Shia: We botched the last Indiana Jones film

Texas

Well-known member
Cannes 2010: Shia LaBeouf: We botched the last Indiana Jones
May 15, 2010 | 3:48 pm

The last time Shia LaBeouf came to Cannes, in 2008, it was to promote "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the revival of the swashbuckling adventure franchise that went on to earn a whopping $787 million around the world. LaBeouf is back on the Croisette this weekend to flog "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," another revival of a classic from several decades ago. But he's not willing to forget about what he says were rampant problems with Indy 4 -- and he doesn't expect fans to, either.

"I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished," LaBeouf said, explaining that this upped the ante for him before he began shooting the "Wall Street" sequel. "If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me."

Meeting with reporters Saturday on a terrace at the Hotel du Cap, he had some strong, confessional words about his acting in the film, which he said he felt didn't convince anyone that he was the action hero the movie claimed him to be. "You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven [Spielberg, who directed]. But the actor's job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn't do it. So that's my fault. Simple."

LaBeouf said that he could have kept quiet, especially given the movie's blockbuster status, but didn't think the film had fooled anyone. "I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you've made (slop). And I think if you don't acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you're promoting a movie." LaBeouf went on to say he wasn't the only star on the film who felt that way. "We [Harrison Ford and LaBeouf] had major discussions. He wasn't happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn't universally accepted."

Asked whether this was difficult to say, given his deep relationship with Spielberg, LaBeouf continued with the directness.

"I'll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I'm not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he's a genius, and he's given me my whole life. He's done so much great work that there's no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball."

Interviewing LaBeouf is a unique experience. It's nearly impossible not to like the 23-year-old, who carries an honesty and a winning sincerity that endears him to you despite, or because of, his mispronunciation of words such as "schoolastic" and "hyperboil" (as though the word for exaggeration connotes a manic skin blemish). He's refreshingly honest, apparently engaged with subjects far beyond movies and willing to throw out whatever playbook his publicists no doubt beg him to use.

He's also relentlessly intense and unfailingly earnest, taking every question hyper-seriously. When asked whether shooting "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" gave him some insight on what was wrong with our financial system, he said this, with exactly no interruptions:

"You can make the marketplace more transparent. If people had known who was paying for the mortgages instead of having to rely on Moody's triple-A (bull) rating -- transparency would have helped. The triple A rating thing is ridiculous. That's like Oliver [Stone] paying you for a review. The people who were bundling this toxic crap were paying Moody's for the review of their crap. That's ridiculous. You can't have bank holding companies acting as hedge funds. You can't have them taking a million-dollar pension plan for Joe Schmo the bus driver and treat it with the same risk appetite that you treat George Soros' pocket money. It's fundamentally ridiculous. And it hasn't gotten better very recently, actually. They went from bundling mortgages that were crap to bundling life insurance policies and betting on people's deaths. And you can't blame it all on the Street.... People's mentality needs to change. If the Greece contagion thing takes off and it goes from Spain to Ireland to Portugal things are going to change drastically for the world. Soup kitchens, it won't be that type of change. You won't get a depression that way. But it'll be very difficult. I think, my generation, it's hard to have hope when you got a $700-trillion derivatives debt to pay and a bubble about to explode and $500 trillion worth of GDP. You took all the money in the world and put it in a pot, you're $200 trillion short. It's scary, man. You know the average person born today owes $8,000? The average person getting out of college owes $75,000 with no job. I mean it's scary. My generation, it's a scary situation."

If only some of that energy had come through in the last Indiana Jones.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/mov...-street-2-indiana-jones-steven-spielberg.html
 

Indy's brother

New member
In this comment about KOTCS, I must confess that I don't know what he meant:

Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn't universally accepted

"updated"? Is he talking about reshoots before it's theatrical release? Or simply bringing the franchise back in general? :confused: I think that parts of the interview that weren't included in the article would have shed some light on the context. We'll never know I guess.
 
:eek:

Maybe he's not as much of a tool as I thought?

