I recently rewatched all three Indiana Jones movies with my nine year old son. All of them are on Amazon Prime right now. First time he had seen them. He absolutely loved them, and they are right in the wheelhouse for a young boy. My seven year old daughter wanted nothing to do with them. They mostly still stand up, but it was interesting watching them with the way the internet picks apart movies these days.
I highly suggest you take an afternoon to introduce your kids to the classics. Next chance I get Jaws is up next.
I'm just as guilty as the rest of the internet in over analyzing things these days so it was interesting to rewatch these classic movies through that lens. Makes me realize modern movie deserve more of a break than they get.
- First off, my son doesn't really have context for what a Nazi is so when they showed up in Raiders he asked who these guys were and why they were so mean to Indiana Jones. I just went with that they are bad guys. Then they show up again in Last Crusade and when he sees the flag he says "There's that company again." I had to pause the movie and quickly explain it was a country that was evil and tried to take over Europe and did a lot of bad things. Then later in the movie they go to a book burning and he says "Hey look, those Nazis are having a cool bonfire party" I had to pause again and explain how terrible propaganda and book burning is. How do you explain fascism to a nine year old?
- He did point out how many modes of transportation Indiana uses: horse, motorcycle, boat, camel, elephant, plane, tank, car, everything but a bike and a helicopter.
- Man, the internet would have HATED Willie Scott and Short Round had that movie come out today. There would be some ugly Last Jedi style hate.
- Everyone points to nuking the fridge as terrible, but he also used a inflatable boat as a parachute, survived the wrath of god by closing his eyes, and road on the top of a U-Boat for an unknown distance.
- So many action sequence are so iconic and the just keep topping each other. The practical effects are still great. Amazing to see what they could do without CGI. However, the internet would have picked them apart these days. Indy vs the tank. At 2:27 a rock banana peels a cannon? At 3:25, none of the Nazis in the truck use their guns? At 6:07, why doesn't he just slip his left arm out of his satchel?
- Why did the Sultan give the Nazis tanks, camels, and access to the grail in exchange for a Rolls-Royce? Doesn't seem like a fair trade.
- Spielberg is a master. The close-ups, the use of shadow, the pacing are just a marvel. John Williams too.
- I never realized how many times they use the Wilhelm scream or the ridiculous clap sound that every single one of Indiana's punches make.
- How does Indiana Jones keep his day job?
I highly suggest you take an afternoon to introduce your kids to the classics. Next chance I get Jaws is up next.
I'm just as guilty as the rest of the internet in over analyzing things these days so it was interesting to rewatch these classic movies through that lens. Makes me realize modern movie deserve more of a break than they get.
