This Won't Teach You Anything: A Pop Culture Podcast
This Won’t Teach You Anything is a pop culture podcast about movies, music, travel, collecting, and the moments that stick with us longer than we expect.
Hosted by Andrew, each episode takes a familiar piece of pop culture and looks at it through a personal, honest, and occasionally irreverent lens — less “hot takes,” more reflection.
If you like thoughtful conversations about the things you love (and sometimes grew up with), this won’t teach you anything… but it might make you think about it differently.
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This Won't Teach You Anything: A Pop Culture Podcast
Rewatching Indiana Jones: Why It Still Works (And Where It Doesn’t) Pt 1
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Calling all movie buffs and pop culture enthusiasts! Get ready for an enthralling journey as we welcome back Funcle Hipster, the charismatic co-host of Culture Dudes podcast. Funcle and his nephew Justin are known for their dynamic generational perspectives, and they're here to inject it into our discussion on the legendary Indiana Jones series. We kick things off with Harrison Ford's iconic portrayal in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny", exploring how this actor has made an indelible mark on the cinematic universe.
Prepare your popcorn as we move to our second act, featuring "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Did you know Tom Selleck played a significant role in the casting process? Or that this film led to the introduction of the PG-13 rating? We'll also be reminiscing about the magic of watching films in the theater - an experience that certainly adds an extra dimension to the film-watching process.
Finally, we'll give you an insider's look into the Indiana Jones franchise, highlighting John Williams' timeless music scores, and the jaw-dropping special effects from Industrial Light and Magic. We also discuss the on-screen chemistry of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, which undeniably added a spark to the series. And let's not forget Shia LaBeouf's role and the subsequent transition of James Mangold into the director's chair. Intrigued? Join us as we pay tribute to the classic Indiana Jones series and its undeniable impact on the world of film.
Hello and welcome to another episode of this Won't Teach you Anything. This week we have a special returning guest, your favorite brother in mind, funko Hipster Yo. How's it going? It's going well, it's going well. How are things over there at Culture Dudes?
Speaker 2Oh, it's going pretty well. We're just knocking him out the park right now. Yeah, we're doing one a week now.
Speaker 1Alright. So Culture Dudes, if you don't know, is a podcast hosted by Funko Hipster and his nephew Justin.
Speaker 2He's been adopting the name Bogan because that's what Spotify called him and we didn't know what that meant, so we had to look it up. He's just an idiot.
Speaker 1Ah, okay, so Bogan, alright, yeah, he's Bubba Bogan. Okay, well, good to know, good to know. So, yeah, I've been enjoying listening to you, so, amongst other things, kind of the thing that you guys are doing and I think you're what 40-ish albums in.
Speaker 2Yeah, we're at 60, right around 60. Down for the Rolling Stone, greatest Albums of All Time. We just started at 100 and worked our way down. So yeah, about 40 in.
Speaker 1You guys have been keeping busy with that. I've enjoyed the unique perspectives. There's an age difference between you two, so you get a unique look.
Speaker 2Right, it's almost generational. So he's about 14 years younger than I am, so I would be. He's a millennial and I am Gen X, so we have both, and that's one of the things that we cover in the format when we're. One of the things that we talk about is how were you introed to this band and how did you come to know them? So that was one of the things that it was. It was nice for me to get to know him a little bit better, but also to see where you're coming in with your perspective on the band and if you knew him at all or if this is the first time you're even here in anything that they've played. So that's been one of those things that gives a nice little intro, unless the people know exactly where we stand on those, those bands that we're listening to.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I mean. So the name of the show is is cultured dudes, and you can find it pretty much anywhere that you listen to your podcast.
Speaker 2Yeah, we put it out there. It is not safe for work, so don't plan on having a meeting and trying to listen to this, and we have some filts and fouls and fouls and filts and cussing at me and cussing at you. So just be warned. It is a unique perspective from both of us, but we really, really press the gas on that.
Speaker 1All right, All right. So again, cultured dudes, check it out wherever you listen to your podcast. So this week on our show here we are covering Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was a good one. I was looking forward to seeing this in the theater, so I'm happy you asked me along to talk about it, because it was something that I was looking forward to. How about you? You're a big Harrison Ford guy.