Anyway, he wasn't the film's biggest problem by any means. But kudos to him for at least acknowledging how utterly lackluster it was.
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
Well, that was definitely surprising to be sure.

But some of it is definitely BS. It is pretty obvious Shia is apologizing because other people probably gave him trouble for it. I really doubt he has felt this way since May.

Shouldn't Shia be apologizing for Transformers 2? Or better yet, this upcoming Wall Street sequel. :rolleyes:
 

Indy's brother

New member
Forbidden Eye said:
But some of it is definitely BS. It is pretty obvious Shia is apologizing because other people probably gave him trouble for it.

Well yeah. I don't care if you're Daniel Day Lewis, if the script calls for vine-swinging, you're going to look stupid. But Shia is a career actor. He can't just openly bash the script or anyone else involved. I thought this was a well-spoken way to acknowledge the criticisms of his part of KOTCS without coming out and saying there's some merit to them, and without openly criticizing things that were out of his control...just alluding to them. I have stated before in other threads that he did the best with what he was given, and I stand by that. Do I like Muttt? Not really. But that's hardly his fault. I can't think of anything Shia could have done to better the character. In as far as he could go with this line of discourse, he basically said that:

1.Yeah, people have blamed him for KOTCS's failings,

2.Sure, he'll take up the cross for his part in it,

3.And that the part wasn't written well, but maybe he could have done something more. (what that something would be is open for debate, I guess)

I would also like to add that although HF may disagree with being dragged into his comments, I'm glad he did it.
 

Indy's brother

New member
My good Doctor, should any of us have had the good fortune to be in an Indiana Jones movie, would we have refused? Honestly. And what if you were actually a working actor? Who was in good with Spielberg? Seriously now. How can you blame anyone for taking this gig. (let it be known that I am not a Shia fan, just a fan of the voice of reason)
 

Exulted Unicron

New member
I think its interesting that Shia decided to say that they really dropped the ball with KOTCS. While I do agree with the whole "marmite" thing for KOTCS (you either love it or hate it), but ya know, I can see the change in pace and tone. Raiders, Temple and Crusade were all in the style of the 30s high adventure movie with the suspension of disbelief. KOTCS was done in the style of the 50s sci-fi adventure pulps.

I generally thought KOTCS was pretty decent. It had all the things which made the other 3 movies great. The fight with the burly henchman, the chase scenes, racing the enemy towards the target. And I liked the idea that even though he's old now, he's still acting like he did 30 years ago.

As James Rolfe said in his "10 Dumbest Indiana Jones Moments". Sit back, relax and don;t take the movie too seriously and enjoy it.
 
Indy's brother said:
I don't care if you're Daniel Day Lewis, if the script calls for vine-swinging, you're going to look stupid.

Hey Raiders did it, it looked stupid, but it worked.

It's all about execution.:hat:
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
Indy's brother said:
My good Doctor, should any of us have had the good fortune to be in an Indiana Jones movie, would we have refused? Honestly. And what if you were actually a working actor? Who was in good with Spielberg? Seriously now. How can you blame anyone for taking this gig. (let it be known that I am not a Shia fan, just a fan of the voice of reason)

No kidding. If you're 21 years old and Steven Spielberg comes to you and says he wants you to be in the next Indiana Jones movie, you don't effing say no. If it's your opinion that the character of Mutt is problematic from a story perspective, or if Shia was not the right fit for it, then that's entirely at the feet of Spielberg and Lucas. Didn't Spielberg admit that he was pretty much always going to shoehorn Shia into a new Indiana Jones flick after seeing him in Holes?

I'm personally repulsed by this interview, because it's pretty obvious to me that Shia is just using the general perception that Indy4 was a disappointment to play the martyr and pimp his latest movie. "Yes, I'm going to be honest and say that Indy4 blew - now you know you can believe when I say BUY 150 TICKETS TO WALL STREET 2!" I think just about everyone, even the most loony Shia haters on the planet, agrees that anything that may have hurt Indy4 from the perspective of his character had to do with his very existence and not the performance. Any harm Mutt did to this movie was in place well before the casting.

