Based upon characters created by George Lucas
Screenplay Written by Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp and James Mangold
Executive Producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas
Directed by James Mangold
*** (three stars)
RATED PG 13
I have always loved how George Lucas played with the concept of time within his stories.
From the groundbreaking and now commonplace fractured multi-narrative, which took place over one night in his seminal "American Graffiti" (1973), to beginning his "Star Wars" saga with the middle trilogy of Episodes 4, 5, and 6 (1977/1980/1983), to even the "Indiana Jones" series, in which the first three films--all directed by Steven Spielberg-- performed their own bit of time hopping.
If you recall, the first film, "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" (1981) took place in 1936, while the second film "Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom" (1984) took place one year earlier in 1935, while the third film, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), served as a direct sequel to the first, setting its story in 1938. To that end, this series jumped backwards to Indiana Jones' origins through George Lucas' television series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992-1993), in which we followed our hero via a dual narrative as a child and as a teenager.
With this hopscotch narrative, Lucas, Spielberg and their collaborators were able to allow each adventure to inform what we had already learned and foreshadow what was to come without the constraints of a linear structure, which only added to the overall fun and deliberate mystery of piecing together the life of our favorite fictional swashbuckling archeologist.
By the arrival of Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008), we, and the good Dr. Jones, made a time jump to the late 1950's, affording all of us a chance to begin a time of reflection over all of the adventures and escapades once had and how those adventures shaped us while we wonder just how many more remain.
With "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny," we have essentially reached the end as this fifth and final entry in the series has arrived, with our hero nearing the age of 80! As directed by James Mangold, taking over for Spielberg, he brings the series to a robust close, filled with much the whiplash excitement that is the trademark, But, even better, Mangold brings a more than appropriate gravitas to the proceedings as Indiana Jones is indeed facing down his mortality, certainly and also his sense of relevance in the advancing age of world history, often leaving him feeling displaced in time. That being said, Mangold takes some huge conceptual swings that are not quite successful as they do feel to fly in the face of what the series has always been to a degree. In that respect, we have a finale that is strong but alas, not strong enough or the kind of triumphant ending a hero like Indiana Jones so richly deserves.
As with all of the previous entries, James Mangold's "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny" begins at the climax of yet another perilous episode. Beginning in 1944 at the end of World War II, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is again battling the Nazis as he comes across one half of the Archimedes' Dial, an Antikythera mechanism believed to have been created by the ancient Syracusan mathematician Archimedes, which is further believed to locate fissures in time itself. Also in pursuit of the Dial is Nazi astrophysicist Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who believes that if he obtains the archeological treasure, that he will be able to manipulate time and alter the course of history.
The chase continues as the story moves to 1969 and we find Dr. Jones upon his retirement from academia as well as caught within a state of despondency and alcoholism. He is surprisingly visited by his estranged goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), also an archeologist and in pursuit of the Dial, who enlists Jones into helping her find the artifact. Soon, they run afoul of Nazi turned NASA scientist Voller, now under the alias of "Dr. Schmidt," who is determined to find the Dial in order to alter history and change the outcome of World War II!!
Remembering back to the point when I saw "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull," and the unbridled anticipation I felt with being able to see a new Indiana Jones adventure 19 years after the previous installment, let alone one which I never figured would ever happen, I knew that I needed to slow down, breathe and lower any sense of expectations. For there was no way that any new film would perfectly echo the out of body sensation that was indeed "Raiders Of The Lost Ark." And for that matter, nothing would match the ferocious intensity of "Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom" Essentially, whatever elements were at work that very first time were not in existence in the exact same way anymore. Anything made would be different, so just sit back and try to enjoy it for what it is...which I did, despite the vitriol surrounding the fourth installment since its release.
I bring attention to this memory and self advice because entering James Mangold's "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny," I had to temper any sense of expectations considerably. Truth be told, I was skeptical about the entire enterprise as this is the first Indiana Jones film to not be directed by Steven Spielberg or conceived by George Lucas (even though they both retain the Executive Producer screen credit). It, frankly, didn't seem to feel right to have anew film without either of the creators, in addition to knowing that whomever directed the film cold never make anything exactly like the first film again.
