Alternate concepts for Indy's life story and characterization

ATMachine

Member
EDIT: Mods, I accidentally posted this in the Indy Trilogy forum. Is it possible you could move it to General Indy Discussion? Thanks a lot!

I remember reading in Lawrence Kasdan's Raiders of the Lost Ark revised third-draft script this particular passage:

Raiders said:
BRODY
I brought along some people today.

INDY
What kind of people?

BRODY
Government.

INDY (concerned)
Government?

BRODY
Don't worry, it's not about your business. (indicates the artifacts)
They're from the Army.

INDY
I've already served.

BRODY
Army Intelligence. They're looking for Abner.

Indy's line "I've already served" also made it into the novelization.

Now, this script snippet is interesting to me because it suggests that, at the time of Raiders, Lucas and Spielberg were imagining that Indy served as a "doughboy" in the American Army during World War I. Of course, that line never made it into the film, and so Lucas much later decided to have Indy join the Belgian Army in the Young Indy Chronicles.

It's fascinating to see this glimpse of an alternate character history for Indy that might have been. Another very interesting "road not taken" was the early idea from George Lucas' initial Raiders script treatment that our beloved Dr. Jones should a high-living, nightclub-going playboy with a Manhattan penthouse.

Story treatment for Raiders by George Lucas said:
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
STORY TREATMENT BY GEORGE LUCAS
1-25-78

Indiana Jones is a PhD archeologist and an anthropologist. He is a professor at a small Eastern college and is a respected authority in his field although he is only thirty eight years old. He is a quiet man on campus, with rugged good looks under his horn rimmed glasses. He is the heart-throb for all the young co-eds, a situation that he has helped to foster, and isn?t reluctant to take advantage of.

He is a bachelor-playboy, with a fondness for the good life; fancy nite clubs, champagne, and especially beautiful women. His nite-life is a sharp contrast to his quiet days as a college professor. In his tuxedo (and without his glasses) he is the prototype of the Eastern playboy of the 1930?s. He plays polo and pool and is quite a gambler. He lives in a large 30's-style house, and also has a penthouse apartment in Manhattan.

He can afford the good life because of his second occupation. He is a soldier of fortune, and a procurer of rare antiquities. A bounty hunter hired by museums and private collectors to find ancient artifacts and bring them back no questions asked. He is a tomb robber, but draws the line at stealing from colleges or museums. He has a keen interest in the occult, and specializes in religious objects, artifacts protected by curses, etc. He is a terrible shot, but a master with the bullwhip that he always carries with him. He is a good fighter.

Also, Kasdan's Indy seems to be relatively poor with languages. This is hinted at in Raiders by his failure to speak Hovitos, and his use of a local Imam to translate the Staff of Ra headpiece. Of course, the Indy of later films and Young Indy is fluent in dozens of tongues.

This last point is perhaps best demonstrated by Sean Patrick Flanery's Indy, who (I think it was in Treasure of the Peacock's Eye) flirts with a girl while changing his language with every sentence. Again, note how Young Indy differs from Raiders in presenting a more competent, worldly Indy.

So, what abandoned aspects of Indy's character do you find most fascinating or compelling? What "lost" character traits would you like to revisit?
 
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Montana Smith

Active member
ATMachine said:
So, what abandoned aspects of Indy's character do you find most fascinating or compelling? What "lost" character traits would you like to revisit?

I find it difficult to want any changes to the character we've come to know. I've followed Indy's screen career because he's the character that he is.

I'm glad they dropped the idea of him being a Bond-like "playboy", but kept the womanizing apsect. I'm glad they dropped the Clint Eastwood "Joe/Manco/Blondie" concept of of the hero who is perfect, verging on super-hero status. I like that idea that Indy is often out of his depth, thinking on his feet (and sometimes on his butt as in his tussle with the German Mechanic). He makes mistakes and misjudgements, but he's also a lucky bugger who gets away with the seemingly impossible. He never gives up.
 

The Drifter

New member
I may be wrong, but at one point wasn't Indy going to also be an alcoholic? I think that would have been a interesting facet to explore. To me it would have given the character more depth. Everyone is flawed in some way, and that could have been Indy's hidden demon.
It would have been pretty cool to have seen him out in the desert near Cairo dying for a drink, but unable to find any. Come to think of it; that would have been a good setup for him shooting the Cairo swordsman. Indy having the DTs and not in the mood to crap around, so he just shoots the poor sap.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Lonsome_Drifter said:
I may be wrong, but at one point wasn't Indy going to also be an alcoholic? I think that would have been a interesting facet to explore. To me it would have given the character more depth. Everyone is flawed in some way, and that could have been Indy's hidden demon.
It would have been pretty cool to have seen him out in the desert near Cairo dying for a drink, but unable to find any. Come to think of it; that would have been a good setup for him shooting the Cairo swordsman. Indy having the DTs and not in the mood to crap around, so he just shoots the poor sap.

With Lucas and Spielberg softening their characters, Indy wouldn't have been an alcoholic forever. Between TLC and KOTCS they'd have sent him to rehab.
 

The Drifter

New member
Montana Smith said:
With Lucas and Spielberg softening their characters, Indy wouldn't have been an alcoholic forever. Between TLC and KOTCS they'd have sent him to rehab.

True.
They already had him taking Mutt's beer and giving it back to the waitress.
 

reinthal

New member
That story treatment above reads like the sort of thing I used to write for character summaries for my role-playing game characters back in the 1980s. Maybe getting a job in Hollywood wouldn't be so hard after all!
 
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