Indiana Jones not an expert?

After watching the films countless number of time, I begin to wonder what area of he has. In 3 of the 4 films it was always someone else who was the expert.

ROTLA: Abner Ravenwood was the expert on the Ark.
TLC: Indy's dad was the expert on the Holy Grail.
KOTCS: Harold Oxley was the expert on the Skull.

Only TOD had no one being an expert. Sure Indy new about the Sankara stones but was he an expert?

It only seems to be that Indy is always being dragged into other people problems because he was the closest tie. It was never "Oh we have to call Dr Jones because he is the expert"

 

This is an interesting detail that I had never noticed and that I find somewhat amusing...perhaps he's an archaeology/antiquities "generalist"?!

Though since he has a Ph.D., he would have had to produce an original, research-based dissertation on a particular topic in order to complete the degree (usually a fairly narrow/specialized topic). I've never read any of the novelizations for the Indy films, but if anything from those ever mentions what his dissertation topic was, that would be a good indication of at least one area of his "expertise."

 

^ The Cross of Coronado? Maybe he proved conclusively that it belongs in a museum.

 

He wasn't even needed in ROTLA....

 

"Professor of archaeology, expert on the occult, and...how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities."

Indy may not know everything, but he knows a lot. And he knows where to go for information on anything he doesn't know, which is pretty smart, in itself.

And he carries a Webley, a Colt, and a bullwhip. Those settle any argument on the subject.

 

If he´s not an expert, then how come he teaches archeology in university?

 

Since he's the main character, I would say otherwise.

 

"Those who can, do, those who can't, teach"?

 

But he can and he do, the films clearly show that.

 

They don't show him doing real archaeological work though, mostly - they show him either "tomb raiding" or lecturing.

While there isn't a "Somewhere An Archaeologist Is Crying" TV Trope at the moment - I would guess that Indy would be the trope codifier if there was.

 

Watch any factual programme and there is always someone within fields of archeology and history that devotes their career to one particular subject, and they become the authority on it. I thought Indy being a teacher meant he was not an authority on one subject but had more of a broad knowledge of many subjects.

 

Well, first of all, let's not invest too much in any criticism regarding a lack academic authenticity. I mean, really, they're B-serial adventures. That being said, Indy IS in fact an expert ...in the fieldwork of archeology, in areas of excavation. Moreover, he's an expert treasure hunter—tomb raiding, map reading, traps, historical architecture/mechanics. Such skills are clearly evident in every film. Indy is almost instinctually gifted in this respect, constantly displaying a knack for detection. He also possess worldly knowledge in travel, logistics, remote customs and languages (eh, Hovitos notwithstanding).

 

Indy is amazing. Period. He was a professor (and showed that those who teach CAN do as well) and skilled as an adventurer.

Then, why need these other people? Simple.

1. If they showed Indiana Jones as all powerful and knowing, then we would not care as much about the character. There would not be much peril or suspense. It would also add to the disbelief of the movies (beyond what is there already).

2. Indy was meant to also be the character we could relate to. Yes, he is that superhero type, but also meant to be the everyman character the audience can relate to. We see through his eyes. Making him all knowing and infallible takes that wonder away to a degree.

3. We need the "experts" in those movies to help explain to the audience what's going on. If Indy knew everything, then who is going to explain it all? Once again, we as an audience see through his eyes. We were meant to go on the adventure with him. It is a tale of discovery, not "well I knew it all anyway."

****And I love the Big Bang theory as much as the next guy. But, it's a comedy. That whole nonsense about Indy not needed in ROTLA is funny but not realistic. Marion would have been dead (as well as countless other heroes) and the Ark would have still been in German hands (or whoever found it by the end). Murica! Plus, we would not have had a movie haha.

 

the people Indy deferred to were older .

 

Indy is definitely an expert. He just has a broad range of knowledge instead of a focus on one particular historical aspect.

 

Being Indy's T.A. must have been hell on those times when Indy went on his many adventures.

 

Indy is the hero and the expert characters are the mentor figures.

 

Here's a piece from The Last Crusade novelization:

"[Indy] was well aware that his father's reputation was a double edged blade. When it cut one way, it served to secure his position at the university. When it cut the other way, it made him feel like a second-rate scholar who never would measure up to the old man.
Maybe that was why he was irresponsible, and why he took chances. In his own way, he wanted attention. What he couldn't equal in scholarship, he could master in the field. And the field was forever a wide open space, full of adventure."

The novel's take on Indy (which matches the movies pretty well IMO) is a guy who's good but will never live up to his father in the world of academia, so he chooses to shine in fieldwork instead. Indy is well read and well informed, but he's also not the kind of person who can spend a lifetime immersed in ancient texts and academic research, so he probably never became an "expert" in a particular topic on the same level that Henry Jones and Abner Ravenwood did.

Officially, his specialty is fieldwork more than academia.

Unofficially, his specialty is the world of tomb raiders and treasure hunters and antiquities traffickers, the whole seedy underbelly of archaeology. If Marcus needs someone who can tell him everything there is to know about a particular relic, he asks Indy's father (or whoever the expert is for that particular field). But if he needs someone who's comfortable walking into a triad nightclub in Shanghai and "aggressively negotiating" that relic away from the local boss, he asks Indy.

 

Interesting, AF...thanks for posting that bit from the novel.

And let's not forget another of Indy's areas of expertise...getting the gals in his class to fall for him!






(as a girl in the 80s going to see Indy films, I could definitely identify with the above young lady!)

 

Indeed. Indy is a teacher of archaeology that moonlights as a tomb raider/adventurer. He is not himself a practicing archaeologist.

 

I think the thing to remember is Abner was obsessed with finding the Ark. Ditto Henry with the Grail. (I'm not sure to what extent Ox was obsessed by the Skull, though he certainly was possessed by it! ) They dedicated their whole lives to the quest. Indy is more a "general practitioner" so to speak. He never focused his research solely in one area,but followed up on different leads for different quests.

 

Maybe "expert" and person who risks life and limb to go collect the stuff, are two separate roles.

Actually, since Indy is a professor at university, he may be an expert, or generalist. However, academics tend to be a stuffy lot in fictional popular media, and it could be that donning battered clothes and running through dart-firing corridors might be regarded as "unseemly" and have him pushed down the hierarchy of experts in favour of the three-piece suit wearing type who never steps out of their university grounds.

 

He's a tenured professor at Marshall U. with a doctorate from the University of Chicago. They don't just hand those kind of credentials out to just anybody. He's gotta specialize in something. (Incidentally, I applied to UofC. Very difficult to get in to).

 

I think the movies simply never focused upon Indy's own specialty. They never mentioned them. His adventures always seemed to be about someone else's specialty or obsession - Abner Ravenwood obsession with the Ark, Henry Jones Sr.'s obsession with the Grail, and Harold Oxley's obsession with the Crystal Skulls. And in "Temple of Doom", Indy went after the Sankara Stones on behalf of a local Hindu priest and an Indian village.

 

Good luck with that, Dinos4Ever

Now that I have a bit of context, do you fancy a career as a palaeontologist?