All of that being mulled over, James Mangold had indeed delivered a strong film overall, with an especially terrific first third, which finds a tonality the closest we have seen to the original film rather than the lighter, sillier third and fourth episodes.
"Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny" has a grittier, more grounded cinematic footing, especially in that first third. Yes, the cliffhangers and escapes are as wild as ever but there feels to be truly something at stake rather than an experience that slides more to the cartoonish. There is a visceral force and speed to the action sequences, that also feel tangible towards Indy's advanced age and in doing so, Mangold has wisely made a film that is often as much about closing chapters and individual mortality as his excellent and brutally elegiac "Logan" (2017), which ended the saga of The Uncanny X-Men's Wolverine (that is until next year's "Deadpool 3"...but I digress).
Harrison Ford, who has obviously spent a portion within this late period of his career, revisiting his signature characters and seeing them to their conclusions, utilizes his specialized gravitas to tremendous effect. As always, there is no other individual who could ever don the fedora and the whip as masterfully as Ford and once again, he delivers the goods and then some, making for a character would follow to the ends of the earth as long as Ford portrayed him. It is a rich, fully realized performance that showcases the melancholy of aging and knowing explicitly that there is more life behind you than in front of you. I thoroughly loved the references given to all four previous films, some just momentary, others more seismic but each one places a spotlight on the amount and depth of life the character has experienced thus far as he engages in one more globetrotting escapade and Harrison Ford meets every moment beautifully, especially in the film's lovely final scenes.
Another element I appreciated that makes "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny" relevant rather than a relic is again having the Nazi party remain as antagonists. If our real world were any different than it is today in 2023, perhaps I would feel that the filmmakers were resting on their laurels with providing Indiana Jones with a worthy adversary but we are living in our increasingly uncertain times in which 21st century Nazis are openly marching, White supremacists are topical political figures and we are indeed still haggling with a sector of society unwilling to accept the empirical true outcome of the last Presidential election. This makes Jurgen Voller an up to the minute villain as his disciplined fury and relentless diligence with obtaining the Dial to rewrite history itself speaks to current threat merged with national anxiety.
Even so, "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny" is far from a home run. For the praise of the Jurgen Voller character as well as Mads Mikkelsen's performance, it does arrive with the caveat that it is also a decidedly underwritten character that places poor Mikkelsen within a film in which he has very little to actually do. Mads Mikkelsen is an intense figure who exudes screen presence and yet, over and again, I feel that he is shuffled off to the fringes rather than be allowed to take center stage. I just imagine what a filmmaker like Quentin Tarantino would provide with this character as well as an actor, for you know Tarantino would jump at the chance to get Mikkelsen to be an adversary that we would actually worry if Indy would come out alive against.
Additionally, and while he definitely tries, James Mangold is not quite the master of pacing that Steven Spielberg is. It felt as if Mangold front loaded his film without thinking of how to spread the energy around and find spots to deliver that crucial ebb and flow that allows the film as a whole to ascend rather than tread water. While not bloated, the pacing just begins to feel sluggish just when it should be accelerating, and that did temper the film as a whole.
And then, there's the climax...
Now, I do not think that after over 30 years, it would necessarily be a spoiler to announce that I was actually not a fan of the climax contained within "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" in which Indy comes face to face with an over 700 year old flesh and blood King Richard. To me, that was more than too much for me to suspend my sense of disbelief. It just felt too over the line into the fantastical when the Ark of The Covenant and mystical voodoo felt to tread that tenuous line between archeological truths and the supernatural exceedingly well. To that end, even the interstellar reveals in the fourth film felt to be more tangible to me.
While the titular object in "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny" is a compelling one, it was the whole execution that just left me shaking my head. Trust me, I appreciate the huge swing for the fences and that Mangold and his team were unafraid to take their ideas to the wall. But, believe me, the climax is absolutely bonkers and felt to edge everything into something more akin to Taika Waititi's' "Thor: Ragnarok" (2017) than anything witnessed before in an Indiana Jones adventure.
Still, I was entertained and often quite touched with witnessing the end of a cinematic journey that began when I was 12 years old in 1981. Time truly is an illusion as I remember that feeling of seeing Indiana Jones for the very first time so vividly and viscerally. Yet, maybe James Mangold's "Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny" is precisely what it needed to be because time marches on and none of us are getting any younger.
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