KingSolomonsMines Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It turns out that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are as much movie nerds as Quentin Tarantino and that their four Indiana Jones films are just as full of references and echoes. But while Tarantino discovered most of his favorites on video, Lucas and Spielberg probably saw many of theirs in film school on 16mm prints, many of which never made the transition to video. Last month our own Richard von Busack wrote a post about a rare film called The Secret of the Incas (1954), with Charlton Heston as a fedora-and-leather-jacket-wearing adventurer. (Another Heston adventure, The Naked Jungle (1954), is also a definite influence.) Richard found his info at TheRaider.net, which is where I also went to work on this list of potential Indy influences. Many of the titles they list are difficult to find, and I'm also trying not to give away crucial plot points in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so -- to quote Indy himself -- I'm making this up as I go.

1. Saturday Afternoon Serials
For those that don't know, serials were presented in front of regular features in 20-minute installments over a period of 12 weeks (mainly in the 1930s and 1940s), leaving off each time with a cliffhanger, to be miraculously resolved the following Saturday. Many of them are rentable today, and you can watch the entire 240 minutes in one sitting, if you so wish. To date, I've made it all the way through only one serial, though I've attempted many. Most reviewers credit serials as a major Indy influence, but few reviews actually name which ones. I've narrowed it down to five. The first two are Zorro Rides Again (1937) and Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939), mainly for the swashbuckling hero's use of the bullwhip. These two are in the public domain and widely available on DVD and for download, but I'd suggest going with VCI Entertainment's DVD versions. The other three are examples of the "jungle adventure" subgenre: Perils of Nyoka (1942), Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943) and Perils of the Darkest Jungle (1944) -- although each has also been released under alternate titles.

Lara Croft learns the trade from a very old Indiana Jones


Most Hollywood blockbusters spawn their share of low-budget ripoffs, but only a few really successful movies are influential enough to be followed by big-budget copycats. Usually these followers get media-infused taglines such as "Die Hard on a ... " or "Aliens in a ... ", with the labels likely originating at the studio pitch stage.

Though Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels were already derivative and referential works, the Indiana Jones franchise also inspired derivatives of its own, some that were exploitive, some that paid homage and some that are only linked through minor elements. So, in celebration of the latest Indy movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, here's a look back at all the "Indiana Jones as a ... " knock-offs that Hollywood has delivered in the last few decades:

1. Indiana Jones as a woman: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

The real source of this and its 2003 sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, were the Tomb Raider video games, which were clearly inspired by the Indiana Jones films. In the movie we have an archaeologist who seeks a mystical object, which she must keep out of the hands of an evil society. There's an Asian temple, a reunion with a disappeared estranged father and a finale involving the crumbling self-destruction of an elaborate set piece. It's like all the initial three Indiana Jones films wrapped up in one, with added sex appeal in casting Angelina Jolie in the Harrison Ford role. Yet Jolie as Croft is too serious to be the female counterpart to Ford's Indy. Also, while the Indiana Jones films deal with some level of magically religious fantasy, they're at least grounded by "real" or familiar artifacts such as the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant. And they tend to remain just realistic enough to avoid things like giant six-armed statues that come to life.