Amazed at the 2nd Half of The Winds of Change

Remy

New member
I first got into the series when Peacock's Eye and Attack of the Hawkmen first aired, and only got to see more with the VHS releases. But I finally got to see everything on the DVD sets, and having just seen the second half of Winds of Change for the first time, I'm just blown away. I understand why Lucas had to make that episode before throwing in the towel on the production of the series. It's a great, sad, powerful, ending to the series (even though it's not technically the end chronologically.) It's really the creators' emotional send-off to the incredible unsung series. I especially liked the appearance of the married Nancy, Indy's brutal clash with his dad, and another failed romance. I can't believe the episode didn't make it into the first and only wave of the VHS releases. How can you watch Spring Break Adventure without eventually seeing The Winds of Change as well? They're the beginning and ending of the situations and events that made up the bulk of the series. Just wanted to rave about it because I really appreciated and related to the theme of his running away and then seeing the negative aftermath years later. Really great stuff!
 

robweiner8

New member
I really like this episode too. Pretty emotional... Lloyd Owen is AWESOME as Henry Sr. Love the part where Paul Robson and Indy kick some racists' as*es:whip:
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Remy said:
appearance of the married Nancy, Indy's brutal clash with his dad
So this is where the Travels with Father bookends went. I was afraid they had been ditched.
 

T.E.Lawrence

New member
Remy said:
I first got into the series when Peacock's Eye and Attack of the Hawkmen first aired, and only got to see more with the VHS releases. But I finally got to see everything on the DVD sets, and having just seen the second half of Winds of Change for the first time, I'm just blown away.

<snip>

Hi Remy. Great post.

Yes it is a master piece. And also the first part of the episode is beautiful. Note the farewell between Indy and Lawrence on the train station with the fantastic soundtrack when Lawrence shouts how the "old men have taken the world again".

And the clash of words beween Indy and Henry sr. is the journey to the dark side of the human emotions.

And the last sentence of father: "Close the door before your leave, will you Junior"...

Master piece...the series is like a lost treasure for many viewers who didn't have time to watch original airings...
 

Remy

New member
Moedred said:
So this is where the Travels with Father bookends went. I was afraid they had been ditched.

O.K. I've now seen the DVD Travels with Father. (Best Corey Carrier episode I've seen so far.) Can somebody tell me exactly how the episode played out before the bookends with Flanery, his dad, and Nancy were removed? And what scenes did they add to the episode to fill in those gaps?
 

phantom train

New member
Remy said:
I first got into the series when Peacock's Eye and Attack of the Hawkmen first aired, and only got to see more with the VHS releases. But I finally got to see everything on the DVD sets, and having just seen the second half of Winds of Change for the first time, I'm just blown away. I understand why Lucas had to make that episode before throwing in the towel on the production of the series. It's a great, sad, powerful, ending to the series (even though it's not technically the end chronologically.) It's really the creators' emotional send-off to the incredible unsung series. I especially liked the appearance of the married Nancy, Indy's brutal clash with his dad, and another failed romance. I can't believe the episode didn't make it into the first and only wave of the VHS releases. How can you watch Spring Break Adventure without eventually seeing The Winds of Change as well? They're the beginning and ending of the situations and events that made up the bulk of the series. Just wanted to rave about it because I really appreciated and related to the theme of his running away and then seeing the negative aftermath years later. Really great stuff!

Yes, the 2nd half of "Winds of Change" was excellent, especially for those (like me) that had never seen it before (it was never broadcast on TV in the U.S., and I don't think it was ever on VHS either).

I also liked the theme of going back home after being gone for a long time and seeing all of the changes, i.e. Nancy's marriage, etc. Also, it wasn't just that things at home had changed, but Indy himself had changed because of everything he had been through in the war - his argument with his father at the dinner table really proved that, and it also may have been one of the first times (that we saw, at least) that he had the courage to stand up to his father.
I also agree this sequence was critical in the series becuase it was the transition between the Paris Peace Talks sequence and the "Mystery of the Blues". Without seeing this, you really don't know what happened in between.

Anyway, it's too bad it took so long for this sequence to be available to most fans of the show. However, I'm glad it finally did come out on DVD.
 

Junior Jones

New member
I watched this episode again last night and wanted to comment, so I dug this thread out of the archives rather than starting a new one. (Aren't you proud of me, Finn?)

