Why Temple of Doom is the best film

When people talk about these movies it’s generally regarded that one and three are good and two and four are bad. While one and three are great and four certainly sucks, two or Temple of Doom is actually the best. Here’s why:


Now that we can look back and watch the entire saga, until they make a fifth which I hope will be better than the last, it’s pretty apparent that they just made the same movie three times. Think about it, Raiders, Crusade and Skulls all follow the same formula. Indy starts out in some remote spot, Amazon, Utah, Area 51, mini adventure breaks out and so on. Then Indy is back home, teaching his class, talks to Marcus Brody or Marcus Brody stand in Jim Broadbent. Some people show up, be they government agents, Julian Glover or Shia LaBeouf, they talk about the latest macguffin. Indy hoops around the globe, some action set pieces and finally the bad guys are destroyed by said macguffin for not understanding its power. Indy makes some comment about hubris, roll credits.
Not to say that, that is necessarily a bad thing. Raiders was the template. Last Crusade maybe copied it a little to much, but they did add new elements. Like Indy’s backstory, the father son relationship, having the girlfriend being a villain and all the challenges involved with getting the grail. So it did feel like its own thing. Crystal Skull was also very similar to the other two, the only thing that made it different was that it sucked.
My point is when you look at all four films in a row, Temple of Doom is the def the most unique one.
No scenes at Indy’s school or even in America. It doesn’t start out in some remote location but in a night club with Indy in a white tux. No one comes to his house to tell him about his next adventure, this one he literally falls into.
Nor is it some enemy government, like the Nazi’s or Commies. It’s the Thuggee, something more supernatural and underground even if it is a bit more obscure in historical terms. And unlike the Nazi’s or Commies, where we only hear about their evil or know about it from history, here we actually get to see how evil the Thuggee are. When Indy shows up in that small village, and sees it wasting away. Or when that malnourished kid shows up just to die in Indy’s arms. That’s *beep* up. Or that sacrificing scene. Jesus. As a kid that scared the *beep* out of me and I doubt I’m the only one. In fact that’s what I’m most impressed by, how dark Steven and George were willing to go.
So much of their later work, was hurt by them trying to make everything so Goddamn kid friendly.
Hook, Phantom Menace, replacing the guns with walky-talkies and so on.
But here they really took a risk.
Just when Indy and the gang first show to the temple. The skulls, the lava, the chanting. And when Mola Ram first appears and starts ripping out hearts. Yeah this movie should not have been PG.


And come on, starting the movie with a big over the top musical number, that’s just so odd and so unexpected. But that’s what makes it great.
And as for Kate Capshaw, I know a lot of people hate her but I don’t. Sure she carries on a lot but come on, most people regardless of gender, would probably freak out in most of these situations. I’m a guy and if I was in that metal cage about to be dumped into a volcano, I’d be screaming. But more than that, look at Karen in Crystal Skulls. She spends the whole movie grinning and smiling like an idiot. Remember when she drives off the mountain, when they hit the water she’s giggling and laughing and it looks really stupid. Not very tense. Now compare that to Capshaws performance. She’s scared, so were scared with her. Think about that scene with her in the cage, where she keeps saying “Oh God, this can’t be happening.” She keeps talking to Indy, trying to get him back. That scene is so tense. Much more tense than virtually anything in Crystal Skull. That’s what makes it so effective.
And come on the climax.
That scene on the rope bridge is the best climax of the whole series. One of the best climaxes ever. When everyone finally realizes what Indy is gonna do, Capshaw has that great line “Oh MY God!” And Short Round. “Hold on lady we going for a ride.” Terrific.


Also I know some people complain its racist but it’s not. It’s not against Indians, the people Indy saves area all Indians. Plus he’s fighting the Thuggee, not the Indian government. And the Thuggee really did exist and they really did kill a lot of people, so why portraying them as villains is wrong, I don’t know.
Also when I was in college I showed this movie to my two roommates. They were from Sri Lanka and they both liked it. So that proves it not racist.

But more than anything else, this film is just so different from Raiders. Other than the character Indy and the basic idea of an archeologist being on an adventure, it has nothing in common with the first movie. And come on, when so many sequels are just rehashes of things we’ve already seen (Force Awakens being a good example) how can you not like sequel that took so many chances.


Anyway I think I have definitely proven that Temple of Doom is the best.

You can all readjust your rankings accordingly.

And since Last Crusade and Crystal Skull were both re-treads of Raiders, maybe Indy 5 could be like Temple of Doom. That would be cool. We could see Short Round again. Maybe bring back Lao Che. The last film had Indy go up against sci fi stuff and that clearly didn’t work, it would be nice to see Indy going up against black magic and voodoo again.
Where he belongs.


i told you not to stop the boat. Now lets go. Apocaylpse Now