Indiana Jones: Is Spielberg Too Rich and Famous to Be Good Anymore?

[marmar]

Indiana Jones: Is Spielberg Too Rich and Famous to Be Good Anymore?

By Eileen Jones, AlterNet. Posted May 26, 2008.

Spielberg's inventiveness fails a half-hour into the latest Indiana Jones, but the rest of the movie coasts on its zillion-dollar budget.



The first couple of scenes in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are good. I mean, really good. I was never more shocked than when I was sitting there in the theater having to revise all my expectations at a moment's notice: "Oh my gosh, Spielberg might've actually made a good film again! It's happening, right here, right now, after all these years!"

It was too wonderful to be true, of course, and the movie soon turned into just what you'd expect: a big-budget, corny, by-the-numbers sequel designed to please legions of nostalgic fans. But those first scenes, I'm telling you, presuming I wasn't having some sort of fantastic dream, were reminiscent of those long-ago Steven Spielberg genre films that made him famous in the first place.

This fourth Indiana Jones film, let's call it Indy IV, opens with a flat-out exhilarating drag-race scene in the harsh American desert between a carload of 1950s teenagers and the lead vehicle in a long, formidable U.S. Army caravan. So beautifully and unerringly shot, lit, cast and edited that it looks like a collective American fever dream of our insane post-World War II past, this bizarre race makes your heart thump with uncertainty. Is it going to end in comedy or tragedy, or split the difference? Will the soldiers and teenagers have one of those populist joyrides together and then amicably go their separate ways, or will the speeding teens wind up dead in a ditch, or will the soldiers open fire for sinister reasons yet to be revealed, or what? Spielberg plays so many complicated chords you can't be sure. David Lynch himself wouldn't be ashamed to claim a few of those chords.

But wait, there's more. Soon after that, there's a sequence I won't ruin for you that involves Area 51 and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) surviving a nuclear blast, mushroom cloud and all. Hot damn, here we go, I thought. I've had the basic training in American film noir, and when the postwar hero survives a version of his own death, look out -- you're in for something. For one brief, shining moment I really believed that Spielberg had finally decided to damn all commercial certainties to hell and realize his vast talents in one risky late-career enterprise.

Wrong. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/movies/86448/

[Larkspur]

1. I actually thought the 3rd Indy Jones was the best one

3, 1 and IV are how I'd rate them. I hated the second one.

I save Indy Jones IV last week and enjoyed it a lot.

[joeybee12]

4. The second was beyond bad. n/t

[Peregrine Took]

9. Is that the one with Spieberg's screamy wife in it? God! She ruined that

whole movie for me. To this day I cant bear to watch it.

[onehandle]

2. Although I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would, Spielberg and Lucas should hang it up.

As the years go by, the weaker they get and the more their reputation tarnishes.

I wish Lucas would have retired a second before he decided to do these last three "Star Wars Movies."

[trumad]

3. Indy was awesome....

and it wasn't that long ago that Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan....Also: Band of Brothers was wonderful. Steve's still got it in my mind... Now Lucas, that's a different story.

[onehandle]

5. Agreed. Steve can do it now and then. Lucas is over. nt

[Peregrine Took]

10. I heard a critic say it was Lucas that ruined it.

[Lorien]

6. While I agree about the most recent Star Wars films, I don't think

that Spielberg and Lucas suck nearly as much as 60% of the film directors out there right now. I actually enjoyed Indy 4, while I haven't enjoyed most of the movies I've borrowed from the library or seen in the theater in the past 5 years. Hell, the last two movies I WORKED on I never bothered watching because the dailies had been painful enough. One of the many reasons why I no longer work in that industry is because it sucks to spend a year of your life working on something and all the while thinking "now, just WHY did the studio think this piece of crap was worth greenlighting"? I was recently catching up with a former coworker who directed the Jackie Chan/ Jet Li movie "The Forbidden Kingdom". He's always been a bit of a screw up,and his reputation in the industry isn't good at all-but he always lands big budget projects to work on! Why?? I honestly don't know. People who don't even understand the mechanics of shooting a sequence get gigs directing big budget films! At least Spielberg and Lucas know continuity and when to switch from a long shot to a close up, which is more than can be said for many directors out there.

[onehandle]

7. They know how to direct. Especially Spielberg. Although I credit their long time set sidekicks...

...for much of their basic film perfection.

It's their creative that is waning. Especially Lucas.

"Mitachlorians." Shut the Hell up, George.

Also they are leaning way too much on CGI.

I liked the characterization in the new Indy movie. The CGI was over the top and cartoonish.

[tomreedtoon]

8. They aren't old. The movie business is.

This is, believe it or not, related to megacorporate control of the media. The only kind of film Spielberg or Lucas can make now IS the blockbuster. The industry demands it, and the Big Boys who own our media insist on it.

This wasn't always so. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was made on a shoestring budget, with a cheap string quartet instead of an orchestra. Smaller films allowed filmmakers to experiment. But when was the last time these guys were allowed to experiment? They can't even put a home video camera in their hands and do something in the backyard without getting lawyers and agents and McDonald's tie-ins associated with it.

By the way, check out the original post on Alternet (listed in the OP) if you want to read some fun responses. There is one by a guy who I believe is a street person with a tinfoil hat, calling the very Jewish Spielberg a Nazi. Seriously.

[yurbud]

11. It would have been better if Indy was trying to keep the commies from getting the bomb

[yurbud]

12. the first third was great, like Indy meets Dr. Strangelove and X Files

[ChazII]

13. Leaving in 10 minutes to see

the newest installment.

[katty]

14. it was a decent popcorn movie, spielberg's f/u to National Treasure

watch this...i will have more tombs and secret chambers/gold goodies than you can even dream of--+ alien craft fly up and away at the end!