Speaker 1Yeah, harrison Ford is my. You know, I mean to me. You hear about the old Hollywood. You've got Bogart and you know. Clark Gable and whatnot in like classic Hollywood and you know, moving up through Marlon Brando and you know that generation and you know, when you get into like movie stars I mean these days and again, maybe it's, maybe it's me getting older and just looking at it through a different set of eyes Harrison Ford, for me, was the movie star. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1I mean if you're able to go ahead, if you're an actor and you're able to go ahead and land a role right a Han Solo role or an Indiana Jones role in your career.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You're doing well.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, you're somebody's looking out for you if you're just landing one of those, let alone this guy being able to roll out multiple of them and two of the largest franchises in movie history yeah.
Speaker 1I mean it's definitely lightning striking in the same place more than once. And then you know, to a lesser degree, franchise, you know, another iconic character is Rick Deckard.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1That's a great point.
Speaker 2And then you know it came to the whole Blade Runner and then years later that they were going to do that and then almost like handing the torch over to Gosling another guy that's capable of doing something like that with the charm, the charismatic role that he can do and bring that into a new generation. So it was great to see them both in that.
Speaker 1And you're talking Harrison Ford and you're talking overall. You know, if you look at any list that has top box office draws and whatnot, he's always there near the top. And again, a lot of that equates to, you know, star Wars, indiana Jones. Without those you're not getting up there quite that high. What else is it about Harrison Ford that just makes him kind of you know that guy.
Speaker 2Well, I think one of the things is we like to that the audience likes to think of themselves in that position, like he's doing the stuff that we feel like we would be doing, kind of like that, look back, and I don't know, I'm making it up as I go. You know that kind of stuff Classic, and we're all just like, yes, that's exactly what I would say, or that's what I would do, or you know, it just looks like he's stumbling through this but also has done, like his own research and knows all these things that are happening and he has a moral compass that he's really stays on point about. He's fighting Nazis, you know, and he's trying to. He's not doing this for the riches or the wealth. He's doing it to put it in a museum.
Speaker 2As he says numerous times throughout the series.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, that's part of it. He's an everyday guy, yes, yes, he doesn't have any superpowers routinely in over his head. And you know, that's kind of a thematic thing with Harrison Ford, I think, and one of the plays so well is, he's not the Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, the totally ripped, super buff guy he could be. You know, just a guy down the street.
Speaker 2He could just be a carpenter working on your house.
Speaker 1Yeah, he could be working on the movie studio set Could be doing that too. And the next thing you know, next thing you know, he's a space smuggler right Yep A nerf herder, I mean yeah, yeah, it's, and that's.
Speaker 1that's part of it. You could probably be one of the few people that could correct me if I'm wrong on this is with with the knowledge, you have a backstories and on films and whatnot, and the story I'd always heard about Harrison Ford and the casting of Han Solo was he was actually working there. He was around working as a carpenter.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's what I heard when they were doing the reads.
Speaker 1When they were doing the reads and George Lucas, you know, had asked him to read opposite Mark Hamill, I think, maybe Carrie Fisher, you know, just opposite, you know, just to do the read and because he'd worked with him on American graffiti.
Speaker 2Right, yep, I remember, but he was there primarily.
Speaker 1You know he was, he was doing carpet work.
Speaker 2Yeah, just doing a side gig, just trying to pay the bills, you know.
Speaker 1Yep. So it wasn't even at the point that he was asked to read even a consideration for the room, and so kind of his annoyance came through in the reads and that's what went ahead and led to him being cast as Han Solo.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I've heard as well, where he was given the pages to read opposite, as you would do. Like any casting directors assistant would just like reading the lines back and forth. And I think Octavia Spencer talked about like that's how she got into acting was because she was doing a job just like that, where she was like helping out and when they were reading it back and forth and she was like putting a little sauce into it when they were doing that and like you're reading this pretty good back to them, it's like we could try to have you step in and do some of these things. So it's a something like that where just the annoyance of somebody cool doing something like that that George Lucas could see through and knew that he was an actor as well and it just read well, and sometimes you just that chemistry, there's no reason to explain it and it just happens and it pops, and I think that's what happened there.
Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom
Speaker 1Yeah, agreed. Going back to Indiana Jones, the story there was the original casting for that was going to be Tom Selleck, tom.
Speaker 2Selleck. And yeah, through the graces of a contract that he chose to stay with Magnum PI because he didn't wanna shave his mustache off. And that was like the kicker he had the role and he said no because of that.
Speaker 1There's a lot of actors that would love to have had Tom Selleck's career. True true, but more that probably would love to have.
