Flannery as Indy

Henry W Jones

New member
Stoo said:
He DOES have the scar. It can easily be seen in close-up shots. (And yes, it's in both episodes of "Demons of Deception"). I guess you missed the part when Indy picks up the whip in Mexico. Just before he uses it, he puts his hand to his chin where the scar is.

There are many threads about Flanery's portrayal and the fact that Indy meets so many historical figures but this one would make a good merger: Flanery as Indy

Then this is thread for you: Is the Mole on Indy's neck Canon????:p Flanery's mole doesn't bother me at all. It's really quite a petty detail.


The mole is petty but still does not fit with latter Indy from the movies (but not a big deal, was just pointing out the accuracy level of SPF as Indy goes beyond a missing scar) Sorry if I'm incorrect about the scar. It's been a while since I have watched the series. (My bad):eek: And as far as his portrayal of Indy I stick by it 1,000,000,000 %. Especially after River Phoenix did such a great job capturing his essence in Crusade.
 

INCUBUSRATM

New member
Stoo- thanks for thinking to merge my thread with this one. Goes with the flow of things. :)

Now I'm going to have to re-watch Demons... I was looking for it, too. I thought I saw it in a shot when he was lying down or something, but when it switched to another shot it was clearly not there. I'm going to have to really watch closely, I guess. Really it should be more visible, since it's more visible on Ford in the films.

And yeah, I remember him picking up the whip in Mexico- that was one of my favorite moments. :whip:
 

INCUBUSRATM

New member
Okay so after watching some more episodes and now that I'm nearing the end of Volume III, I have seen the prosthetic scar some more. It's not near as noticeable as Harrison's, though.
 

Crack that whip

New member
INCUBUSRATM said:
Okay so after watching some more episodes and now that I'm nearing the end of Volume III, I have seen the prosthetic scar some more. It's not near as noticeable as Harrison's, though.

Yeah, it's notably smaller. My assumption is that it's a concession toward the different facial proportions between Harrison Ford and Sean Patrick Flanery; the bottom front of Sean's chin is narrower than Harrison's, and if the fake scar put on Sean were the same size as the real one on Harrison it would dominate his chin to the point of distracting viewers, especially ones aware it was a makeup scar - they'd be busy focusing on the scar instead of following the drama. But I don't know for sure that that's the thinking behind the scar design; it just seems to me to make sense.

As for the rest... I love Sean Patrick Flanery as young Indy. I suspect some viewers don't notice his actual performance as much because Sean's looks and voice aren't particularly close to Harrison's, but in terms of his inflection and movement and so on, I think he really nails the role.

He also appreciates the character and the opportunities the role gave him. It just so happens I had the pleasure of meeting him at Dragon*Con a couple weekends ago and hearing him speak and answer questions about his time on Young Indy, and he clearly loved doing the show.
 
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foreverwingnut

New member
I still have the Lucasfilm Fanclub mag in which it was announced that Flannery would be playing young Indy. McDonalds, as you all recall, then sold the Indiana Jones Trilogy to promote the Young Indy Chronicles (I'd still have those if I hadn't worn them out!). I was pleasantly surprised by Flannery. He didn't want to do an impression of Ford and that is ultimately what earned him the role. Flannery wanted to play the part of a naive, young man just trying to find himself while maturing from the trials of war, love, and loss. The series was really about history seen through the eyes of a young man whose own name would one day make history. Every hero has to learn the ropes somewhere and this was a great glimpse into the beginnings of Indiana Jones. When I read the novels about Indy's earlier adventures as a first-time teacher, it seems easier to picture him as Flannery rather than Ford because the character is often written as sometimes unassured and often out of his element. It would seem that those early novels were inspired considerably by Flannery's portrayal.
 
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IndyJoey

Member
Raiders112390 said:
And Indiana in the films not only knows and can speak Chinese but also can speak Hindu and understand it--speaking to and translating the Village Elder for Willie and Shortie, and can read ancient Sanskrit. He also knows early Latin (his easy reading of the Grail tablet), and has at least a little knowledge of ancient Egyptian language/symbols (Raiders map room scene), as well as the Greek alphabet in the beginning of LC. So he knows a fair number of languages thoroughly in the films, and it's said he can speak 27 in the YIJC--which given his fluency in languages in the Ford films does seem believable, though he may have gotten rusty with some over time.

