And we heard Spielberg and Lucas, our fave directors of hot, sharp funny hip scifi movies were taking time out to do a mundane adventure movie set in the 1930s. WTF? (We might not have expressed ourselves that way)
Then Raiders opened and made the 1930s as fresh and real as exciting as anything in the Star Wars universe. Real stunts and locations with a sharp cool funny young actor and great cast. Add that to a thrilling supernatural sub plot and a magnificently ambiguous ending that has never been topped. Suddenly the Bond franchise looked as dead as a door-nail*.
Of course the Indiana Jones sequels followed all commodifying Harrison Ford as the center of the franchise, eventually moving it to the 1950s and now 1960s. I found myself thinking the other day how I would have felt if I'd been told in 1981 that they'd eventually make an Indy film set after 1940. I would definitely have said "wow that will be crap"
But that key 1930s setting is a bit of a distraction, vital as it is. It's nice to imagine a series of Raiders films not following Ford but following Marion, or Brody, or Belloq or even the Ark itself, but the truth is Ford had the mega star power, and it's inevitable that the sequels to Raiders would be vehicles around Indy.
But tied to Indy they have become the thing they once looked to replace. Dial of Destiny is Harrison Ford's Octopussy/Never Say Never Again. And the scary thing for Hollywood right now the nearest thing to a new equivalent of Raiders of The Lost Ark is...
Mission Impossible 7 starring 61 year old Tom Cruise.
*What was the other new movie franchise making Bond look decrepit at this time? Deadly cool new actor Mel Gibson in white line nightmare that was Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior in the US).
Imagine seeing Roger Moore's latter era Bond, then Raiders of the Lost Ark and then Mad Max 2 in the same year.
Maybe Dial of Destiny has got it easy after all.