Favorite quote:

Shia said:
"I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished," LaBeouf said, explaining that this upped the ante for him before he began shooting the "Wall Street" sequel. "If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me."

Good Lord, give me a break. He's using self-deprecation as a cynical, disingenuous way to raise some credibility with Wall Street fans. Can no one else see that?
 
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JP Jones

New member
Meerkat said:
Wow...I never really expected LaBeouf to say stuff like this.
Here's what's going on IMO. I saw shia on T.V. somewhere about a year ago defending KotCS saying something like "It was the viewer's fault that they didn't like it." and by saying they should've updated it, he was talking about promoting/creating it for a modern audience. I'm like 92.32% sure this is what he means.

He is wrong IMO though. Indy is a 30s serial/50s b-movie character in a movie that's the same.If I could, I would just give SS and GL a big hug for not listening to what Shia "wants". One of the things that makes kotcs so great is that it isn't Bourne or new Bond or any Vin Diesel movie. It's one of the unique movies that hits everything right."dropped the ball":rolleyes: come on Shia!
 

QBComics

Active member
Wow, I'm shocked. I never thought I'd hear him say he messed it up. I personally loved the film ,even if it wasn't the greatest Indiana Jones movie. I hope Spielberg sees this, and fixes it for Indy 5. (Assuming there's going to be one)
 

emtiem

Well-known member
Gosh; quite surprising stuff there. Seems a bit disingenuous to be blaming himself: he wasn't the problem- I think he played a possibly quite annoying part pretty well, and I'd be surprised if anyone blames him personally for the vine-swinging if that offends them- surely he does too! It's not an unlikeable performance; it's no Connery, but we didn't hate the kid, which is a result.

I wonder if this leads to a public recognition of the film's faults from the beards; perhaps leading to them wanting set it right with no. 5...?
 

Joosse

New member
I also find myself quite surprised by this. :confused:

Never really liked or disliked Mutt, but I appreciate Shia's honesty.

Also I didn't think KOTCS was that bad, I just put it down to me being old and cynical by now and preferring the others because I saw them when I was still young and impressionable. But maybe that was also because I was so very happy that we now had a fourth Indiana Jones movie.
 

emtiem

Well-known member
JP Jones said:
Here's what's going on IMO. I saw shia on T.V. somewhere about a year ago defending KotCS saying something like "It was the viewer's fault that they didn't like it." and by saying they should've updated it, he was talking about promoting/creating it for a modern audience. I'm like 92.32% sure this is what he means.

He is wrong IMO though. Indy is a 30s serial/50s b-movie character in a movie that's the same.If I could, I would just give SS and GL a big hug for not listening to what Shia "wants". One of the things that makes kotcs so great is that it isn't Bourne or new Bond or any Vin Diesel movie. It's one of the unique movies that hits everything right."dropped the ball":rolleyes: come on Shia!

Yeah, the updating comment doesn't work for me. I thought it looked and felt right for an Indy and that's exactly what I wanted: it was just lacking the top level of wit and invention and sense of peril. Whether or not it was 'updated' wasn't an issue for me.
 

Joosse

New member
emtiem said:
it was just lacking the top level of wit and invention and sense of peril.QUOTE]

Very well put, I agree with that.

You never feel that there is any danger. Perhaps this is also because today Russians don't feel as scary as Nazi's or Thuggee do?
 
Texas said:
We botched the last Indiana Jones But the actor's job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn't do it. So that's my fault. Simple."

In hind sight maybe he see things he could have improved, but for my money Shia LaBeouf wasn't the problem with the film. He didn't have final cut.

The guy reads the stuff on the web like you and I. He's trying to gracefully answer what are most likely difficult questions, from the general public as well as at Cannes.

Texas said:
"I'll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I'm not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he's a genius, and he's given me my whole life. He's done so much great work that there's no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball."
Lucas, more so than Spielberg, could do with less "yes men."
 
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