What Makes Indy an Indie?
By Rebecca Harrison
(May 2008)

It was my seventh birthday, and as I tore open a promisingly square package, the paper fell away to reveal... a book about archaeology. Being an Indiana Jones nut, I treasured each reading until the book was so well-thumbed I had to patch it up with tape. Eventually my Indy videos wore out too (thank heaven for DVDs).

Yet the Indiana Jones phenomenon hasn't lost its lustre. Nearly two decades after Dr. Jones was last seen careening precariously across the silver screen, he's back and busy stirring up public passion for antiquity.

The films have left their own legacy, not least a passel of other adventuring archaeologists (think The Mummy and National Treasure). But now the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is on the horizon, and one wonders what today's young filmgoers raised on flashy CGI-laden bonanzas will think of the sardonic, earthy Indiana Jones. Whip-smart adventurer or just old hat?

If word on the Web is anything to go by, people can't wait to catch a brand new Indy flick. Savvy online marketing has ensured the trailer has caught the attention of the Internet generation. And for returning audiences, Indy's reappearance (to the iconic "dahhh-da-DA-dah" theme) brings back memories of chaotic back-alley brawls, wild mine-cart chases, and motor boats inching near chopping propellers. After all, Jones has always been something of a folk action hero. Kind of "lion tamer meets James Bond." Not too suave, of course; most likely to reach for his gun but come up empty-handed. We cheer him on as he proclaims, "I'm making this up as I go."

Oddly enough, there might never have been an Indiana Jones if director Steven Spielberg had gotten his original wish, which was actually to shoot a James Bond movie. Hope died when Spielberg directed 1941, a so-called flop. Hard to imagine for kids my age (I was barely three when Last Crusade was released) who were raised on an indulgent diet of such Spielberg blockbusters as ET and Jurassic Park. 1941 was not a success, yet in retrospect you could say this was the best thing to happen for filmgoer and filmmaker alike.

Spielberg once more had everything to prove, and buddy George Lucas (fresh from a little thing called Star Wars) suggested collaborating on a new project he had written. Something better than Bond. It was called "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and it was inspired by 1930s adventure serials. Spielberg latched onto Lucas' idea of a Boy's Own-style tale about a professor of archaeology, and the rest is history. The rules for Raiders were simple: Shoot it quick, use true and tested filmmaking techniques, cast a sure-fire hit leading man (enter Harrison Ford) and, er, stay under budget. They did, and Indy became legend.

Audiences could relate to the good Doctor. And no, I'm not talking about being able to weather a bit of political turbulence or, heck, just being able to fly a plane. ("Fly, yes. Land? No.") Indy was the fallible Everyman - okay, more buff than most, but no superhero - and we, too, wanted to jet off to exotic locales with the sassy-mouthed companion. Or, if you were a girl like me, we wanted to be the one tagging along with Indy on his quest for the ultimate McGuffin.

The McGuffin? Alfred Hitchcock came up with this non-word to describe the plot device that motivates the good and bad guys. Lucas and Spielberg know what makes for a good treasure hunt, and decided to raise the McGuffin stakes to new heights. Over the course of the trilogy, Indy races to find the biblical Ark of the Covenant, the mystical Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail.

In the hands of the intrepid filmmakers, the search for the Ark becomes a treatise on the perils of the quest for ultimate power. The search for the Stones sees Indy rejecting "fortune and glory" in his determination to free enslaved children. And the search for the Grail represents the yearning for reconciliation between estranged father and son. All resonating themes that lift the stories beyond mere treasure hunting.

Fresh scraps of information about the next Jones installment are as coveted as any of Indy's artifacts, but it is evident that Indy is in South America looking for a Crystal Skull. Spooky. Former Indy-girl Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) of Raiders fame is back, along with new sidekicks in the forms of explorer Mac (Ray Winstone) and Indy's protégé Mutt (Shia LaBeouf).

Indy's no fossil, despite the inevitable age jokes ("It's not the mileage, honey, it's the years"), but young greaser Mutt is bound to garner a share of the action, not to mention attract the youth demographic. (Okay, I admit having to look "greaser" up, but in my defence so did Shia. I've been assured I just need to think "leather-jacketed motor-headed Fonzie" of TV's "Happy Days.")

It's apparent, then, that Indy has moved out of the 1930s adventure serial and into the 1950s sci-fi B-movie. No longer faced with the threat of comic book Nazis, Indy finds a new nemesis in the Russians of the Cold War era. Fans have been assured that the film will retain the look and style that characterises the earlier trilogy (think un-digital, un-computer-effects-y). As Lucas proudly claims: "You'd never know there was 20 years between shooting."

Footage shows Agent Spalko (a menacing Cate Blanchett, giving off a vaguely dominatrix vibe) pursuing our hero through a warehouse that will seem familiar to anyone who has seen the original Raiders. (Wink wink, nudge nudge.) Following in the villainous footsteps of Dr. Elsa Schneider (Last Crusade), Spalko is a welcome addition to the Indy-ology, while Blanchett, a self-proclaimed long-time Indy fan, has expressed her delight at stepping into the frames of an Indiana Jones movie.

Touché, Cate. We can't wait until the lights flicker down in the cinema so we, too, can venture once more, rough and ready, into the world of Indy.

Timeline