Faith Under the Fedora: Indiana Jones and the Heroic Journey Towards God

This essay explores how the original Indiana Jones trilogy (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade) work as a single journey towards faith. In the first film, Indy fully rejects religion and by the third film he accepts God. How does this happen? Indy takes a journey by exploring archeology, mythology, and theology that is best exemplified by Joseph Campbell\u27s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Like many people who come to find faith, it does not occur overnight. Indy takes a similar path, using his career and adventurer status to help him find Ultimate Truth

Indiana Jones und das Bild des Archäologen: Die Popularisierung eines Berufsbildes

Da kein Abstract des Artikels vorhanden ist, finden Sie hier den Beginn des Artikels: Der Name Indiana Jones steht für atemberaubende Abenteuer, exotische Orte, mystische Artefakte und beängstigende Gefahren. Die Filme «brachten eine Rückkehr des Abenteuerfilms in eine Kinokultur, [...] die sich nach den unschuldigen Vergnügungen eines Kinos der Träume zurücksehnte». Der berühmte Archäologe zeigt sich dabei von zwei Seiten: Als bürgerlicher Professor und als abenteuerlicher Held. Beide zusammen zeichnen ein Bild eines überaus spektakulären Alltags eines wissenschaftlichen Forschers.Im folgenden Beitrag wird untersucht, welches Bild der Archäologie in den Indiana-Jones-Filmen vermittelt wird und welche Elemente zu dieser Darstellung beitragen. Ausgehend von der Beschreibung beider Seiten (Professor und Abenteurer) wird illustriert, welche Bedeutung diese für die Handlung und das gesellschaftliche Bild des Archäologen, der für sich schon eine spezielle Form des Wissenschaftlers darstellt, haben. Dabei spielen auch andere Faktoren wie Pseudowissenschaft, Artefakte und auch der Film selbst (als Unterhaltungsmedium) eine bedeutende Rolle.Die Beispiele, auf welche sich die Argumentation stützt, stammen aus den Filmen Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) und Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), weil sie aufgrund vieler Parallelen sehr gut zur Deutung von Indiana Jones geeignet sind

Mr. Jones Goes to Washington: Myth and Religion in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

This essay uses Joseph Campbell's concept of the Monomyth to analyze both the mythic and contemporary implications of a "popcorn" movie that has numerous social and political subtexts for the Reaganite era

Indiana Jones. From: DiMare, P. C. (2011). Movies in american history : An encyclopedia Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c2011. pp 254-258

Themes of the Indiana Jones movies

Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Hollywood Tradition: Nostalgia, Parody, and Postmodernism

The film Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981 to immediate success. Using a noticeably retrospective style, Raiders appealed to the public\u27s desire to experience once again the same kind of viewing pleasure that Hollywood offered in the classical period. Accordingly, the film\u27s nostalgic recreation of classical Hollywood entails a reliance on type characters, tough dialogue, and stock situations--with an overarching emphasis on maintaining a breakneck pace in its action. The appeal for the viewer, then, involves the satisfaction of a need to return to a superficially simpler time when the movies themselves were simpler --as they fulfilled the expectation of straightforward entertainment. And yet, on another level, Raiders\u27s debt to Hollywood past often manifests itself with irony and a slightly comic tone. In its reworking of genre conventions, the film tends toward parody. Certainly, the detection of such moments of parody is viewer-specific. As parody plays upon each viewer\u27s distinct viewing history, each viewer may react differently to the film\u27s inversion of the conventional. Whatever the case, Raiders\u27s parodic revisions of genre expectations (for instance, those of the Western) enable the viewer to partake in a sort of game--wherein knowledge and recognition of those instances of parody provide their own reward: the viewer\u27s active role in meaning-making results in the satisfaction of achieving a seemingly higher level of interpretation. But Raiders\u27s relationship to Hollywood past is neither simply nostalgic nor simply parodic. Paralleling the strategies of postmodern art, Raiders appropriates existing film images and plots. Accordingly, much of the film is a pastiche of previous Hollywood pictures. But unlike parody, pastiche entails no connotations of humor or derision. The appropriation of the existing image in the new text is effected seemingly without comment by that text. Raiders borrows then from films as diverse as 1941\u27s landmark Citizen Kane and the independent 1955 film noir Kiss Me Deadly. Although the antecedent texts are not actually parodied--that is, ridiculed--in such appropriation, they must be in some way implicated. Understanding the significance of Raiders\u27s appropriation though can be problematic. The effect of pastiche in Raiders is not so easily reconciled with the effects of pastiche in more overtly deconstructionist postmodern art. Part of the problem here is one of definition: the film seems to follow the formal strategies but not the oppositional politics normally associated with postmodernism proper. Ultimately, the key might be to follow the suggestion of Hal Foster and recognize two distinct strains of postmodernism. As Foster suggests, another (non-deconstructive) postmodernism exists: one that serves to uphold and rebuild--rather than resist--both the sociopolitical status quo and the overwhelming cultural influence of representation. Raiders, finally, formulates no real critique of the Hollywood film industry, but rather--and despite its gentle parody of film conventions--seeks to celebrate and affirm the Hollywood product\u27s utility as a palliative

Indiana Jones and the displaced daddy : Spielberg's quest for the good father, adulthood, and God.

"The Indiana Jones films define adventure as perpetual adolescence: idealized yet stifling emotional maturation. The series consequently resonates with the search for a good father and a confirmation for modernist man that his existence has "meaning;" success is always contingent upon belief. Examination of intertextual variability reveals cultural perspectives and Judaeo-Christian motifs unifying all films along with elements of inclusivism and pluralism. An accessible, comprehensive guide to key themes in all four Indiana Jones films studies the ideologicalimperative of Spielbergian cinema: patriarchal integrity is intimately connected with the quest for God, moral authority, national supremacy, and adulthood."--Abstract

(Mis)representation at the movies: film, pedagogy, and postcolonial theory in the secondary English classroom

This thesis examines the potential role of film study in the secondary English and Language Arts classroom. Highlighting the frustrated current pedagogical relationship between most secondary instructors and film, it seeks to provide educators with resources to assist them in weaving motion pictures into their classrooms. Specifically, it describes using film to teach secondary students fundamental concepts of postcolonial critical theory. As a result, the thesis addresses three overarching questions: 1) To what extent can the study of film serve as a pedagogical tool in the secondary English classroom? 2) What strategies and concepts can instructors use to make the study of film in their classrooms a reality? 3) How can the study of film be used as a means of postcolonial theory? Three films comprise the thesis’s central focus: Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). By focusing on the medium’s ability to develop visual literacy skills—stressed by both NCTE and IRA as vital for students in the twenty-first century—the thesis provides ways that film can serve as a rich topic of analysis that both challenges and engages students. In addition, it focuses specific attention on using films to help students visualize and connect with postcolonial critical theory. The three films selected for examination in both the critical essays and the corresponding curricular design, in particular, embody and represent several areas of focus common to postcolonial analysis. A comprehensive literature review of film pedagogy and two critical essays on the selected films are paired with a curricular design consisting of ten lesson plans, complete with handouts, assessments, and instructional notes for educators to use in their own classrooms. Combined, these artifacts provide cogent arguments that film both can and should be included in the secondary curriculum as it links students’ inherent interest in multimedia content with the essential analytical and critical thinking skills that make up the heart of every English classroom

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This is a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)