Indiana Jones in the 'Sixties'

[monkey]

Hello All,

OK,
I have spent numerous posts and threads extolling the fact that I belive the character of Indiana Jones belongs in the 1930's, and ONLY in the 1930's.

Verbally I have fought vehemently against the idea of IJ in the '50's, ...and even in the 40's.

But there seems to be such a clamor for an 'older' Indiana Jones that I have begun to entertain an idea.

My Mom always told me 'Be careful what you wish for......you might just get it.

OK, you want an older Indy in the '40's or '50's? Well I'll go one better......how about Indiana Jones in the 60's????

That's right. I'm considering some ideas for a Fan Fiction featuring Indiana Jones in the 1960's (I'm thinking like 1963..........JFK is still President, and besides, it's the year that 'Animal House' is supposed to take place....'63 was a good year).

So my question to the Indy Fan community is this: Where do you think Indiana Jones would be, and what would he be doing, in 1963??

[westford]

Complaining about 'modern' music? ;)

Hmmm, possibly others would be trying to persuade him to retire, but he'd still be out in the field doing what he loves, and trying to get his head around modern archaeological techniques and ideas (Lewis Binford was an important figure at the time - what would Indy have thought of him?).

[Finn]

Unlike westy here came up with, I'd say that Indy would have, not if completely shut down, but at least seriously slowed down his lifestyle with serious adventuring and concentrated more on that side of his life with the teaching job.

Of course, he could still occasionally visit some other location that the local general store in order to gain an unearthed valuable artefact... p'haps he'd be on the hunt for those things that disappeared with the Germans in the end of WW II and now are popping up in antiquities shops, auctions and private collections around the world (instead of booby-trapped temples and so on). This way, his lifestyle would still contain that "it-belongs-in-a-museum" -attitude, but not in the manner of putting his life completely in the line of fire.

It's still a bit hard to imagine Indy just letting a lost artefact to simply let be because he'd be too afraid to go after it... so could he also be mentoring someone to the ways of treasure hunting? Bit like Nero Wolfe has Archie Goodwin to collect clues for him, maybe Indy would also hold some young, talented archaeologist under his wing - he'd do the research and then send the young rackhead to fetch the valuables off from the uncharted area after finding out the location.

Whew, that was a mouthful.

[Joe Brody]

I hope you go for it Monkey. Here's my thoughts from an earlier thread that would still apply to the '60's.


[...]
(2) On Indy still being a professor. One of the things I love about LC is the shot of Indy climbing out of the window. If that isn't a sign that it's time for the guy to leave the classroom, then I don't know what is. What's interesting is that I could see Professor Jones going two ways here: (A) First, Indy could throw himself into his fieldwork. Picture an Indy, weary from WWII (doing whatever it was that he did) finding a big Incan/Mayan (whatever) city in Central/South America -- basically the type of site that could keep one archaeolgist busy for a lifetime -- and settling down. I could see this professional Indy loving life, waking up in his tent each morning and looking out onto his massive dig on the mountain below. Perhaps, he's also writing a huge work on the dig to prove to the academic world that he is a serious scholar. A little boring but conceivable. O.K, now for the second version -- (B) which I call the 'Champagne Indy'. After the war, let's say Indy decides that he's done with the Professor racket and he decides to go what might have been the Marcus Brody route. So he becomes a curator where he gets to live the good life. Not very interesting, but, believe it or not, I could see Indy choosing to coast and take it easy. Thinking on a big scale, this older Indy could become a big Curator of say the Met in New York and during the '50's he could be involved with people at the United Nations in formulating various treaties/protocols to better protect relics. With ties in both the U.N. crowd and with the Museum, I could see Indy being a regular invitee of the elite New York social/power scene . . . .
[...]


Either the 'Academic Indy' or the 'Champagne Indy' would still work in the '60's. I prefer the 'Champagne Indy' approach because New York in the '50's and '60's was a jumpin town and it would be a good jumping off point for any adventure.

[Johan]

I think he would spend most of his time in his den at home reading over manuscripts and books and then telling his adventures and spreading his knowledge to his children...inless he got married soon after LC and has grandchildren already