Speaker 2Harrison Ford. Well, let's ask Tom now, how would you? Well, here's a BIC. Would you like to take that off? I think he would like the dial of destiny to go back and try to change that.
Speaker 1Very well played. Very well played. Yeah, the thing is, and you can even see the reads that he did for Indiana Jones. You can find him on YouTube. Oh, yeah, yeah, that he's reading opposite Karen Allen with the fedora on and everything.
Speaker 2The whole bit.
Speaker 1So yeah, you could check that out.
Speaker 2He looks the part. That's interesting. He looks the part.
Speaker 1Except for the mustache.
Speaker 2Except you're a good guy. Bad guys have mustache. He's not good guys.
Speaker 1Yeah, and Magnum PI.
Speaker 2And Magnum PI A private dick, if you will.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's him very private. So again kind of Harrison Ford, kind of sidestepping into a role Another way, yeah, and you know an iconic role. Yeah, so you know the series. The first film, 1981. 1981, it was in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi Was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and then I believe you had Temple of Doom in 84.
Speaker 2Which I, during the research, just found out that Temple of Doom was actually a prequel. It took place a year before the Raiders of the Lost Ark, you were correct. Yeah, how about that?
Speaker 1Yeah, there you go. So that's a hard-hitting coverage. You're only going to get here, right, it's the only place that you're gonna. If you didn't know that, you heard it here first I mean, that can literally be said.
Speaker 2We gotta change the name of your podcast. We taught you one thing.
Speaker 1I did at the beginning when I screwed it up.
Speaker 2We taught you one thing.
Speaker 1Do I have to? Am I done now?
Speaker 2Is this show done? Now that I've taught somebody what, keep going.
Speaker 1So we had Temple of Doom 1984. Interesting tidbit about Temple of Doom. You know interesting tidbit about Temple of Doom.
Speaker 2A couple of them, couple of tidbits.
Speaker 1All right, go for it, throw me one.
Speaker 2One where Steven Spielberg fell in love with Kate Capshaw. All right, that's one tidbit. Willie Scott, with what? Willie Scott, kate Capshaw's character yes yes, she screamed over 80 times in that movie, and that's just on screen. I don't know how much she's screaming outside of that.
Speaker 1Hey now.
Speaker 2I saw that as like a factoid or something like that. So that's a tidbit. It is. There were only 75% of the insects that they used on set were, I think no. 75% got away. Only 25% was kept. So of all those thousands of insects, 75% went free. They just About 75% of insects. 75% went free.
Speaker 1About no.
Speaker 2And we saw all of those things. Those were wild yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, that's fantastic. What else you?
Speaker 2got. Those are just a couple of fact toys. I do have. How many people were killed in Temple of Doom? I don't know if that's a tidbit 44.
Speaker 144 people down 44, the body count 44. Of.
Speaker 2Temple of Doom. Yeah, Unofficial.
Speaker 1Very nice, okay, all right.
Speaker 2Anything else? That's all I got for now.
Speaker 1All right, I'll throw one atcha. That's here. Temple of Doom ushered in the PG-13 rating. Okay, so Because it went, pg yes.
Speaker 2It was released PG. And do you know what the first actual PG-13 movie was?
Speaker 1I think I do.
Speaker 2I'm putting my fist to the air because I'm saying Wolverines, yeah, because you're like Wolverines, yep, yeah, yep, red Dawn, red Dawn.
Speaker 1Red.
Speaker 2Dawn.
Speaker 1I'll give you an interesting tidbit about the PG-13 rating in Red Dawn.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1I remember watching Red Dawn on HBO.
Speaker 2Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1And my friend of mine, dan, and I. It was an afternoon we were watching, it was coming on and we hurried in there so we could see the PG-13 rating pop up before the film oh really. What a thrill.
Speaker 2Wow, that was it. They played a little rating.
Speaker 1Before the movie this film is rated PG and that was the first time I ever. It was kind of a big deal, it was a big deal, Did you?
Speaker 2oh, you're watching on HBO, so did you? Do you get the full five minute? Like model that was going through the city?
Speaker 1and Yep city.
Speaker 2Yeah, oh yeah, oh, that was great, yep, I love that.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's one of my favorites and I watched. I remember watching Raiders of the Lost Ark on HBO when it premiered on HBO. That's one of the things I think people don't you know, people younger I can't appreciate. I don't want to be that get off my lawn guy, but is when you saw a film Star Wars, empire Strikes Back, raiders of Lost Art you saw it in the movie theater. You weren't watching it again until it maybe popped up on television.
