Why shouldn't Indy exist in the late '50s/early 60s?

Raiders90

Well-known member
Some say "Indy can't/shouldn't" exist in the 50s.

Why not?

I agree that Indy shouldn't exist anywhere past 1965, but...Anywhere from 1950-1962 (ideally no further than 1960 on the head), IMO is as far from our modern age as 1936 was from 1981. I mean, think about it from a 2015 perspective. Does not the '50s seem like a really quaint, almost antiquated period compared to our own - much the same way the 1930s must've seemed quaint and idyllic when compared to the crappy late 70s period in which Indy was first created?

I mean, if we got a next film with Harrison set in say, 1960, we're still in the Eisenhower years. We're still a world away from hippies and psychedelia. Go watch the first season of Mad Men sometime - that first season is set in 1960 - there was very little difference between the late '50s (which we've already covered in KOTCS) and 1963. I would keep it out of the Kennedy era because that's an era all it's own, but still...

The world was still a small enough place, IMO, in 1959 or 1960, for Indiana Jones to exist in. Men still wore hats - older men, like Doctor Jones would be - but they were still prevalent enough not to be seen as archaic (Heck, even in 1973's The Exorcist, the detective, who is not shown as an out of touch oldie but as a badass old man, has a very Indy-esque fedora). Young people generally still wore formal clothes as everyday wear in the late 50s and early 60s; you wouldn't see an Indy film set in 1959 or 1960 or 1961 where Indy is wearing his suit and fedora with kids in t-shirts and jeans walking around.

This time period - '58 to '63 - is an age where Cary Grant was one of Hollywood's leading men. Go watch films of the period; it's still a classy, grand, quaint world where Indiana Jones would still fit. Look how many fedoras were on heads at the 1960 opening day pitch, and how many men were still wearing suit and tie to an event as casual as a ball game then:
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Z dweller

Well-known member
Was it really necessary to start a new thread on this topic, when there are already several? :rolleyes:

At any rate, I believe it's unlikely Disney would set Indy 5 in the late 50s / early 60s, simply because that era wouldn't be likely to resonate with their target audience as much as the 30s (the prequel scenario).
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Z dweller said:
Was it really necessary to start a new thread on this topic, when there are already several? :rolleyes:
The same guy has already made 4 or 5 threads on the same subject.

Here are his others (merged together):
1960s?
Raiders112390 said:
Anywhere from 1950-1962 (ideally no further than 1960 on the head), IMO is as far from our modern age as 1936 was from 1981.
The spread of time was something that I pointed out to Joe Brody when he considered 1963 to be "recent" history in relation to 2014. Unfortunately, it made him feel old.:(
Curse of the Cold War

45 years: 1936 to 1981 ("Raiders")
52 years: 1963 to 2015
53 years: 1963 to 2016
54 years: 1963 to 2017

If Indy 5 ever gets made, it'll be *at least* 55 years after a '63 scenario?a decade further apart than "Raiders' was to its audience.

Raiders112390 said:
I mean, think about it from a 2015 perspective. Does not the '50s seem like a really quaint, almost antiquated period compared to our own - much the same way the 1930s must've seemed quaint and idyllic when compared to the crappy late 70s period in which Indy was first created?

I mean, if we got a next film with Harrison set in say, 1960, we're still in the Eisenhower years. We're still a world away from hippies and psychedelia. Go watch the first season of Mad Men sometime - that first season is set in 1960 - there was very little difference between the late '50s (which we've already covered in KOTCS) and 1963. I would keep it out of the Kennedy era because that's an era all it's own, but still...
Ha! You kept talking about how the "Eisenhower years" were grey & drab but NOW they were "quaint and idyllic".:rolleyes: You also wanted Indy in the "Kennedy era".

