INDY'S DARKEST HOURS AT "THE TEMPLE OF DOOM"

The Bridge too far! Indiana Jones fights for survival in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.

"I'm not gonna have anything nice to say about this place when I get back!"  - Willie Scott.

Time has sadly not been kind to INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Critics have often stated that it didn't live up to the success or sequel promise of RAIDERS, and both Lucas and Spielberg themselves have kinda regretted making it over time, citing it as too dark and intense in places (indicative of the dark times they too were then having in their personal lives and relationships), but I personally like it a lot. Remember that little dark and intense film called THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that followed STAR WARS. Nothing wrong with that one, eh? This was just following in the same vein. Granted, it doesn't have the first films verve, but there are some terrific moments of action and comedy worthy of merit (many of which were originally derived for RAIDERS but had to be eliminated for time and money reasons, leading them to be held over for this sequel), and it does have some adrenaline ride moments like the action in and outside the Club Obi-Wan, and, later, in the minefield chase, and the baddies, a different foe from the Nazis, really are nasty and scary. Plus, there's spooky voodoo like possession (even Indy gets captured in this one!), dark caves, human sacrifices and lots of heroics not only from our Fedora hatted adventurer, but also his likable companion Short Round (Ke Huy Quan). Plus Kate Capshaw, Mrs Spielberg to you and me!, is a fine, if loud, Indy babe! And how can we not mention that great musical number at the films beginning, which would make the legendary choreographer Busby Berkeley proud!

Night club singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and the dancing girls- a part of the opening musical number that didn't make the final cut of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.

I remember seeing this film twice at the cinema, first at the local ODEON Streatham (where I first saw STAR WARS in January 1978) with my family (and we all thoroughly enjoyed seeing Indy again!), and then with some school friends at the Streatham ABC a few months later. I also remember there was a big premiere at the London West End EMPIRE Leicester Square with the cast and crew, and I think it was a Royal Premiere (with Princess Diana), but I wasn't aware of it until after the fact.

Here's the films original trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4zD6Nm_ce4

TEMPLE, the first Lucas Prequel, is being shown in the UK in glorious full HD widescreen on the BBC tonight, though most likely it will be the edited version of the movie which I despise (on its original release, the scene where Mola Ram removes the heart from one of his sacrificial victims, a part of said victims burning, and Short Round's whipping from the young Maharajah were ordered cut from the film by the then very nervous people at the British Board of Film Censors, so as to get a family audience viewing certificate (all of these scenes, however, remain intact in the US versions on DVD and laserdisc)). These same cuts have continued over the years with subsequent releases in different formats in the UK, and no doubt the eventual UK release on Blu-ray will suffer the same fate unless the movies certificate is upped to a 15 level, which we doubt that LUCASFILM/PARAMOUNT will want to do, as it may disrupt family audience sales of their box sets. To be honest, though, looking back at those TEMPLE scenes they now seem pretty tame to me: the violence and gore I've seen in some of today's modern family viewing is often far worse!

UPDATE: 13/1/2010. Once again, and as expected, the cut UK version of the film was shown.