Speaker 2And you didn't own your own tapes or anything, because Got it?
Speaker 1Yeah, nobody. Yeah, you weren't there in 1977 when Star Wars came out. Yeah, you weren't going to a video store. There weren't.
Speaker 2Yeah, there was no chance of waiting until the DVD came out, because there was no such thing. There's no laziness, there's no home viewing of anything, unless you were a theater that illegally stole the film and didn't return it. Movies were in theaters for literally years. Yeah, like three years. Some of these movies were out. I think Godfather was out for like three years, or something like that. Yeah, it done surprising, but you had no chance of seeing it again, and so that's why you would have so many people that would go to the theater, and it was a big deal to be able to see it there. And then for HBO to be able to see these movies that you didn't have to, that was mind blowing. It's in its own right. It was an event.
Speaker 1You know when you'd have a premiere of something like that, friday night eight o'clock. Same thing with Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2Ghostbusters was coming on and I remember that they would have like every once in a while they would have a surprise. Like New Year's Eve at midnight they would have a surprise movie, and I thought that was the first time I watched Ghostbusters at home. Was HBO surprise film?
Speaker 1Ghostbusters was the first film I saw on back to back days growing up, oh really. I was 11 years old. I saw it on a Friday night and then I went with a friend of mine on Saturday, so it was the first film I saw two times in a row in the theater.
Speaker 2Yeah, Well, and that's. That's another great thing about these movies and how they impacted us. It wasn't a crossing off the list of like oh, I saw it, so I don't need to see it again. No, this was something I wanted to see as much as possible so I could remember the quotes. I can talk to other people about it and get my facts, because we couldn't do any fact checking. There was no IMDB.
Speaker 1Yeah, we could have said whatever we wanted.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, and we did. We made up a bunch of crap. Yeah, I can't I was thinking about this the other day. It's like I still like bring up factoids and things that I heard, like my dad say, and try to pawn that off as fact without fact checking it at all. So there's a fact that I've been telling people for years that I never fact checked, and that was there are more insects. It's insect talk for some reason.
Speaker 2Yeah, there are more insects in a city mile one square city mile than there are people on earth.
Speaker 1That's mind blowing.
Speaker 2I don't know if it's true. I don't. I'd never fact check that. That's what my dad said yeah.
Speaker 1And that's what you should follow that up, that factor up with every time. You know, when somebody starts looking at you like is that true, you just hit them right in the face with. That's what my dad told me that. Yep, there you go. Who's going to argue with that? It could have been right.
Speaker 2It could have been right 30 years ago, but not anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, as as I often do on this show, something in the same vein, and again, it has nothing with the main topic we're talking about, but facts and things like that We've talked about this before the difference between a million and a billion.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, that's huge difference.
Speaker 1That's one of one of the things that blows my mind the most. I think and I'll screw it up, but my dad told me this is that I believe a million seconds is like 33 days.
Speaker 2Around 13 or 14 days.
Speaker 1Okay, 13,. See, I screwed it up. Yeah, damn, it dad.
Speaker 2Don't, don't curse, dad. Mr Rude got it right. I screwed it up.
Speaker 1But a billion is something like 30 some years 33 years.
Speaker 2yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, so then that's, that's astonishing.
Speaker 2A trillion seconds is 33,000 years.
Speaker 1That's ungodly. To be a billionaire, that's somebody giving you $1 a second for 33 years. Yes.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Sleeping awake whatever.
Speaker 2Yeah, it doesn't matter, it's just astonishing. Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2It's a huge difference between a million and a billion and people just throw those, those numbers out so flippantly.
Speaker 1Yeah, they sound kind of familiar. Watch what I do with this.
Speaker 2That's here.
Speaker 1Star Wars, Indiana Jones both billion dollar franchises, Multi-billion dollar franchises. So that's how I brought it back.
Speaker 2Yes, full circle. Here we are, and one person is in both of those billion dollar franchises.
Speaker 1And blown.
Speaker 2Pretty incredible. Thank you, Mr Root.
Indiana Jones Films and John Williams
Speaker 1Yeah, Great fact so so Temple of Doom, 1984, Indiana Jones and the last crusade, 1989. So we had three years between the first two films which, as you pointed out in in the actual timeline, Temple of Doom.
