Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

UK Release Date. 15 June 1984
Certification. 12A
Running Time. 1 hour 58 mins
Director. Steven Spielberg
Cast. Kate Capshaw, Harrison Ford, Amrish Puri, Ke Huy Quan.
Rating. 46%

Review.

Of all the films in the series, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom has aged the least well. The film features an extremely problematic depiction of India, specifically cultural stereotypes and the abhorrent, fanatical, human-sacrificing Thuggee cult, which can only be quashed by the great, white saviour (and the British Army).

In a franchise almost defined by the pursuit of recapturing the highs of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas should be applauded for endeavouring to create a sequel that would be very different from the first film. Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom is considerably darker than Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and although the film opens as if it were a knockabout Howard Hawks-style screwball comedy [the likes of Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday or Monkey Business], it abruptly morphs into a whole other film - a pulpy, gruesome horror story of escape and survival.

Indeed, when Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom opened in the US in May 1984, it stirred controversy - as did Gremlins a month later - over several scenes that some parents complained were too violent and traumatic. The furore prompted the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to create a new rating in the US between PG and R, called PG-13, which warned that “some material may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13.”

Set in 1935, a year before Raiders Of The Lost Ark took place, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom is strictly speaking a prequel. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is in Shanghai to exchange a priceless ancient artefact (an urn said to contain the remains of Nurhaci, the first emperor of the Manchu Dynasty) for a rare diamond. This is not the behaviour of the Indiana Jones we were introduced to in Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

The film strangely opens with an elaborate Busby Berkeley-inspired all-girl song and dance number, to Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, performed partly in Mandarin. The song title couldn’t be a truer statement. What follows is a poisoning, a killing (where a flaming shish kebab is employed as an improvised spear), a shootout, a chase sequence through the streets of Shanghai, a plane crash and an improbable dinghy escape - all within the film's first 20 minutes. Where Raiders Of The Lost Ark showed some restraint and was evenly paced, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom was anything but. 

Too many of the elaborate set pieces appear obviously filmed on a studio lot, as if in preparation for the unveiling of the subsequent theme park attraction or video arcade game. I, for one, remember the ridiculously difficult mine cart levels in Atari's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom video arcade game.

Yet, there's still a lot to like with Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. For one thing, Harrison Ford remains fully committed to the role. I'm not sure the same can be said for later instalments in the series. There's also the presence of an exuberant 12-year-old Ke Huy Quan as 'Short Round' - an absolute joy on screen - and the chemistry between Ford and Ke Huy Quan results in the film’s most endearing comedic moments. 

"I keep telling you. You listen to me more, you live longer!"