The late '70s ROCKED! Knowing your predictable behaviour, soon enough, you'll go against your uneducated "crappy" statement and champion how great the late '70s were because of such-and-such movie/TV show.
Raiders112390 said:
...you wouldn't see an Indy film set in 1959 or 1960 or 1961 where Indy is wearing his suit and fedora with kids in t-shirts and jeans walking around.
Your scope is so limited. Are you expecting "Indy 5" to take place entirely in the U.S.?:confused:

See below:
Raiders112390 said:
This time period - '58 to '63 - is an age where Cary Grant was one of Hollywood's leading men. Go watch films of the period; it's still a classy, grand, quaint world where Indiana Jones would still fit. Look how many fedoras were on heads at the 1960 opening day pitch, and how many men were still wearing suit and tie to an event as casual as a ball game then:
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
Stoo said:
The same guy has already made 4 or 5 threads on the same subject.
45 years: 1936 to 1981 ("Raiders")
52 years: 1963 to 2015
53 years: 1963 to 2016
54 years: 1963 to 2017

If Indy 5 ever gets made, it'll be *at least* 55 years after a '63 scenario?a decade further apart than "Raiders' was to its audience.

And then you have:

49 years: 1935 to 1984 ("TOD")
51 years: 1938 to 1989 ("LC")
51 years: 1957 to 2008 ("KOTCS")

Such a jump isn't exactly uncommon in Indiana Jones.

Ha! You kept talking about how the "Eisenhower years" were grey & drab but NOW they were "quaint and idyllic".:rolleyes: You also wanted Indy in the "Kennedy era".

hey were grey and drab, but (compared to 2015) quaint and idyllic. Just like the 1930s were a pretty horrible period, but looking at them from the perspective of someone in 1978-1981, they were a grand era. A decade isn't just defined by one aspect of it. The '50s were gray, drab, conformist, yet were quaint and homey. I wouldn't mind an Indy film in the Kennedy era, that's never changed, but IDEALLY, it wouldn't move past 1960.

The late '70s ROCKED! Knowing your predictable behaviour, soon enough, you'll go against your uneducated "crappy" statement and champion how great the late '70s were because of such-and-such movie/TV show.

The 70s had their share of highs and lows, but I'm talking about perspectives. Indy was created in the late 1970s by two Baby Boomers, it was written at the height of Stagflation here in the U.S. and after Watergate and other failures had demoralized the country. It was written to harken back to what they viewed as a better time (compared to the time in which they presently lived). I love a lot of aspects of the late 70s, I have tons of 70s movies, but it's a decade which could never and should never be related to Indiana Jones in terms of any fiction, and it's also a decade which in retrospect is seen as being gaudy, tacky, and hasn't aged well. The late '50s-early '60s on the other hand is considered a grand era, and there is a degree of nostalgia for that time given the success of the show Mad Men.

Your scope is so limited. Are you expecting "Indy 5" to take place entirely in the U.S.?:confused

No, but I've watched films which were shot in other countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s (one example being "It Started in Naples" from 1960) and the dress in these areas was pretty much the same as it was at home. You don't really see young people dressing en masse in jeans and t-shirts until after 1966 or so from everything I have seen. There was from the mid 50s forward the Beatnik/Greaser subculture, but it really didn't bloom into a big thing until the late 60s - A period of time Indy should NEVER, EVER touch.

Like I said in my post, I am open to a 5th film being set as late, but no later, than 1965. There is a lot of potential for cool stories and settings in the 1958-1963 period.
 

DoomsdayFAN

Member
I would love to see more of Indy's 50s adventures. That's an excellent period for some solid stories.

Unfortunately KOTCS was garbage. But I blame Lucas for that.
 

Johnny Nys

Member
I must admit I thought it would bother me in KotCS, but in truth I didn't even notice, except for the scene in Atomic Town when he's standing in that 50's style kitchen in his 30's outfit. He just looked out of place there.

I don't get comparing the years the stories take place to the years the movies are released. I don't care how much time there's in between. It's the years the movies take place that's important. A character like Indiana Jones should fit in that time frame.

As an archaeologist in the '30s, those stories were believable because there was so much to explore. I could buy some artifact lying around in some forgotten tomb or temple, just waiting for a guy like Indy to come get it. But the closer such a story gets to modern times, the easier it gets for me to think someone else would have found it already long before Indy comes along.

Perhaps that's naive of me, and someone might educate me, that the world in the 60's still had plenty enough of unexplored places, undiscovered secrets. I just don't see that as a given fact at the moment. Perhaps it's due to my own age, being born long after the 60's (in 1979, in fact).
 
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