I Hate Indiana Jones: Day 4

Day 4: Indiana Jones and the Over-respect for the Living

Yesterday I mentioned the scene where Harrison Ford and Jim Broadbent commiserate about the death of Indy's friends and relatives. This leads to the best line in the movie, where Jim Broadbent observes that the two of them have reached the age where life "Stops giving them things, and starts taking them."

I want to reiterate that it's a legitimately touching moment, but one that's undermined by the filmmakers' decision to keep cutting back to a photograph over and over again. When Harrison begins being morose about his life, the audience gets a chance to see two photographs on his desk, one of Denholm Elliot, the other of Sean Connery. Hilariously, the picture of Connery is one of him wearing his costume from Last Crusade, suggesting that they used a publicity still from the movie because no other photos were available. Just like in bad low-budget movies where every file photograph of a person looks surprisingly like an actor's headshot.

The problem isn't the amateur photograph though, it's the way the camera keeps cutting back to the photo and lingering on it as music plays. It goes on for so long that there's only two possible interpretations for it - 1: That the filmmakers genuinely didn't think that people would understand that Indy was sad because his dad was dead unless given an extended period of time to consider his photo, or 2: The were under the impression that Sean Connery had died, and this was their attempt at a memorial.

Either way, it stops the film dead and looks oddly amateurish.