For some reason, bringing ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate’ to Cannes 2023 was a bit like putting a tablespoonful of virgin olive oil into a glass of water, the reactions, of all colors, left the new film with Harrison Ford in an apathetic placewith the feeling of having found a rock on the same path that made ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ demotivate fans of the character.
Among other comments, it was said that the new return of the character was something like a new “The Awakening of the Force”, with the same fear of nostalgia that made the return of “Star Wars” was received with skepticism. With Kathleen Kennedy, the same producer behind both films, it was expected that the Disney stage of the character would follow that path, but it is not. We are facing a full-fledged farewell, this is a real Indiana Jones movie, a very good Indiana Jones movie.
It’s certainly far from the scrappy rag of memories for a new generation that might have been expected with a mediocre review score on Rotten Tomatoes. The reasons for this debacle is one of those mysteries that are difficult to understand. in an age of blockbusters without the ability to take the viewer out of the movie theaterat a time when entertainment does not want to move and adventure films seem to be understood as phases of a platform video game, one of the great temptations into which George Lucas fell in 2008.
A change of director like a glove
We will never know if it was the absence of Lucas, the return of Frank Marshall or a Kennedy punished for her mistakes with Lucasfilm, but They have achieved something miraculous: that Steven Spielberg is not missed. It may simply be because the choice of James Mangold has been providential, despite the fact that he is not the Spielberg of his best years, his signature is reminiscent of the great paid studio directors, such as Peter Hyams, Guy Hamilton, Barry Levinson, Martin Brest , Joe Johnston or even Richard Donner.
Great directors who have never been considered an author, but who know how to offer the best on screen, removing any element of ego in front of the camera. This does not mean that it is an impersonal film, the director of ‘Walk a Tightrope’ and ‘Logan’ knows perfectly well the story he is handling and proves (again) that he understands the twilight heroes, the fish out of water like no other who know how to get a last spark of energy at the moment when everything is lost.
But he also directs like few others currently and this shows both in his attention to detail and in the fact that everything that happens on the screen flows organically, with a pristine visual storytelling, full of simple camera movements that always have an intention, navigating the spaces without contemplating too much, but letting the beauty of the art direction shine through naturally. Wide angles and panoramas accompanied by an effective editing that never leaves time to breathe more than necessary. It’s an exhalation.
The best blockbuster of the year
There are action scenes, chases, and high tension to rival the best of today’s superhero movies, but what makes ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate’ emerge as the best blockbuster of the year (so far) is his ability to integrate these great moments of spectacle into the natural development of events, taking into account that what we have come to see is a movie about archaeologists looking for treasures, a follow the clues with puzzles, clues, enigmas, riddles, dangers, threats and villains that are always one step behind or ahead.
It is not worth much to go into explaining what the film is about —the less you read about it, the better— nor to explain much about the Macguffin in this installment, because the surprises it hides are an explosion of sincere imagination the likes of which have not been seen in commercial cinema for many years. However, his themes do make a lot more sense than a handful of memories thrown in the viewer’s face. Of course, there are references to the rest of the series, some very subtle, some more obvious, but it’s not a collection of trading cards and they tend to be witty and come at the right time.
The idea of an archaeologist’s value at the time of the moon race is brilliant, with a not-so-subtle parallel to the CIA as the new Nazis, substituting the occult to win over allies with a search for relics to gain the upper hand in warfare. the Cold War. But above all it perfectly defines the position of the historian in a stage where the real emotion is outside the planet earthmasterfully shown in a contrast between the entranced students of Henry Jones of the 30s and the students bored by the classic era of their classes in the late 60s.
A parade of luxury secondary
The idea of the weight of the past on the present hovers over all the footage, with a flashback at the end of World War II that will only be talked about due to the rejuvenation effect of Harrison Ford. With this you have to be clear. The technology is not yet at that moment that they are looking for. However, it’s never really annoying and the whole sequence is an awful lot of setting and energyrecalling Spielberg’s best moments and featuring Spielberg’s best villain since the duo Belloq and Toth.
The Mad Mikkelsen thing is a scandal, how his own character grows until he reveals his plan in a masterful moment that reminds us why there are no better enemies of Indy than the Nazis. The jokes about it come at the right times, but the allies of the man with the whip are not what they were either and the film reflects the death of the archaeological interest with an irruption of capitalism as an enemy-ally, who only marries for the sake of it. highest bidder, a change in the altruistic motives of treasure hunting embodied by the great character of Phoebe Waller Bridge.
The actress is not the typical obligatory addition and is a challenge to Jones’ idealism that is enlightening and also relevant to our times, far from an idealized and naive version of a female troupe in adventure, a character with edges, with so much charisma and likability as morally gray areas, making interaction with your sponsor always hectic, recovering the taste for Hawsian dialogues, and far from the classic parent-child interaction of the template. The secondaries are a success, both Helena’s accompanying child and Antonio Banderas and the villains’ sidekicks, with an always hateful and repulsive Boyd Holbrook.
The first great adventure with an 80-year-old hero
But beyond falling into favor for its successes, the true prodigy of ‘The Dial of Fate’ is showing that it knows well what a great Indiana Jones movie needs. Key moments in other films take on other interactions, from the mummy encounter, Indy’s snake fear, and the classic bug-seal moments return without taste of pastiche, but as an intuitive knowledge of key ingredients. in this universe. Everything you have come looking for is in the right dose, in a non-stop crescendo that brings out the colors of other recent popcorn spectacle films.
Many may find it a bit dated, but Mangold knows that stepping back on the throttle at certain times helps give the ensemble a timeless aura that is sure to age as well as the actoralmost like a rarity in the environment of current premiere-events, representing off the screen the same thing that happens on it, managing to transport us to a less cynical era of the seventh art, invoking the naive and ingenious energy of rara avis as ‘The great Falcon’, highlighting the fascination for the history of cinema from another era less dependent on stimulus.
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate’ is a glorious farewell for the hero we grew up with but also for the Harrison Ford who made us love the character, with an interpretation that knows how to adapt its grumpy side to the essence of a feature film from another era, without seeking to return to his age, letting his final shot be the one that amazes us when we understand that we have just lived our best adventure in a room since ‘The Last Crusade’ with a hero who is a whopping 80 years old. A great gift from a one-of-a-kind star that you don’t want to miss on the biggest screen around you.
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