Dont forget, he also could speak German, When he was posing as a butler in LC on the Zeppelin.
 

Archaeos

Member
IndyJoey said:
Dont forget, he also could speak German, When he was posing as a butler in LC on the Zeppelin.

And not only as ticket controller/steward... nein nein!

Übrigens, there is a nice little thread here researching and summarising all the languages Indy is supposed to be able to speak. Check it out here.
 

foreverwingnut

New member
Indy's many languages

As has been pointed out in this thread, Young Indy speaks twenty-seven languages and, while it's certainly possible that Indy learned several more languages by the 1930s, let's assume that twenty-seven is the limit. T.E. Lawrence once told little Henry Jones that learning the dialect is the key to understanding the people and their history- or something to that effect- so Indy took the good advice to heart. Linguistics was also an academic for Indy in college. I've often tried to label the twenty-seven individual languages based on Indy's travels and I always come up short, mainly because I know very little about linguistics. I'd like to get the ball rolling here by mentioning as many as I can and, hopefully, others can add to the list based on information from the TV series, the novels, the comics, and the films. We have to assume, firstly, that Indy isn't fluent in every language, but can communicate well enough in varying degrees in all twenty-seven languages. Secondly, several dialects can be similar to others, but should be counted seperately, such as the various dialects in South American Spanish or the difference between Austrian and German. So, having said that, here is the list as far as I know: 1- English. 2- possibly Scottish because his father was born in Scotland and Indy married Dierdre, who was Scottish. 3- possibly some Welsh because Indy's father studied King Arthur-lore. 4- some Italian. 5- some French. 6- some Austrian. 7- a little bit of an African dialect (?) he learned while on a hunt with Pres. Roosevelt. 8- some Indian dialect in 1910. 9- Cantonese. 10- Mandarin. 11- Lao Che commented that Indy spoke his language, which might imply Shanghainese- a local variation of Mandarin. 12- Russian- fluently. 13- German, fluently. 14- Greek. 15- modern Egyptian. 16- Aramaic. 17- Spanish, fluently. 18- Quechua- a Peruvian variation of Spanish. Here's where it falls apart for me because I don't know how many other variations of Spanish dialects he speaks. Question: when Indy enilisted in the Belgium army, which language did he use? Was it Dutch or French? Did Indy speak any ancient Egyptian? Some of the languages I've pointed out might be elaborated or dismissed by others, but that's perfectly fine because I'd like to get as complete a list as we can get. I haven't watched the Young Indy series for awhile and I've never read the comics, so any help here is appreciated.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
foreverwingnut said:
When I read the novels about Indy's earlier adventures as a first-time teacher, it seems easier to picture him as Flannery rather than Ford because the character is often written as sometimes unassured and often out of his element. It would seem that those early novels were inspired considerably by Flannery's portrayal.
Foreverwingnut, don’t take offence nor imagine this is an attempt to “smear” you, etc.:)

Firstly, it may *seem* that the early novels were inspired by Flanery's portrayal but that’s not the case because the first 4 novels were published before the TV series even aired.

Secondly, I know that "Flannery" is the common spelling of the family name but Sean Patrick is a "Flanery" with one 'n'. (The thread title with "nn" is incorrect.) You wouldn't want someone misspelling your own name, would you?
foreverwingnut said:
As has been pointed out in this thread, Young Indy speaks twenty-seven languages...
-snip-
Some of the languages I've pointed out might be elaborated or dismissed by others, but that's perfectly fine because I'd like to get as complete a list as we can get. I haven't watched the Young Indy series for awhile and I've never read the comics, so any help here is appreciated.
It may interest you to know that we have a thread dedicated to that very topic!(y) (Archaeos provided a link in his post directly above yours so I don't understand why you want to start a conversation about Indy's language skills here in this thread.) Check it out, Wingnut...and in order to take full advantage of the information in that thread, you should remove my name from your “ignore list”.;)

