It was released in American theaters on May 23, 1984 (it arrived here after the summer, on September 27) “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom/ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, highly anticipated sequel to “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, a (surprise) global success in 1981 which confirmed the mass infallibility of the intuitions of Steven Spielberg (and his partner-rival George Lucasco-author of the subject).
Forty years ago, cinema was still capable of relaunching the present by reworking the past and create new mythical characters: and the deeds (also inspired by the “cliffhanger” production of half a century earlier) of the archaeologist Henry Jones Jr. known as “Indiana”, a reckless adventurer divided between the relative quiet of university teaching and the frenzy of his exploits in the four corners of the globe, were able to instantly establish themselves in the collective imagination thanks also to the iconic characterization of Harrison Ford, who consolidated his role as a star while the trauma of the fate of the “hibernated” Han Solo in second chapter of the “Star Wars” saga (“The Empire Strikes Back/The Empire Strikes Back”, 1980).
Initially rejected by Tom Selleck (delusionally convinced that for his career it would have been much more important and profitable not to abandon the television series “Magnum PI”), the role of Indiana Jones would later become a fixed point in the actor’s extraordinary filmography, much to be reinterpreted three more times (in 1989, in 2008 and finally, out of time, in 2023): and for the second of his cinematic forays, Lucas and Spielberg decided to precede the events by a year compared to the prototype, thus making made the one narrated in the film as the first of the adventures of the pentalogy.
In the opening words of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, the hero finds himself in a nightclub in Shanghai, the Obi-Wan (a new wink from Spielberg to the “Star Wars” saga after effigy of the famous droids R2-D2 and C-3PO fleetingly visible among the friezes of the “well of souls” in the first film), where he survives a poisoning during a mission gone awry to recover an ancient artifact; and finds himself having to escape his young Chinese orphan helper “Short Round” (Ke Huy Quam) and singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) on board a cargo plane.
Since the aircraft is also owned by its client/rival Lao Che (Roy Chiao), the three are abandoned by the pilots who arrange for their crash in the Himalayas: but after a surreal and successful rescue attempt aboard an inflatable dinghy ( sic!) find themselves welcomed into an Indian village reduced to extreme poverty. The inhabitants, who identify Indiana Jones as the savior promised to them by the god Shiva, ask him for help to recover a sacred stone stolen from their sanctuary, but above all to discover what will be the fate of their children, kidnapped and segregated in the nearby palace of Pankot.
Here, Indy, Wille and Short Round are cordially welcomed by the young mahrajah, whose officials flatly reject the hypothesis advanced by the archaeologist according to which the Thuggee cult is responsible for the ruin of the village; but soon the truth is revealed. After surviving an assassination attempt, Indiana Jones discovers the existence of a hidden temple where the ancient sect led by the high priest Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) practices human sacrifices and uses children as slaves in underground mines to recover the last two of the magical five “stones of Sankara”, donated by the gods to humanity to fight Evil, but which in the hands of Mola Ram would end up giving him unlimited power.
Temporarily corrupted by the cult’s black magic, Indiana Jones will then manage to free himself from the spell with the help of Short Round, as well as daringly recover the stone and free the little slaves. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz signed the schematic screenplay of the film, taking over from none other than Lawrence Kasdan who had handled the much more effective draft of the first, compared to which this episode appears darker and more horrifying (but inevitably less structured) and despite this in some measure aimed at an even younger audience (as unequivocally demonstrated by the not exactly successful idea of having the cute Chinese child act as the protagonist’s “sidekick”).
Spielberg, probably aware of this “weakness”, however, shifts into fifth gear from the first minutes: and if the initial action/musical sequence to the tune of a surreal version sung in Mandarin of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” is still a of the most beautiful ever created for the saga, the rest is not easily forgotten either: from the “horror” banquet at court with stomach-churning dishes to the “rollercoaster” ride on mining wagons (an almost videogame concept in an era in which computer technology games did not yet allow those rhythms and that “visuality”; and in fact later plundered by the entire videogame industry, from Donkey Kong on down).
The result, incomparable to that of the prototype (which instead will succeed in the subsequent “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, 1989, where a monumental Sean Connery will embody Indy’s father revealing to the world the origin of his nickname…), remains , forty years later, as divisive as it was upon its release. Everything is in its place (including John Williams’ famous march), and expectations are not betrayed to some extent (there is also a memorable gag which absurdly overturns a very famous one from the first film: the one in which Indy searches, this time without finding it, the gun to kill an attacker); but critics and fans had more than one doubt.
On the character of Willie (played by Kate Capshaw, Spielberg’s second wife), first of all, who stood in stark contrast to the brazen pride of Marion Ravenwood in the first film and whose constant coaxing and complaints should have added humorous tones that remained on paper ; and also on that of Short Round (starring Ke Huy Quan, who on the occasion of his recent Oscar win for “Everything Everywhere All At Once” by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert never mentioned Spielberg in his long thank you speech to ‘Academy…) which should have provided a paternal dimension to the character of Indiana Jones which was then sensationally missed in favor of a more childish approach.
And although “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” is, as already said, considerably “darker” than its predecessor, themes such as slavery and the corruption of power (contrasted in the darkness with the more obvious ones of redemption and triumph of good over evil) or the idea that true heroism lies in altruism and compassion end up getting lost in the mechanical tonitruance of an entertainment too good in itself to be ascribed to the best pages of Spielberg’s directorial career.
It obviously had an excellent success with the public, even if the overall global takings were decidedly lower than that of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”: but in the end it remains (despite some quarters of nobility) one of the very rare true incidents of path of what to all intents and purposes is perhaps the greatest American filmmaker of modernity.