Anyway, this is a great episode from a story and character point of view, but I'm very frustrated by it historically. The first half was originally titled "Paris, May 1919" but the Treaty of Versailles was not actually signed until June 28. After leaving Paris, Indy takes an ocean liner to New York and spends several weeks at home, visiting Amy in New York on weekends. At the end, they get to hear Paul Robeson give his valedictory address at the Rugters Commencement, which took place June 10, 1919.

Most of the other inconsistencies in the Young Indy timeline can be explained away without much difficulty (especially if you use the original episodes rather than the re-edited ones). But there is no way Indy could attend both the signing of the Treaty of Versaille and Paul Robeson's commencement address.

Though parts of this episode made up the bookends to Travels With Father, most of it was apparently written strictly for the DVD re-edit, since it didn't appear in Pablo Hidalgo's "Lost Chronicles" article. This reaffirms my belief in the superiority of the orignial Chronicles, which were so well-produced and well-researched. The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones DVD movies by comparison are a hack job, without even a pretense of concern for continuity or historical accuracy.

I welcome any comments (especially you, Laird; I don't remember how long you were with the production).
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
15 pages? 15 pages on this sub-forum, and not a single thread dedicated to this episode aside from this one? I wish I could figure out a compelling reason why; of all the episodes, this is one of those few that deserve multiple pages of discussion.

There are two instances in the creation of the modern world when I would have liked to been present -- the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and Paris, 1919.

Personally, the second half is merely okay. Seeing Nancy again was nice, but I don't see that same young girl who helped spy on Germans settling and becoming a mother and housewife. Or more correctly, just a mother and a housewife. More could have been done, but I'm sure they wanted to spend more time with dad. (These should have been separate but linked episodes.)

Did anybody catch the appearance of Ho Chi Minh? I was wondering why there was an Asian waiter at the restaurant; it was intriguing. When he finally said he was from Vietnam and a pastry chef it clicked: that's Ho Chi Minh! Many people aren't aware that he approached the US on a couple of different occasions before eventually getting help from the communists. While not a large part of the story, it was a nice detail.

Granted, there wasn't a lot of "action" in the first half, but listening to Ned, Indy, Toynbee, & Gertrude Bell were interesting. I would have liked to see them debating more emphatically over the ideas presented in the League of Nations. Indy being three or four dozen persons removed from the decision making was nice, and he was able to witness some of the inherent racism of the era, the ideals, and the clash with real politik.
 

droboogie1

New member
Finally got around to seeing this one and it was as good as everyone says; really a highlight of an excellent series. As much as I complained when the series was released on DVD in its movie configuration (as opposed to its hour-long episodic configuration), I have to say that the show works 100% better when viewed chronologically, rather than the sporadic approach taken when it first aired on broadcast TV.

I should add that I have thought throughout the series that the portrayal of Henry Jones Sr. is a bit off from what we see of him in The Last Crusade. Connery's Henry has a wink and smile and is not above the occasional joke. Whereas Lloyd Owens' Henry is very stolid and severe. I think Owens did a terrific job (especially in Winds of Change) but I wonder what happened to lighten the character up in the intervening years. Perhaps the death of his wife and the estrangement from his son left him lonely and he eventually found a new female companion who showed him how to take life less seriously. That would have been a story worth telling, had the show run longer.

Of course the dates of the peace treaty and Rutgers commencement are off, but they're close enough that the episode works for me.
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
droboogie1 said:
Finally got around to seeing this one and it was as good as everyone says; really a highlight of an excellent series. As much as I complained when the series was released on DVD in its movie configuration (as opposed to its hour-long episodic configuration), I have to say that the show works 100% better when viewed chronologically, rather than the sporadic approach taken when it first aired on broadcast TV.

I should add that I have thought throughout the series that the portrayal of Henry Jones Sr. is a bit off from what we see of him in The Last Crusade. Connery's Henry has a wink and smile and is not above the occasional joke. Whereas Lloyd Owens' Henry is very stolid and severe. I think Owens did a terrific job (especially in Winds of Change) but I wonder what happened to lighten the character up in the intervening years. Perhaps the death of his wife and the estrangement from his son left him lonely and he eventually found a new female companion who showed him how to take life less seriously. That would have been a story worth telling, had the show run longer.

Of course the dates of the peace treaty and Rutgers commencement are off, but they're close enough that the episode works for me.

Well with regard to Henry, age tends to soften someone. My grandpa was a real hard a** when he was a young man and now with old age is pretty harmless and much more humorous. Perhaps as you said, the loss of Anna and Indy did it to him--maybe it humbled him somewhat. The limited glimpse we see of a young Henry, Sr., in LC is very humorless and stern with Indy. And in Travels with Father we do see Henry acting somewhat funny.
 
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