Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Death (Doom)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom theatrically opens with a marvelous song called ‘Anything Goes’ sung by the films shallow damsel in distress, Willie. After a deal has gone wrong Indiana Jones, his sidekick Shorty, and a reluctant Willie flee from a group of what seem to be ‘Chinese mobsters.’ They escape via plane which, unfortunately, actually belongs to the mob leader. The pilot empties the plane’s fuel before jumping out of the plane with the only parachute so the trio is forced to jump from the plane with a raft. Luckily, movie physics allows them to not be killed by the very long fall from the plane, the trees as they slide down a mountain, or when they fly off a cliff and down a waterfall.

The trio ends up in India which, at the time, was still part of the British Empire. They go to the village Mayapore and learn that a sacred stone has been taken from the village along with all of the children. The villagers believe that Shiva sent them to retrieve the stone from the evil forces in Pankot Palace. When they arrive at the palace they receive a warm welcome from the Prime Minister of Pankot Palace. Later that evening, Indie, Willie, and Shorty eat dinner with the residents of the palace in a comedic and disgusting scene where everyone is perfectly happy to be eating delicacies such as; live baby snakes, large beetles, eyeball soup, and chilled monkey brains. Yum! Thankfully, the scene ends when Willie eventually faints from the horror of it all.

Later that evening, an assassin attempts to kill Indiana Jones and the assassin is strung up on a ceiling fan where he chokes to death. Indie races to Willies room to make sure she is safe and he finds a secret passageway filled with bugs and Shorty accidentally activates a booby-trap. As the ceiling lowers to the floor with pointy spikes Indie and Shorty yell for Willie to help. Willie slowly makes her way down to save the two while crying about bugs getting on her.

Willie reaches through a slimy and bug filled hole in the wall and pulls the lever that stops the trap just before Indiana Jones gets impaled. The trio rushes to the other side of the trap and comes across an underground temple where a group of worshipers are performing a human sacrifice to worship their god Kali. Mola Ram, the leader of the Thuggee cult pulls the beating heart out of the man’s chest before slowly lowering him into a pit of lava as he screams and prays to Shiva.

After the ceremony is over and everyone has left Indiana Jones goes down to retrieve the sacred stones that belonged to the village. While doing this he finds a mine of enslaved children. Unfortunately, Indiana Jones, Shorty, and Willie are all captured. Indie and Shorty are both whipped before Indie is forced to drink blood that makes him enter a hypnotic state and he serves the Thugs. Shorty is forced to work in the mine with the other enslaved children but shortly after his capture, he escapes. Meanwhile, Willie is prepped to be the next sacrifice to Kali. Indie locks her in the cage while she begs him to save her and they slowly begin lowering Willie into the pit of lava. Suddenly, Shorty comes to the rescue and burns Indie with fire which knocks him out of his trance-like state and they save Willie and escape.

Indiana Jones, Willie, and Shorty flee to the underground caves where the child slaves work and they get the keys and free the children before fleeing via a mine cart. The trio makes it to a bridge and is saved from the Thugee cult by the British soldiers. Indiana Jones returns the stone to the village and the children return to their families.

Indiana Jones and The PG Movie That Caused An Uproar

Indiana Jones is a series of films that is known across the world. Temple of Doom grossed over 333 million dollars across the world while the budget was only 28 million dollars. Despite its success, Temple of Doom is considered the weak link in the Indiana Jones trilogy. The film is considered too dark, too violent, and too horrific, even by the director Steven Speilberg! Apparently, Speilberg’s view of Temple of Doom was not negative at first. According to Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom: An Oral History which is an interview with Spielberg, he states that,

“There’s more of a careful balance in Temple of Doom between horror and comedy than there was in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was a straight-arrow adventure, at times even a conservative adventure.”

Later on, Speilberg began agreeing with critics about it being too violent.

In an article by Gregory Kirschling called Dig Into Legend, he says that,

The movie was originally called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death, but it was later softened to Doom.

While they may have softened the title it would seem that they forgot to soften the movie as well. Temple of Doom contains horrific images of a heart being pulled from a man’s chest, a man being burned alive, child abuse, enslaved children, a man being hung, and more. This movie was considered to be a PG movie until the uproar parents made because of the unexpected violence. Because of this, the PG-13 rating was created. No one expected the amount of violence that the film would have but maybe they should have. Even the trailer to Temple of Doom is pretty frightening.

Not all critics are bothered by the violence the film has though. In the article The Temple of Doom by Gregory Kirschling, in response to all of the hate the film received, he states,

But those Doom haters–yes, Spielberg included–are wrong. It’s precisely the crazy, subterranean stuff(which helped inspire the creation of the PG-13 rating) that makes the movie so exciting.

While I am a fan of Temple of Doom I do agree that it is too violent and gruesome for a PG action movie. I remember watching this with my parents and then having nightmares for weeks about being burned alive. I imagine that many kids had nightmares from watching this film.

Another issue that many have with the film is the way Indian culture is depicted. As a matter of fact, the depiction of India and its people ultimately lead to Temple of Doom being banned in India after its release.

It’s not hard to see why local censors were horrified at a movie set in colonial-era India that stereotyped nearly every single character who had the misfortune of having brown skin.

Indian culture is depicted as savage and it is not very hard to see why India banned it. Despite the stereotyping of savagery, the film is still considered watchable. I myself was uncomfortable with the way the film seemed to have a theme of Indians are evil, poor, or helpless but thank god for the British who save the day! However, despite my discomfort with the film and its gruesomeness I am still a huge fan of the Indiana Jones Trilogy and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Action and Adventure films.