Review: Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (thematic-spoilers)

Indiana Jones
And The Dial Of Destiny
(thematic-spoilers)
Cert: 12A / 154 mins / Dir. James Mangold / Trailer

Go big or go home, they say. Well, I'd already watched Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny in my home town, so next up a trip to the IMAX in London's Leicester Square was in order; just to give that de-ageing some real scrutiny.

On a surface-level, not much has changed on a second-pass. That said, the film seems to film flow more evenly and pacing-dip of the second act isn't as evident. Other minor issues are detailed in the first review and those still stand*¹. But just like last time, they really don't derail enjoyment of what is A Rollicking Action Movie™.

What's most impressive about Indy 5 is how neatly it fits into the canon, structurally speaking. With the natural exception of the actual modus operandi (and more on that in the next review), everything that occurs here feels in-keeping with what's gone before. What follows after the jump contains thematic spoilers; there's nothing to ruin the story, but it'll tell you how that story is handled. Read on with caution...

So as much as this is firmly part of the cinematic family there are, however, significant differences in the execution this time around. As noted in the previous review, Dial Of Destiny features plenty of adrenaline and excitement, but it never quite manages to recapture the swashbuckling feel of earlier entries; of gravity being Indy's most persistent foe. This is to be expected given that our leading man is 80 years old and has already broken bones revisiting one of his old characters, but it's also worth noting that the actual threat to Jones is of a far more conscious nature, here.

DANGER

Throughout the first trilogy, Indy faced danger as much from his environment as his antagonists. It's why those films can be an adventure even if he's the only person on-screen. Rolling boulders, runaway minecarts, treasure-guarding traps, spears and blades, or even just a set of stone stairs receding into the walls of a Mayan temple. There were plenty of obstacles for our hero to overcome before he came face to face with the bad guy. But this level of old fashioned derring-do is almost entirely absent from Dial Of Destiny.

Indy may not be swinging from ropes in this movie, but the man is still running for his life. The difference is that a boulder doesn't keep coming back as its grudge builds. The entire film is effectively one long chase-sequence (be it on land, sea or air), but the recurring and persistent mortal threat Indy really has to contend with is Men With Guns*². Specifically, nazis with guns. Part of this, of course, is a throwback to the Raiders and Last Crusade, set around the era of the Second World War, and it's a decided choice by Lucasfilm/Disney to revisit a more clearly definable 'enemy' (because while the Russians in Crystal Skull where definitely Baddies™, the Cold War was a lot more nebulous as a concept, plus those guys didn't have a highly recognisable symbol on their uniforms).

While Indy's certainly in dangerous situations here, retrieving The Treasure itself is surprisingly straightforward compared to previous trials.

CONDOR

So on a screenwriting-level, is narrowing the danger down to people rather than place a reflection of the film's time-period, where even the romanticism of Hollywood had given way to a far more blunt realism? By 1969, the war in Vietnam was halfway through its second decade, Nixon had just taken his seat in the White House and the country was reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Optimism was struggling to find a foothold on Earth, even if the Moon was offering a glimmer of progress. The dream factories of California were in an emotional slump which wouldn't turn around until the arrival of Star Wars in 1977*³.

That Doctor Jones' battle with his nemesis here takes on an altogether more mechanical form is a testament to its setting, and it's probably no coincidence that this chimes fairly closely with our own times as well. The third act becomes truly and gloriously fantastical of course, but even then Indy is dropped (literally) into another warzone, where projectiles fly without the aid of gunpowder but are no less deadly for that. There's no time to catch his breath, eventually Indy just has to turn and fight.

With this in mind then, Dial Of Destiny was never going to be - on a fundamental level - 'the same' as earlier entries into the cinematic canon. Allowances have to be made (and have been) for the story that's being told and for what the audience is switching-off from when they sit down in front of it. It's about the insidious determination of fanaticism. It's about the nazis returning. And it's about not giving that an inch.

OLD HOLBORN

There's no both-siding here, no first-act charismatic charm to the evil. And nor should there be. Jürgen Voller is shown to be thoroughly repellent, and more credit to the writers and Mads Mikkelsen for making this so. Dial of Destiny isn't a lecture, but it's a pretty clear lesson about not letting down our guard, and in this respect it's a great companion piece for Spider-Man: Far From Home. Woke? Yes, and necessarily so.

That's not to say there's no place for rope-swinging, chasm-leaping, dart-dodging adventure in 2023. There absolutely is and god knows it's certainly needed, but at what point does escapism become distraction? There's already plenty of lighter entertainment showing in the other screens, and most of it carrying messages that are far more vapid.

I'm not saying Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny is deep - it's not - but the film does have an acute awareness of what and why it's meant to be. Namely, tinkety-tonk old fruit, and down with the nazis...

*¹ To reiterate though, the digital de-ageing of Harrison Ford is wildly inconsistent - at times passable, at times horrifying - and watching the film on an IMAX screen only makes those flaws clearer, unfortunately. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² I'd like to say men and women with guns, but do bear in mind that Shaunette Reneé WIlson's chronically-underused CIA Agent Mason is the only one who's trying to prevent her colleagues from shooting everyone in sight. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ That's only due to happen eight years after what we see in this movie. Assuming Indy still lives to the age of his TV-persona, do we think this is a universe where he might sit down and watch Han Solo in Star Wars? After all, one of the best things about Dial Of Destiny is the unspoken reunion between Solo and one of the Millennium Falcon's droid-brains. ^{[ BACK ]}

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