Speaker 2Before.
Speaker 1In the timeline of the character. Technically the first story, yeah.
Speaker 2Would that be the first prequel that we ever had? Oh, that could be Right.
Speaker 1The first one that really mattered, we'll say yes.
Speaker 2How?
Speaker 1about that my dad said yes 1989, indiana Jones and the last crusade. We went five years, yeah, between those films. Yeah.
Speaker 2Everybody in there Indiana Jones and the last crusade, this is some prime time, prime Spielberg, prime Harrison. Oh yeah, yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 1Yeah, the, yeah, the 70s and 80s John.
Speaker 2Williams, john Williams, gotta bring that up. Holy smokes Well.
Speaker 1John Williams still.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I mean, you know again, there's no better. I mean we can argue, best films, favorite films, best franchises, all this, but I will fight to the death anybody who tries to tell me there's a better motion picture composer than John Williams.
Speaker 2You'll be fighting alone. No one will dispute that. He is absolutely the best.
Speaker 1The honest to God absolute, Because there was an undisputed goat of anything in their field. I mean, I don't know how you get better than John Williams.
Speaker 2You don't. You nailed it. That's the one and only.
Speaker 1Wrote the original Superman theme. Wrote Star Wars the soundtrack Indiana Jones Raiders March. The soundtrack to the Indiana Jones movies Jaws.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, that's a great one, simple too.
Speaker 1Close encounters of the third. Yeah, close encounters of the third kind. That was John Williams Schindler's List. Yeah, he's all of them. John Williams, jurassic Park.
Speaker 2Yeah, and we all are hearing these as you're mentioning them. It just instantly comes into your head the theme music from each one of these films.
Speaker 1Yeah, the original Harry Potter.
Speaker 2You couldn't do that with hardly anything else.
Speaker 1Right, John Williams, Hedwig's theme, it just keeps going on. He's scored every one of the episodic Star Wars films, so any Star Wars films with an episode attached to it. All John Williams, All the Indiana Jones films. What a career. Yeah, I mean absolutely, Absolutely so. Again, I mean it's very rare that you might have this part or that part or this. I mean this is a series that had Steven Spielberg directed characters created by George Lucas, John Williams scoring it. I mean Industrial Light and Magic, the premier visual effects studio, working on this, born from the necessity in Star Wars I don't know if you've caught the Disney Plus thing called Light and Magic, I think it is.
Speaker 1It's a documentary about the formation. Yeah, you'll want to watch that. It's fantastic about how ILM was formed, because there weren't special effects studios.
Speaker 2I mean, they wrote the book man.
Speaker 1They literally did so. Yeah, I mean all the big ones, weta and all those. They owe everything to ILM.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's true. And the success of that, because if it failed then people weren't going to invest money into it. So the success that they had from doing those things that we can still see today, that's like incredible even today. It just shows how much passion and how much ingenuity it took for somebody to do something like that.
Speaker 1I think there's even a scene in that documentary that you mentioned earlier. They're talking about most of the stuff they came up with. They just had to. They made up because there was no book on how to do this. Stuff made me think of what you brought up earlier with I don't know. I'm making this up as I go. That's exactly what they were doing, I think they even I think they played that part in the documentary when Harrison Ford says that it's classic and no truer words for a character ever, because that's so good.
Speaker 2You can't plot that stuff out, man, you just find yourself in the positions and then, as boats and the tides are turning, literally is how you manipulate, how to get out of something.
Speaker 1So yeah, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2That's great.
Speaker 1So again 1989, indiana Jones and the last crusade marked a big addition to the franchise with Sean.
Speaker 2Coyle, that was huge man. He was so good too.
Speaker 1You literally had James Bond and Indiana Jones. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2On the same screen. How great is that.
Speaker 1The chemistry between those two was just off the charts.
Speaker 2It really was. I mean, there's so many lines that I still use from that's probably my favorite. One of this franchise is the last crusade, and it also shows the depth of their acting chops, because there are some moments in there where Sean Connery is known for being the suave guy James Bond, but there's moments where, like when he has the Holy Grail and he's just like let it go, you know that moment where he's just telling him and he's teaching his son a teachable moment. Man, that just gets me every time seeing something like that.
Speaker 1It's so fantastic. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, because this whole time you're introduced to his father as being a stern by the book guy refers to him as junior and all that. And that's the only time in the movie where you hear him say let it go. And then he's like, and he's like still reaching for the Grail. He's like Indiana, let it go. And it's like that's what snaps him out when he says that?
