Let’s get something out of the way first, Harrison Ford pulls off playing the archetype of a hero really well! Star Wars proved that he had the charisma, charm, and wit of a hero. Then Indiana Jones came along and cemented that idea, hardly and firmly! Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas grew up on adventure films and the two of them were really influenced by these films in their youth that they decided to team up to give us a hero for the ages - Indiana Jones. So what a great reason for him to be the focus of today’s blog.
Indiana Jones, or Henry Jones, Jr. as he’s actually known by, is an archeologist and an explorer. The first film is set during the rise of Adolf Hitler and uses this backdrop to pit Indiana Jones against the vilest of enemies - Nazis! Since then he’s battled with a cult, confronted an ancient medieval knight, and even had a run-in with some aliens (I’m not even joking about that last one!).
He’s still got the heart and soul of an Adventurer as he is set to return in a fifth cinematic outing in the not-too-distant future too. So why do we love him so much?
Think of Indiana Jones for a second and what’s the first thing that comes into your mind? The answer, as it should be, is the epic fanfare of adventure, the theme for Indiana Jones. John Williams’ fanfare introduces our hero while he’s deep in a jungle, with hardly any dialogue and just his wits to help him navigate a puzzling situation. He’s smart, he’s cocky and he can’t help getting into trouble. The personality he exuberates is infectious and his encounters with Marion Ravenwood in the first movie proves that he has moxie too.
Then come’s the Nazis, the biggest threat that Indiana Jones could face. Although he has a brief encounter with Hitler in the series, he isn’t the focus of Jones’s escapades. Instead, the first film relies on antagonist Major Arnold Toht, who is forced to stop Indiana Jones in his tracks. Seeking the Ark of the Covenant, Major Toht wishes to make his army invincible. The plot tracks closely to the genre tropes of an adventure film, with marauders with whips and even snakes attempting to barricade Indiana from stopping the Nazi’s success. It’s through Indiana’s spontaneity and fear of snakes that we learn that he isn’t a man with a plan, he’s just a snake-phobic man who is just making it up as he goes along!
If you haven’t seen the first film, then spoiler alert, he manages to stop the Nazi’s and throughout the second film he attempts to find a magical stone and stop a cult from exploiting the residents of an Indian Village.
In The Last Crusade, he manages to encounter more Nazis before going toe-to-toe with the Soviets in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. These enemies prove that evil has many faces, and even his dad comes along for the journey, played by the late Sean Connery. The great thing about Indiana Jones is that he doesn’t embody a hero in a traditional sense, he’s not aware of being a hero, instead, he’s just an archeologist who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Nobody knows where they will take Indiana Jones next, but Spielberg has surely crafted an icon for the ages, with a longevity that will be secured for generations to come. Indiana Jones will go down in history as one of the best heroes to ever grace the silver screen, so much so that a recent Empire magazine had their readers rate Indiana Jones as the best hero of all time! So on that note, I believe nothing else needs to be said.
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Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions