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Sources PLEASE!JediJones said:I'm inclined to agree with Spielberg that Spalko is the best villain in the entire Indy series.
It speaks volumes that's all you took from his character.JediJones said:Simply put, which of all the villains would you rather see an entire spinoff movie devoted to? Belloq? Boring and French.
She fought a high school drop out and cut him on the cheek.JediJones said:Spalko has everything. Great bad-ass fighting skills, spooky supernatural powers, intelligent dialogue, motivated by a misguided but patriotic pride in her socialist country as well as scientific theory as opposed to just a quest for artifacts or the desire to kill people, exotic accent and seductive looks.
She had NO powers.
What dialog was intelligent?
There was no indication her "patriotism" was anything more than a means to her own ends, and her end illustrates that.
Pride in scientific theory? Huh? Where?
I guess we have to differ on the exotic accent because it sounded like a cartoon to me especially the way she would monologue point and yell the majority of the time.
Seductive looks?
Where?!JediJones said:Blanchett...give the best performances of the series' villains, showing convincing emotion that goes beyond the printed lines of the screenplay
I always took that as Belloqs way of appealing to others passions, (or what he believes to be). That he has plans for the ark doesn't support any belief in God as much as he's trying to pull strings and using the kind of speech that will effect his victory. Whether the power is perceived or real he wants it, and who is it that truly believes and thinks he can control God?goodeknight said:But he's the one that says, "Do you realize what this is? It's a transmitter for speaking to God." (with God?) And he believes it. Perhaps not as a devout Jew, but he believes in it enough to don the gear and perform the ritual to the Bible's standards. At the same time, he is still a mercenary, and calls himself such. But the Nazis will only get the Ark after he's finished with it.
The film is poorly written and executed.goodeknight said:Indy tags along half the time helping her in her quest. What's up with that? They really give no solid explanation as to why Indy helps them get the alien mummy in Hangar 51. They say, "Go fetch," and he obliges. And he cuts to the chase and does it quickly. He didn't even stall. Later in the jungle he's all over the translating and figuring out the maps, etc. It takes Mutt to get some real action going. It doesn't seem Indy is that concerned with their escape.
You can't expect to get to know them, but you could predict (well enough) what Spalko would do?JediJones said:These are Indiana Jones movies, so you can't expect to really "get to know" the characters. Characterization is written in shorthand in these films. And I thought it was done better with Spalko than with most. I get a really good sense of who she is, such that I can make a good prediction on how she might act if she were thrust into a new situation.
That you know what a villain is capable of defeats any surprise, tension and ultimately learning complex motivations, but as you put it, and I paraphrase it: Spalko is a one note cartoon villain...and that's OK if you want it/like it but it surely doesn't make her great.
Lets add:JediJones said:Spalko in fact takes most of the best qualities of the previous villains and puts them in one package, Belloq's intelligence...
Boring
French
Best Villain Performances of the series (+/- Spalko: To be determined)
Convincing emotion beyond screenplay
Intelligent
She reads her resume from her first moments on screen, otherwise she monologues, points, screams...what they show us is that she's a fraud.JediJones said:Spalko was a case where we were really properly shown who she was as a character rather than told.
♫Getting to know you, getting to know all about you♪...JediJones said:I don't think it was that effective to basically have Belloq sit there and describe who he is through dialogue...And the whole "it would take only a nudge to make you like me" conversation didn't really have much weight, because we know so little about who Belloq is and what he's done. All we know is he hired some natives to steal the idol from Indy and then kill Indy, and he was willing to work with the Nazis.
That's what its about: suspense. We know he and Jones have a past and that Belloq is screwing the Hovitos. That he's comfortable ordering him dead its all we need to know and Raiders does a phenomenal job advancing the story while maintaining the suspense. The nudge conversation isn't meant to "have much weight" its meant to forward the story and reveal character. He said what he needed to provoke Indy, and he did...Indy went from considering killing him to going for his gun. It was another great fight scene, a break from the action to an improbable one on one where we get motivation, not lengthy boring posturing with Indy shackled to a chair.
In that scene we're exactly like Indy...being force fed Spalko's line of crap.
What movie were you watching? What redeeming qualities does he show?JediJones said:Belloq suffers as a villain because it's hard to really hate him.
Is it:
Its quite clear he wants something from Marion and he reacts aptly: "The girl was mine"...JediJones said:He tries to protect Marion for one thing and he never does anything directly violent
HA! you're funny, its plain you're goofing. You're all over the place!JediJones said:Recast Belloq without the French accent (Tom Selleck?) and it'd be easy to forget that he even was a villain.
What was the point? That she was a fake phony fraud?JediJones said:The point wasn't to have her use the powers directly.
Sure, but if you're going to indulge the conceit, what's the point in spending time with the potential to read minds if it NEVER comes into play?JediJones said:Having a character running around reading minds all the time wouldn't be something we'd want to see in an Indiana Jones movie.
Spielberg must have meant to show she's a phony.
I don't, its a red herring that only distracts from a poorly written film, like the switchblade rip and many other examples its content that goes nowhere and does nothing.JediJones said:I like the fact that we never really find out if she really has that power at all or is just delusional. The Indiana Jones movies always flirt with the idea of whether the artifacts really have powers or don't. So the idea that Spalko's powers may or may not be there fits in with that sense of toying with the supernatural but not putting the whole movie in the supernatural world from start to finish.
They went off the rails, showing supernatural phenomena too early...JediJones said:Where I think the movie sags is when they have the skull and suddenly its supernatural powers start motivating the action throughout the jungle scenes.
What does that mean?JediJones said:Nevertheless, the idea of Spalko having an interest in psychic powers is organic to the plot...
How do you know that? It has EVERYTHING to do with her character, it shows a failing of her actual perception beyond the failing of her psychic perceptionJediJones said:That really has nothing to do with her character and everything to do with the fact that the screenplay was backed into a corner and needed Oxley to be doing something at that moment that only Indy, not the Russians could figure out.
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