Classic Movie Review: 'Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom'

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz

Starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri

Release Date May 23rd, 1984

Published July 3rd, 2023

Controversial opinion alert: I think Temple of Doom is the best Indiana Jones movie. Before you click away in disgust, allow me to make my case. I don't expect to convince you to agree with me. I understand this is a personal preference thing, my opinion is not more important than yours. But I want the chance to talk about the unending pleasures I find in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. From the opening scene to the final moments of Indiana Jones triumphing over evil, Temple of Doom is the most fun Indiana Jones adventure of them all.

The opening set piece of Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom is incredible. It opens with a terrific musical number by Kate Capshaw, a lavish, gaudy, opening number that really sets the tone for who she is in this story, a classic screwball heroine. Our hero, Indiana Jones, is here to meet with gangsters with whom he has made a deal. Indy has secured a relic they want and in exchange, Indy is supposed to get a rare and quite large diamond. Naturally, betrayal is afoot, Indy gets poisoned and the bad guys withhold the antidote as a way of getting Indy to give back his treasure.

The scene devolves into screwball chaos from there as the gangsters start shooting, Indy starts punching, he's chasing the vial full of cure, Willie (Capshaw), is chasing the diamond, and they both must run to get away from the many, many bullets being fired. This leads to one of my favorite action moments ever as Indy cuts loose a giant steel gong hanging from the ceiling of the nightclub. It lands and rolls off the stage and as it does, Indy hides behind it, using it as a shield from the tommy gun being endlessly fired in his direction. When Willie grabs the cure, Indy grabs her, and they both go flying through a window.

The scene leads to a comic set piece with the two falling through numerous awnings before landing perfectly as Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) shows up with the getaway car. A chase scene ensues until Indy makes it to a plane only to reveal a terrific gag that yes, doesn't entirely make sense, but is still quite funny in presentation, especially Indy's comic grin as he thinks he's showed up the gangsters only to reveal to us the trouble he's just bought for himself. Spielberg's direction is pitch perfect, the adventure here feels like a direct lift from an Errol Flynn adventure from the 30s or 40s, and the screwball comedies of that era get wonderful homage as well.

Much like Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark thrives on Spielberg and George Lucas's love of action serial movies from the era of Saturday afternoon matinees, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom ages up for homage to Errol Flynn crossed with a classic screwball comedy with just the right touch of Hope and Crosby road pictures. All of it elevated to a level of originality by Spielberg at the height of his cinematic powers. Spielberg's talent for tone and invention is on best display in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom as he deftly crosses comic touches with scares involving hearts being ripped out of bodies and child slaves living under the whip of a dangerous cult.

Are the portrayals of native people problematic? Yes, but it's really not my place to criticize that. I urge you to seek out critics of color, especially from an Indian perspective, and then make up your own mind as to how you feel about these portrayals. I apologize if my enjoyment of Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom is offensive to anyone, I am trying to look at this from an objective perspective while expressing my genuine enjoyment of a movie that I don't feel was intended to be offensive but that I can acknowledge was incidentally offensive. Accidental racism is still racism. That said, movies like this can be a lesson in how to be better in the future and hopefully we've all learned from this.

My biggest nostalgia for Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, and the reason why I love it even more than I love Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark, centers on Short Round. Ke Huy Quan's lovable Short Round was the perfect insert character for little kids. He's so capable and street smart, brave and yet still recognizable as a little kid. I was 8 years old when I saw Temple of Doom on the big screen, and Short Round was me, he was what I wished I could be, the sidekick to this larger than life adventurer.

Perhaps that's why I recognize that Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark is a more artful and simply better made movie than Temple of Doom, and yet I still love Temple of Doom more. One of the great memories of my childhood was seeing Temple of Doom and then getting the Temple of Doom board game and playing it with my brother and sister. I could be misremembering this but I think it featured the Coal Cart Chase and I loved it sooo much. That coal cart chase was my first favorite movie action sequence. I remember hiding behind my hands in the theater, genuinely worried that my heroes were going to die in this crazy, out control, coal cart on this bizarre and terrifying track.

That memory is so precious to me and, again, that nostalgia blinds me to any flaws that Temple of Doom may have to this very day. When I watch Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom now, it's like jumping into a time machine that takes me back to being 8 years old in all of the best ways. I don't hide behind my fingers anymore, but my breath still catches a couple times between the coal cart chase and the final sequence on that terrifyingly shaky bridge. The suspense of that scene is still with me today and my heart still leaps thinking about it.

As much as I may resent how Hollywood recycles nostalgia like mine into a newer, lesser product, based solely on a mercenary marketing appeal to my inner child, I cannot deny the power of such nostalgia. I have to grudgingly admit that I get why Hollywood constantly reheats the figures of my childhood in an attempt to get me to buy their product. Like many others, I crave that feeling of out of control excitement and enthusiasm that I still get when I watch Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, my favorite Indiana Jones movie.

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