Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

The splendor of the meal adds to its enjoyment.

Be still my heart!

This was a good scene

https://www.dosdays.co.uk/media/games/indylc/sshot_5.jpg

CGI looks fake

Decided to do a Patreon writeup where I mostly thought about music in this one (and the other ones), but also some general thoughts about the whole cycle.

Today I learned that Crystal Skull is the highest grossing film in the series.

absurd, temple is clearly the grossest

Indiana Jones and the Dad Joke of Destiny.

You need to consider inflation when looking at film grosses. Temple of Doom made over $10 million in its first two days, which was fucking astronomical in 1984

Crystal Skull apparently made over $100 million its opening weekend.

$100 mill in 2008 is impressive, but still not as crazy as Batman ‘89 clearing $100 mill in 10 days

Agreed! But the Batman hype and marketing was historic.

I saw Last Crusade on opening night in 1989 and I can confirm that the #1 thing people were talking about after the movie was Batman trailer at the beginning. There was even a trailer for Star Trek V (which no one knew was bad yet), but even in a crowd of Star Trek fans everyone was "hfs that Batman trailer"

That Batman trailer is so poorly cut together, but it still created an unbelievable buzz

I don't even remember what the third trailer was, maybe The Abyss? Whole theaters losing their minds at the Batman trailer.

If you saw Last Crusade in 70mm, it might have been The Abyss

Confirm on 70mm, so yah - probably The Abyss.

That Batman trailer is so poorly cut together, but it still created an unbelievable buzz

Batman trailer was cut together by Jon Peters personally. Probably the best thing he ever did.

Saw this yesterday and...I wasn't completely disappointed? It's a 21st C Lucasfilm/Disney joint so fan service will rear its ugly head throughout but not in the sledgehammer-y ways the SW sequels tended to do. Captured some spirit of the old films at times and that was enough to keep me in my seat. As Ned mentions above John Williams put in * a lot* of work here. Ford does his thing well. Phoebe Fleabag is a headscratcher for me. She always comes across as goofily self-satisfied and unlikeable but she's in this thing throughout so if you're a fan you'll have a lot to love. I hope this is IT, though. Let it rest.

Oh, wait! It wasn't Ned mentioning JW doing more work than normal on this one. I conflated it with a non-ILX friend's comment. Never mind.

Talked to a friend who saw it, and he had a great time. But there was some sentimental handicapping, I suspect, since he and his kids saw a series of one-off theater screenings of the previous four leading up, which means not only was the whole nostalgia machine in full-effect, but that also means he'd seen "Crystal Skull" most recently, which sets the bar pretty low.

I dunno, there are several Star Wars movies/shows I just never bothered with, but I like Ford and Indiana Jones, so I'll eventually see this. On Disney+. It just feels so unnecessary, and maybe wouldn't if "Crystal Skull" didn't exist, and *this* was the actual big, belated send-off to a beloved character, and not just a re-do of same that its predecessor attempted yet didn't pull off.

If nothing else I was thoroughly amused by the fact that they went right ahead and Neidermeyered good ol' Mutt and then had to have Indy and Marion act as if this was a sad thing -- and all without specifically mentioning Vietnam once in the entire movie in any context.

"Hell No! We Won't Go!"

saw this last week and I thought it was a lot of fun, headlines like this: "Opinion: Indiana Jones passes his mantle to the queen of millennial side-eye"(https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/05/opinions/indiana-jones-harrison-ford-phoebe-waller-bridge-thomas/index.html) likely didn't help the box office since it makes it sound like she is taking up the role going forward which is not the case at all.

it would have been really funny if the last scene was a sentimental rendition of the theme accompanied by phoebe waller-bridge snatching the hat off the clothesline

the names Bond, Indiana Bond

It's weird because she plays a larger part than Mutt - without the father issues she has: interiority! a sidekick! a sidekick with interiority, for a bemusing 5 seconds! And when she's got stuff to work with, she's good, but the rest of the time she's just paid on a wry-smiles-per-minute basis.

i enjoyed this, but was bracing myself for the ending - all of the reviews i saw made it sound like things go completely off the deep end into ridiculous schlock. but i thought it fit fine in the context of the series? i mean its extremely fantastical, but for a series where Indy has previously met & conversed with a knight from the crusades, been subject to voodoo mind control, and had God literally come down from heaven and smite his enemies, this one didnt feel like some crazy departure.

Indy 3 has better lines ("Goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them!" and "I find that if I just sit down the problem resolves itself").

new one could have used a Stoppard pass.

I found this film quite satisfying, especially the ending.

It's definitely in the top 3 IJ films, maybe top 2.

Strikes me that Ford doesn't act much. A lot of action, running, grouching - but not much of what you would really want a good actor to do (conversation, expressions, emotion) - even by the standards of A NEW HOPE or RAIDERS.

PW-B seems to me the risky crux of this film. She's irritating, she seems almost embarrassingly limited in mostly reprising her other famous role here, she smirks and smiles when things should be serious. Yet, as correctly noted above, she's in the film almost throughout. I think it's best or necessary to accept these limitations and irritations and posit that, as something different from the rest of the franchise, she brings a certain spark that does help it keep going to the end.

