Stoo said:
I disagree about Indy being "particularly pious" during the 3 trials in "Crusade". To me, he got by on his brains, experience and blind luck.
I would agree with that about the first two trials, but not the "leap of faith." Harrison's body language seemed to indicate that Indy was putting his faith in something—if not God, then his biological father, at the very least. In saying that he was "particularly pious" here, I meant that he was being (somewhat uncharacteristically) reverent to the faith of his father (who, to me at least, seems to be a Christian). At the 50 second mark of
this clip, you see injured Henry Sr. telling Indy to "believe," and Harrison clutches his chest and looks to me like a man who is trying to put his faith in something.
Stoo said:
A case could be made for him showing reverence towards Shiva in "Doom" but where did you get the notion that Indy opposes Kali?
He opposes the Thugs, not their deity.
Kali is never portrayed in a positive light in the film. They made no mention of the fact that Kali is worshiped by plenty of normal, peaceful Hindus. There's no example of Indy showing the slightest bit of respect for Kali. Meanwhile, we have things like Indiana Jones saying that Mola Ram will
meet Kali "in Hell" and the temple devoted to her is not your typical Hindu temple, at all.
Indian diplomat
Shashi Tharoor also took offense at the portrayal, saying that: ""If they had to libel a cult, why not invent one, rather than abuse a goddess revered by millions? (The film is set in the 1930s, when Kali worship did not include human sacrifice a century after the elimination of the Thugs, who by comparison with Spielberg's Amrish Puri, seem positively humanitarian.) Where in a Hindu temple would one worship grotesque skulls and skeletons, and find slogans on Kali scrawled on the walls like so much political graffiti?"
In an article about the demonization of Kali by Western films such as
Gunga Din, a writer for
Hindu Voice UK says that, "...in the case of Hindus and especially in case of the much-maligned Goddess Kali, you can still make this kind of 'Fascist' film, as was to be proven by Steven Spielberg with his
Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom. Here again we come across Kali as a
bloodthirsty demoness lusting after human flesh and worshipped by adoring throngs of entranced, arm-waving, dehumanized followers, this time led by priest Mola Ram. In the narrative there are lines like, 'Mola Ram. Prepare to meet Kali... in Hell!'"
Stoo said:
No, the film portrayed the
goddess, Kali. Apart from the face, all the characteristics of the statue bear the marks attributed to her physical representation. (The
demon, Kali, is something
totally different and the "someone" you're referring to didn't know what they were talking about).
So yes, I was definitely unclear in what I said. As you say, Kālī Ma (not the demon Kali) is clearly the goddess worshiped by the Thuggee in the film, but you have misunderstood what I meant by "portrayed." The goddess of Hindu mythology is a multifaceted deity, whereas the characterization of her in the film makes her almost satanic (or, as I said before, demonic). You may disagree, but if the Hindus quoted above see that too, I'm inclined to that there has to be a little bit of truth in what I said. The portrayal I am talking about here is the verbal portrayal. Thus, no Hindus today worship "the demon the film portrayed," as I said in the prior post.
That being said, I disagree with you about the physical portrayal. You say that "apart from the face, all the characteristics of the statue bear the marks attributed to her physical representation." Yes, apart from the face...
Here is a poster of the multi-armed Hindu goddess.
Here is a picture of the demon Kali. Finally,
here is a picture of the
Temple of Doom statue. That's not very detailed, so
here is a replica statue that bears the likeness from the film, and
here is a rough approximation of the Kali from
Temple in Lego. For reference,
here is the portrayal of the goddess in a
Sinbad film.
Now, whereas the
Sinbad Kali is blue-skinned and has a feminine face just like the poster Kali (and most other interpretations of the goddess), the
Temple of Doom Kali has a black body and a sinister skull-like face with a snout. The snout is particularly evident in the Lego approximation. The goddess Kali does not have a snout; nor does she look skeletal. However, the demon Kali has a snout and a menacing face. It is probably not very important to mention, but he also has dark olive (not blue) skin.
What does this tell us? It tells us that the demon Kali is actually not "something
totally different" as you said. In reality, the face of the statue is something
totally different from the face of Kali the goddess, but the face
does bear some resemblance to the demon Kali's face.
If the production crew was willing to have the Hindus in Pankot eating Chinese cuisine (monkey brains) and non-existent delicacies (eye-ball soup and "snake surprise"), do you not think it likely that they could (and probably
would) be guilty of making a similar mistake with the likeness of Kali?
The pictures seem to confirm that they did...
EDIT:
Regardless, the Hindu Voice UK article I linked to earlier really does a splendid job of summarizing what I've said. Again, the link to the article is
here (you'll have to skip the annoying ad). I think we can both agree that Hindu Voice UK probably knows more about the subject than either of us.