Friday, March 31, 2017

Indiana Jones and the Magic Box: Why I Seriously Dislike Raiders of the Lost Ark

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I Can't Get Attached to the Characters, so I Can't Get Invested in the Story
To be honest, I don't even like Indiana Jones.  He takes the unemotional, "tough guy" archetype so far that I can't relate to him at all.  For example, when he is forced to relinquish the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol to Belloq, he shows little emotional reaction, even though he just escaped death to procure it. (By the way, I'm pretty sure I'd be yelling or crying or both.)  Even during his "romantic" scene with Marion in the ship, he lacks tenderness.  He never tells her that he's been worried or that he's missed her or even that she looks beautiful, leaving him looking simply lustful, instead of caring.
I'm not too much fonder of Marion.  While I want to like her in Nepal, when she stands up to Major Toht's threats without giving away the headpiece that Indy needs, I get frustrated with her damsel in distress moments later.  In particular, I think of when she gets kidnapped and trapped helplessly in a basket being carried on someone's head.  For goodness sakes, it's a basket.  Punch it. Rock to unbalance it.  Do something other than yell, "Indy!"  Surely if she can run a bar in Nepal, she can escape a the clutches of a nefarious basket.

Because I can't get close to either of these characters, I get bored with the story.  I really don't care that Indy is clutching the front of a speeding car, about to be smashed to smithereens or that Marion is being held hostage in the Nazi camp; I'm just wondering how much longer the movie is.


It's Disrespectful to Non-Westerners  
With the exception of Indy's close friend Sallah, who notices that the dates have been poisoned, non-Western characters are always portrayed as unintelligent or immoral.  The South American tribe shown at the beginning of the movie is superstitious (worshiping the idol) and easily controlled by Belloq. Despite the fact that the movie takes place in Egypt, very few Egyptian characters are named or given influential, intelligent roles in the narrative. The hoards of locals throughout Cairo are background more than anything else, seemingly present to take orders from foreign archaeologists or gleefully flock to the exciting American to protect him from his European adversaries.  Katanga, though friendly and clever enough to protect Marion when Belloq is trying to recapture her, turns out to be a promiscuous pirate who keeps lingerie in his cabin.  

Now, someone is thinking "Yeah, but that was the 80's. That's how movies were made then." And that is true, but it doesn't make it okay, nor does it mean that I have to like it.  The movie encourages people to see Westerners as superior, which just isn't true.  That point-of-view causes conflict and degrades people, which we don't need, regardless of the year that the movie was made in.

It Totally Misrepresents the Ark of the Covenant
In the old Testament of the Bible, which is taken directly from the Jewish Torah, the Ark of the Covenant is symbolic of God's presence with the Jewish people.  Anything miraculous that happens around it is God's doing because "the box" has no power of its own.  In fact, 1 Samuel 4 tells of the people of Israel taking the Ark into a battle without God's permission, and losing so completely that  30,000 people died and the Ark was temporarily captured by the opposing army.  The box was powerless when God wasn't in the battle with them. (Bible passage linked here at Blue Letter Bible website.)   And yet, this movie treats the Ark of the Covenant as a magic box.  In fact, the government representatives who hire Indy to retrieve it, contradict this account directly, telling Indy that the army who takes it into battle with them is beyond defeat.  Later, When it is opened on the island, it emits spirits (seemingly of its own accord) and then destroys all of the people who look at them.  Not only is this fictional even like nothing that the Bible depicts surrounding the Ark, but, by leaving God's power out of the equation, it reduces the symbol to an object of superstition.

Again, I can hear the arguments already.  "But this is a movie, not Sunday school."  True, but the inaccuracies have become more mainstream than the Torah/Bible account, turning Jewish history into a sensationalized, difficult-to-respect legend.  Whether you believe that the events of the Bible really happened or not (I believe they did), trivializing them is trivializing an important part of many people's world view, which just isn't nice.

Final Thoughts 
Now, I admit that the music in this movie rocks (cue Raiders March right NOW), and the opening scenes in the temple are fun.  I'm not saying that the movie is bad, just that it isn't for me.  If you enjoy it, great!  Keep enjoying it and feel free to share with us what you like about it.

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