I consider action, running, and grouching acting imo.

His grouching is flawless, even by his very high standards!

This is not, I think, the first time that someone has smirked and smiled their way through a serious situation, even within an Indiana Jones film.

It was pretty funny that his reaction to the entire astronaut parade was "who gives a shit"

Truth be told, I think Ford is underappreciated as an actor. For a while, he was the closest thing we had to Gary Cooper, even moreso than Kevin Costner (who used to get a lot of those comparisons) and it was all in the face. Cooper was unrivaled in close-up, especially in his older years, and the anxiety and the distress that was naturally there in his aging features (and which spoke volumes in the right context) was something Ford had. I don't think Ford did enough films that really took advantage of that, and when he tried, those attempts rarely got enough notice. (Witness may be the lone exception. It's too bad he turned down Syriana and Traffic, what a resurgence that would've been.)

I almost want to say The Fugitive is the best example of his talents because it was a widely seen movie that amazingly got a lot of acclaim for an action film, but Tommy Lee Jones gets all the attention. To be fair, Jones is great, but Ford's role was challenging in a very different way - it's a lead role where the character has to avoid interaction or even just to be seen. So as an actor, he's really left to his own devices, but he carries it remarkably. It's almost a silent performance where 99% of that performance is just in the face and his body language, and he's great, there's not a moment where he doesn't seem like somebody who's carrying a lot of anguish without being obvious about it.

otm. i rewatched The Fugitive recently after many years and found myself floored by Ford's performance. i never really thought of it as an acting vehicle for Ford before, but seeing it through that lens, he pulls off some extraordinary stuff in it.

I have a memory of watching The Fugitive opening weekend and my cousin leaning in to whisper, "This guy's a hell of an actor." Burt Lancaster said a similar thing in 1981 when he wondered why Ford wasn't nominated for an Oscar.

I can believe that Ford may be a very good actor - which is why I'm somewhat disappointed that he isn't given more substantial acting to do in this film.

I think the secret to his acting is it’s not flashy and seems unsubstantial to the point people think he’s just being Harrison Ford, but that’s not at all true

Americans who think art should look difficult and require Method-y research condescend to star actign.

as an actor, I'm not going to disparage whatever inspiration actors use to create their performance, but internally, I hate method acting simply because people who subscribe to it often falsely suggest to other people that it's the 'only' way to act authentically, and a great, growing number of people use it to justify abusive behavior on set/on stage. ("I'm sorry I hurt you, but I need to be this character on and off stage, and that's what he would have said or done").

Ford's "How are you?" ad lib in Star Wars still cracks me up

method = rockism obv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k-6X2H7pCo

I think the best part of Ford interviews is the revelation that he is funny, even goofy at times, but his sense of humor isn’t really that of any of the characters he’s played.

as an actor, I'm not going to disparage whatever inspiration actors use to create their performance, but internally, I hate method acting simply because people who subscribe to it often falsely suggest to other people that it's the 'only' way to act authentically, and a great, growing number of people use it to justify abusive behavior on set/on stage. ("I'm sorry I hurt you, but I need to be this character on and off stage, and that's what he would have said or done").

― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal)

My non-scientific theory: Adler, Strasberg, et. al. developed the Method so that actors could feel better about a profession they thought was unmanly or something. Plus, actors love nothing so much than to prattle on a talk show about how much RESEARCH they did for the part; showing your work is an American phenomenon.

this is akin to my lazy rockism quip, yes, it's about making your ephemeral trade important and yeah of course that ties into work, machismo etc

xpost lol....yeah totally.

In 2018 I played Samuel Byck in Assassins. Obviously I knew all about who he was and what he did by that point, but there was a brief moment where I was seduced by the dumb Jared Leto way of doing things so I wound up listening to the only known recordings of Byck and trying to mimic his voice, and after two days I stopped myself and said "who the fuck knows or cares what Byck sounded like? That's a parlor trick, not acting", and I just used my own voice. wasn't doing the 'staying in character even backstage' nonsense, was cracking fart jokes minutes before going on stage most nights. and won an award anyway.

so there, Method!

hurray!

i realise i'm sidetracking a thread i'm not bothered about so sorry i shd take it elsewhere but this is fun

https://aurorasginjoint.com/2017/08/05/the-a-b-cs-of-robert-mitchum/

You're not hijacking -- this is important.

neanderthal, the mimicking of someone’s voice, attempting a particular physical style that’s not your own, etc is pretty far from anything described as The Method ime. the most famous part of The Method is about summoning up emotional memories from your own personal experience as a tool for understanding how the character you’re playing might react to something - which is kind of the opposite of what you’re describing (effacing yourself in service to a character)

everybody’s got their own way and my impression is that Ford doesn’t have much or any training at all but i’m probably just basing this on the famous story of him being a set carpenter and only accidentally an actor (i suspect it was less accidental than he has allowed the myth to indicate)