Why is LC not as action packed as ROTLA/ToD?

DoomsdayFAN said:

Really? I don't understand how that would work. Getting to the idol wasn't that difficult, as long as you stayed out of the light, made the jump across the pit, and didn't trigger the poison darts.

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Sounds like a suitable challenge for a superstutious young buck...probably whacked out on some psychotropic compound from licking a frog or eating a shroom.

DoomsdayFAN said:

It was the getting out that was the problem (if you triggered the trap). So I'm not sure I understand what purpose this place served to those people. Were they supposed to just go in and look at the idol and then come back out?

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If you want some conjecture, the test was to simply recover the idol. Consider it the final test a boy would have to pass before he officially joined a hunting party. It may be it proved he was carefull, cautious and observant...just to stand before the idol. Then no matter what he might do, once he took the idol the last test was escaping, (his last job would probably putting much of it back together).

DoomsdayFAN said:

What if a Chachapoyan boy triggered the rolling ball? Did the tribesmen just push it back up the ramp and tell the child he failed? I thought the ball permanently sealed the entranced once released?

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They got it up there in the first place...with enough tribesmen that would be another bonding experience not unlike the Amish community raising a barn together.

AndyLGR said:

I always thought that LC has a lot of action whilst also maintaining a solid underbelly of the relationship between Indy and his father. I have never sat and timed the scenes and compared them all though.

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The action wasn't quite as raw or well planned as it was in Raiders. Too much humor and self reverence. Sallah ushering Brody into the back of a Nazi truck just made ZERO sense.

AndyLGR said:

Darth you mentioned earlier about TOD having wall to wall action, for me that film suffers from a huge lull from the moment they land in India to when they eventually find the hidden tunnels in the palace.

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Everyone likes the "wall to wall action" response as some fall back position, but Temple does suffer from the lulls. When there is action, no matter how cool the rope bridge is/was/could have been, that mine cart jump takes some of the life out of it.

Rocket Surgeon said:

If you want some conjecture, the test was to simply recover the idol. Consider it the final test a boy would have to pass before he officially joined a hunting party. It may be it proved he was carefull, cautious and observant...just to stand before the idol. Then no matter what he might do, once he took the idol the last test was escaping, (his last job would probably putting much of it back together).

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It wasn't for taking, just looking at. But I don't think it's explained how the elders would know that the boy actually got that far. (That he simply hadn't lied that he saw it).

Montana Smith said:

It wasn't for taking, just looking at. But I don't think it's explained how the elders would know that the boy actually got that far. (That he simply hadn't lied that he saw it).

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TSR wrote that?

Maybe the boy who lied, (having had to describe it or leave a marker), had to go back in and bring it out...?

Rocket Surgeon said:

TSR wrote that?

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It's in the WEG book at least, and on the Indy Wikia.

Rocket Surgeon said:

They got it up there in the first place...with enough tribesmen that would be another bonding experience not unlike the Amish community raising a barn together.

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Or if the Chachapoyans were anything like the original inhabitants of Akator, then they might have had some other worldy assistance... (!)

AndyLGR said:

Darth you mentioned earlier about TOD having wall to wall action, for me that film suffers from a huge lull from the moment they land in India to when they eventually find the hidden tunnels in the palace.

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Agreed - The section in the village and trek to Pankot is the movies expositional section... and the place where the audience has a chance to catch a much needed breath. The pace of the rest of the movie makes that section in particular stand out. As mentioned in other threads, I think the template designed for Temple of Doom and Return of the Jedi is pretty much what is being used today for the majority of action movies (with all respect to TOD and ROTJ).

Rocket Surgeon said:

The action wasn't quite as raw or well planned as it was in Raiders. Too much humor and self reverence. Sallah ushering Brody into the back of a Nazi truck just made ZERO sense.

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I think if anything the action in TLC was too planned perhaps... with not enough improvisation on set/location??? Either way, yes I'd agree that Raiders has the best vibe to its action - in terms of realism and sense of peril.

Montana Smith said:

Or if the Chachapoyans were anything like the original inhabitants of Akator, then they might have had some other worldy assistance... (!)

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What are you waiting for? The knife is in, now twist it! Go ahead!

Darth Vile said:

I think if anything the action in TLC was too planned perhaps... with not enough improvisation on set/location??? Either way, yes I'd agree that Raiders has the best vibe to its action - in terms of realism and sense of peril.

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Oi! If that was planned...

It's also a matter of WHO is doing the improvising.

Mickey Moore's second unit didn't have Spielberg on hand to soften things or go for all those cheesy gags.

Seems to me the stunt guys had some free reign and they delivered! On Raiders that is!

Crusade has a lot of similarities to Skull in this respect

Rocket Surgeon said:

Oi! If that was planned...

It's also a matter of WHO is doing the improvising.

Mickey Moore's second unit didn't have Spielberg on hand to soften things or go for all those cheesy gags.

Seems to me the stunt guys had some free reign and they delivered! On Raiders that is!

Crusade has a lot of similarities to Skull in this respect

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I'd be interested to know what was improvised (or at least evolved organically on set) and what was shot step for step as planned. I get the idea that the stunt team had a much more hands on approach in Raiders than they did in either TLC or KOTCS. But that's just an assumption on my part.

Darth Vile said:

I'd be interested to know what was improvised (or at least evolved organically on set) and what was shot step for step as planned. I get the idea that the stunt team had a much more hands on approach in Raiders than they did in either TLC or KOTCS. But that's just an assumption on my part.

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One of the biggest shames of Crusade: no dedicated making of documentary!

The DVDs are nice additions but nothing is like the Schumann/Marshal docs!

It would have been a fine tradition to let the stunt crew and the Second unit go off and do it.

Don't remember if Terry Leonard and Glenn Randall were on Crusade...

Speaking of action, I watched Crusade again tonight and one particular scene had me wondering a bit. The scene is question is at the end of the boat chase when the ship's propeller threatens Indy and one of the brothers of the cruciform sword. Just before the propeller scene, Indy punches one of the brothers off the boat into the water. After that, we don't see him again.

Are we to assume that he was knocked unconscious and drowned? Or that he was sucked in and shredded by the propeller? That he would just swim away is unlikely; he knows his friend is fighting Indy alone, and their mission is to help each other protect the grail. The punch hardly looked severe enough to knock him out, and the ship's propeller didn't appear to have much suction power; so, what happened to him? What do you think?

AlivePoet said:

Speaking of action, I watched Crusade again tonight and one particular scene had me wondering a bit. The scene is question is at the end of the boat chase when the ship's propeller threatens Indy and one of the brothers of the cruciform sword. Just before the propeller scene, Indy punches one of the brothers off the boat into the water. After that, we don't see him again.

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Another scene where the abandonment of physics always irked me...I was thankfull it wasn't as mindnumbing as the mine cart jump though.

AlivePoet said:

Are we to assume that he was knocked unconscious and drowned? Or that he was sucked in and shredded by the propeller?

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All possibilities...

AlivePoet said:

That he would just swim away is unlikely; he knows his friend is fighting Indy alone, and their mission is to help each other protect the grail. The punch hardly looked severe enough to knock him out, and the ship's propeller didn't appear to have much suction power; so, what happened to him? What do you think?

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If he survived I think it's likely he made his way to solid ground...and then resumed the pursuit.