MovieChat Forums > Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Discussion > It's so cathartic when Indy turns the ta...

It's so cathartic when Indy turns the tables on the thuggees


I defy anyone not to want to cheer when Indy winks at Shorty, tells him he's okay, and then slugs the thuggee behind him.

"Raiders" is far and away the best but "Temple" has the more emotional payoff. Spielberg subjects the audience to twenty minutes of hell -- torture, zombies, human sacrifices, children begging to die -- because he knows the bigger the horror the more exquisite the payoff will feel. And when the payoff does arrive it makes the unpleasantness that preceded it worth it.

Good movie.

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Great movie
!
Horror elements, action/adventure set pieces and that banquet scene...uggh!
This was a thrilling and perfect chapter in the Indy saga

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Plus it has an emotional core, which is a nice counterbalance to the roller coaster trappings.

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Good point

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I love Temple as well, because rather than being alone in Raiders when he goes through the truck chase ordeal to wrest the Ark back from the Nazis (Marion was safe with Sallah), this time, Indy is responsible for saving women and children (Willie, Short Round and all of the child slaves), so the payoff is indeed emotional, especially at that tense moment when Short Round thinks his attempt to free Indy from the Black Sleep of Kali with fire fails and his terror when he thinks Indy is going to drop him into the lava below, and then the wink comes and Short Round is initially confused... and then Indy pulls him out and they both fight the Thuggee. Wonderful.

I also liked it later on when Indy is punching the big Thuggee and Short Round is punching the possessed Maharajah at the same time, the latter saving the Raj with fire, and then the Raj giving crucial information to Short Round to help them escape.

Even Willie gets to be a hero, punching a Thuggee who managed to jump onto their mine cart, which sends him tumbling onto the rails and sending him and a chasing Thuggee mine cart and its occupants to their deaths.

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While "Raiders" was more impersonal for Spielberg from a thematic standpoint "Temple" and "Last Crusade" exhibit in spades Spielberg's pet themes of families in crisis and negligent father figures. By making Indy less of a loner and more of a team player we get to see a side of Indy heretofore alien to us; it also gives the movie a heart (no pun intended). And, it lends that moment when Indy and Short fight along side one another, after twenty minutes of Stygian unpleasantness, a resonance absent from most blockbusters.

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The scene right after "Right all of us" is quite possibly the best moment in the entire franchise.

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Indy was never more a hero than at that moment.

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That one moment by itself was infinitely better than anything from Last Crusade.

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Nothing is more satisfying in these kinds of movies than the hero coming back from impossible odds. "The Last Crusade" doesn't really have that moment -- at least not one comparable to "Temple"'s.

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Exactly, and in Crusade there was no sense of danger or suspense, the entire thing came across as a really really bad comedy.

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