Indiana Jones Retrospective: Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise. It is arguably the most divisive film in the original trilogy.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) finds himself on the wrong side of Lao Che (Roy Chiao), a Shanghai crime lord. When escaping China, Indiana Jones and his companions, Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) crash land in India, and Indy ends up promising to help a small village that has fallen on hard times. This leads Indy to discover an ancient cult that is operating secretly and performing nefarious acts.

Temple of Doom does stand out amongst the original trilogy for numerous reasons. It moved the series to Asia and didn’t use the Nazis as villains. It was notably darker since the villains performed human sacrifices and child slavery was a major aspect of the film. The opening of Temple of Doom was markedly different from Raiders of the Ark since it started with a big song-and-number like it was a classic Hollywood movie and Indiana Jones looked more like James Bond because of his white tuxedo. The opening sequel in Shanghai felt more like a Guy Hamilton-directed Bond film.

The other notable change was the story structure. In Temple of Doom Bond went from adventure to another. He was hired by someone like in the other in Raiders, Crusade, or Kingdom. This helped Temple of Doom feel different and avoid the pitfall of other sequences where other sequels just copied the original.

Finally, Temple of Doom gave Indy some sidekicks. Indy was less of a lone wolf than he was in Raiders. The character of Short Round seems like he was added because Indiana Jones was popular with kids and the logic was that children wanted to see a young side character so they could have someone they can relate with. Short Round was one of the better kid sidekicks since he had an emotional connection to Indy and didn’t make things worse. Short Round was useful since he helped break the mind control placed on Indy.

Sadly, Temple of Doom didn’t escape having an annoying sidekick since Willie filled that role. Willie was just a whining, shrieking madam who was constantly complaining or screaming and made things worse. I thought Indy should have just thrown her out to the plane and saved himself and the audience a lot of bother.

The other outdated aspect of the film was the portrayal of India. It was at times uncomfortable how stereotypical the film showed India to be. The worst moment was the dinner scene where Willie ‘comically’ reacted to all the delicacies she was offered. This was the scene where people were gleefully eating large insects and a man saying ‘chilled monkey brains.’ It felt like something written in the 19th century. I did confuse this scene with one in Octopussy, where Bond had dinner with the villain, but the scene in Octopussy was tame.

Temple of Doom was a film of two halves. The first half was a knockabout comedy with broader humour. The second half was when Indy and his allies discovered the activities of the Thuggee cult. Tonally this was jagging to have such a shift but the second half was a lot more interesting because of this darker tone. This half of the film saw human sacrifices, men getting their hearts removed and still living, and children being forced to mine for the cult. While this material was darker, it was more of a fun type of darkness that children could enjoy. Only younger children will be scared by the events on screen whilst older children will find the human sacrifices and black magic cool.

The second half of Temple of Doom became a non-stop thrill ride. There was little let-up when Indy discovered the cult. This was the sequence filled with fist fights, the famous minecart sequence, and the showdown on the wooden bridge. Like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom was an action-adventure made at the highest order.

When Temple of Doom was released, the critical reaction was mixed, partly due to the darker elements. Yet time and nostalgia have led to a big debate amongst the fandom. People can argue the case about Temple of Doom being the best film or the worst film in the series. A high-profile supporter of Temple of Doom is Quentin Tarantino.

Temple of Doom deserves praise for daring to be different and not be a copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Some decisions worked well, some not so much. It was still a highly entertaining action adventure.