana Jones film, but I don't see why so many people hold it so high in the series. IMO the scores for Last Crusade and Raiders was much more dramatic and iconic. But I suppose scores between films within a series is a matter of taste really...

I will say that I have come to enjoy Temple of Doom much more in the last couple years-not sure why. It still doesn't hold a candle to Last Crusade, which is my favorite, but maybe it's cos it hearkens back to a simpler way of making movies, in a time when films didn't need to be so complex in plot and overloaded with CG in mindless action sequences.

 

Slave Children's Crusade is a very dynamic piece of music, it sounds incredibly heroic and empowering. Easily my favorite piece of music in the series.