Indiana Jones and the angry natives

Indiana Jones and the X-Files Rehash quotes a line from the Gita. You know which line. It’s the line every exoticist quotes. The one repeated by Oppenheimer and Michael Clayton. ‘He took it from the Hindu Bible,’ says Indy, which I suppose is one way of looking at it, though the Gita well predates the Issa book.

Indy 4 is a mishmash of MacGuffin nonsense built on fun action scenes: a saber fight atop a duck boat, Indy entering a car through one window and exiting via another. Han Solo still scurries past an ancient temple chased by a horde angry, naked natives. Spielberg throws in visual refs to Close Encounters and E.T. Cate Blanchett is lovely but not menacing; Karen Allen is resurrected from the ’80s.

In one scene Shia LeBeouf lays down a Harley and slides for miles with nonchalance, evoking a similarly silly Kollywood stunt. Like Emraan Hashmi, twitchy, whiny LeBeouf is the industry’s most improbable movie star.

Previously: India Jones

manish vij on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008, 11:59 pm in Film, Religion › Email this › Retweet › Reddit this › Link › Reader links

1Kush Tandon ›

Profile › history 2 years ago › Link

Manish,

Oppenheimer was not a garden variety exoticist. Also, at Trinity Test site, he summed his ambivalence through the Gita’s quote when he clearly knew his creation (he was the scientific lead for Manhattan Project) would unleash death on a scale never seen before, but had to be undertaken.

From wikipedia:

Many people thought that Oppenheimer’s discoveries and research were not commensurate with his inherent abilities and talents. They still considered him an outstanding physicist, but they did not place him at the very top rank of theorists who fundamentally challenged the frontiers of knowledge.[13] One reason for this could have been his diverse interests, which kept him from completely focusing on any individual topic for long enough to bring it to full fruition. His close confidant and colleague, Nobel Prize winner Isidor Rabi, later gave his own interpretation:
“ Oppenheimer was overeducated in those fields, which lie outside the scientific tradition, such as his interest in religion, in the Hindu religion in particular, which resulted in a feeling of mystery of the universe that surrounded him like a fog. He saw physics clearly, looking toward what had already been done, but at the border he tended to feel there was much more of the mysterious and novel than there actually was…[he turned] away from the hard, crude methods of theoretical physics into a mystical realm of broad intuition.[14] ”

Sure, destroyer of worlds is a fashionable quote, but seldom quoted in right context, which Oppenheimer did.

2FMJ › history 2 years ago › Link

Shia LeBeouf looks like a large startled rodent in most of his screen appearances. Casting him in KoCS has dampened my enthusiasm for the film.

3Ennis › history 2 years ago › Link

But they don’t just quote the same line that Oppenheimer quotes, they quote Oppenheimer himself quoting it, as you well know. Your depiction shifts the emPHAsis from Oppenheimer to the Gita, which is incidental. If Oppenheimer had quoted Archie Comics, they would have too. As for the Gita, they were pitch perfect. If a movie set in the 1950s had said “Hindu Holy Scriptures” I would have snorted out loud at the anachronism.

4manish ›

If Oppenheimer had quoted Archie Comics, they would have too.

No, they’re going for mystical impact. As for emphasizing the brown aspect in every post, you must be new here :)

5PortlandDesi › history 2 years ago › Link

After I watched KoCS (that acronym always makes me laugh!) I turned to my friend and said, I like my X-Files and I like Indy, but when Indy tries to be Mulder, thats where I draw the line!
And I agree with you FMJ, Shai LeBouf is annoying..

Indiana Jones and the angry natives

5 comments