Indy’s Languages

Don't get bent, Wingnut. You said, "any help here is appreciated", and I'm just trying to help you out.:cool:
 

foreverwingnut

New member
You're right, Stoo, any help is appreciated. While skimming through this thread for a specific, completed list of the languages, I missed Archaeos' brief mention about the link. Still, it wasn't a total waste of time for me, because it was fun to try and name as many languages as I could before I compare it with the other posting. It is, of course, a waste of time for anyone else who bothered to read my post. The moderators have my permission to delete that particualr post if they choose. The extra "n" in Flanery was an easy mistake for all of us as that it the common spelling, but thanks to your correction, many of us won't make the same mistake again. While we're on the subject of corrections though, Stoo, I have to return a friendly, constructive correction to you: there were more than four Indiana Jones books published before Young Indy aired. R.L. Stine, alone, had an entire series of Indy books for young readers in the 80s. In my earlier post, I was referring to the more popular titles of the 90s beginning with "Peril at Delphi". "Delphi" came before Young Indy, but "Dance of the Giants"- Indy's first teaching gig- was published the same year that Young Indy was being filmed and well before the show aired in March 1992. There were also numerous articles in various magazines and newspapers throughout 1990about the search for the star of Young Indy and the subsequent discovery of Flanery. Most everyone knew who Flanery was before he even stepped in front of the camera. The tone of the 90s novels is much more like Flanery's portrayal than Ford's, even though Ford was the image on the covers. "The Secret of the Sphinx" in '99 was perhaps Ford's persona as Indy had become a more-assured and more experienced adventurer by then.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
foreverwingnut said:
While we're on the subject of corrections though, Stoo, I have to return a friendly, constructive correction to you: there were more than four Indiana Jones books published before Young Indy aired. R.L. Stine, alone, had an entire series of Indy books for young readers in the 80s. In my earlier post, I was referring to the more popular titles of the 90s beginning with "Peril at Delphi". "Delphi" came before Young Indy, but "Dance of the Giants"- Indy's first teaching gig- was published the same year that Young Indy was being filmed and well before the show aired in March 1992.
Yes, I'm very aware of the '80s "Find Your Fate" books (I even had one but lost it.:() but all of those stories take place between 1933-1939 when Indy is an experienced teacher. You were clearly referring to the Bantam novels so when I wrote "first 4 novels", I meant the first 4 of that series. Even though some of them were written while the "Chronicles" was being filmed, it's doubtful that Rob MacGregor was on-set or saw any footage to base his interpretation on. Like an average Joe Schmoe, his first exposure to Flanery acting as Indy was probably when the series showed up on the small screen. (Interviews with MacGregor seem to imply this but I could be wrong).

In addition to that, Rob MacGregor's take on a younger Indy wasn't the only aspect to precede the TV series. Check this out, Wingnut: Old Indy invented by Rob MacGregor pre-YIJC?
foreverwingnut said:
There were also numerous articles in various magazines and newspapers throughout 1990about the search for the star of Young Indy and the subsequent discovery of Flanery. Most everyone knew who Flanery was before he even stepped in front of the camera. The tone of the 90s novels is much more like Flanery's portrayal than Ford's, even though Ford was the image on the covers.
Well, I didn't know who Flanery was before the premiere episode and neither did any of my friends & co-workers. However, I do agree* that Indy in the first few Bantam novels shares similarities with Flanery's portrayal. Recently, I started to read them again and SPF is who I picture in my head.

*Hey, we're inn agreemennt! Time to openn annother bottle of champagnne!(y)

P.S. Instead of asking the mods to delete your 'languages' post, you should request for it to be transplanted to the other thread. No sense in letting it go to waste.;) (To answer one of your questions: When Indy enlists in the Belgian army, French is used.)
 
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foreverwingnut

New member
Fair enough, Stoo. I'm actually pleased with the tone of the recent banter with you. At least we understand one another better and I'll consider your advice to transfer my earlier post to a more appropiate place. Back to topic: I can remember being really envious of Flanery for winning the role. I couldn't believe the luck that some guys have. I wanted to hate him, but after reading a promo interview in some magazine, I was actually quite anxious to see him in the series. As I said, I was pleased with the series and Flanery in particular. I think it would be interesting, though, to hear a comment from someone who actually auditioned for the role of young Indy. How would a person who lost the role feel about Flanery's portayal? Would that opinion have changed over the years?
 
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