Speaker 2And he's been looking for that for his whole life and he's telling his son to let it go and it's so close, so close, yeah.
Speaker 1And that's what he's saying. I can almost reach it. Yeah, that's so great. That film is just so good. For me, raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect adventure for me. Because it just ushered in so many clones of that type of stuff. But if there's a movie in the franchise that comes even remotely close to the action adventure and the feeling of the first film, for me it's Last Crusade.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Even with the addition of Sean Connery and having a different feel, it still has that same heart.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1To me of all the things we've mentioned.
Speaker 2And where he got that heart from. So that's a great origin story that's thrown in the mix of this adventure story. So it's even better that way.
Speaker 1One of the things that people, and again younger people don't have the impact of it. People our age I think I was talking to somebody a few weeks back that had completely forgot that River Phoenix was in this film.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's incredible. I loved him too. He's such a tragedy. But yeah, he was so good and it shows where he got his phobia from snakes, where he got his scar on his chin it worked out.
Speaker 1Where the heck came from, where the heck came from.
Speaker 2It wasn't even his man. The other tomb raider gave it to him. Oh, it's so good yeah.
Speaker 1The nods to things like that are part of what makes a good series hold together and function so well. Going forward, we went ahead and had five years again between Temple of Doom and Last Crusade, and then we have almost 20 years.
Speaker 2That's a big one.
Speaker 1Between the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. The hype for that was huge.
Speaker 2I don't know People were thirsty.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, 100%. It's one of those situations where you just don't know if anything could live up to the hype after that many years, but the exception being that it just shattered everything would be Top Gun Maverick.
Speaker 2Yeah that. But it's learned also from some of these missteps, if you want to call them those, from these long droughts from franchises, and so they really have been able to look back and see, well, they did this and they did that and it wasn't exactly true and here's what the fan base is saying, like that. So they really did a good job of being able to stay away from those pitfalls that other franchises, with the long drought, have been able to or fell into, and so they did such a good job with that. That was really and that's something that when we were talking about, we just fanned all over.
Speaker 1Yeah, because it's warranted when you have a long drought like that. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still did huge boxing.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You know, because so many people were thirsty for that next story. I rewatched it again recently and I don't hate the film. Neither I think it's got a lot. I think it could if there was a fan at it and there were some things taken out here and there. I don't have a problem with the nuking of the fridge.
Speaker 2Yeah, I never. I thought that was great and it was a not to the future.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, you've got again a resourcefulness a lead lined refrigerator in a nuclear blast. Oh, who could survive that? So we're not going to talk about the inflatable raft jumping out of a plane in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sliding down a Himalayan mountain into a river in India.
Speaker 2That's okay, but we're going to bang on the Ripping out of a heart. Ripping out the heart yes, mpg 13? Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, we're okay with all of that stuff Ghosts coming out of the Ark of the Covenant and all that. He's 2,000 years old. Yeah, I think. For me, one of the issues that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had and I had a couple with it Harrison Ford was fantastic, as ever. He has gone on record to say that Indiana Jones is his favorite role.
Speaker 2Oh really.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think that's his favorite character.
Speaker 2I can see it. It's a great role.
Speaker 1Yeah, he plays that character just completely to the tee. You couldn't. Everything that you can't get on paper he brings to it.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was one of those born-to-play situations.
Speaker 1Exactly. One of the issues I had with it was in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was more or less a solo type story, with the exception of Marion that you get to and their chemistry was on. Her character was fan. You know one of those early on things where Harrison Ford has played alongside some very strong female characters in his movies. In the popular ones as cocky and brash as Han Solo is, princess Leia wasn't taking anything. No, no.
Speaker 1I mean, she went toe-to-toe with Marion Ravenwood. Same thing Wasn't taking any of his crap went toe-to-toe. This is late 70s, early 80s, before all this Everything was born to, where female empowerment and whatnot, where it was at the forefront of things, like it is today, these are things that back then you want to see the male superhero Machica, and here you got Princess Leia dressing him down.
Speaker 2Yeah, put him in this place every chance.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. And Marion Ravenwood, Karen Allen, slugging him right in the jaw as soon as he runs into her.
Speaker 2She's incredible Karen Allen's, one of my favorite actresses of all time.
Speaker 1I've always loved her, and she was born to play that role too.
Speaker 2It fits her so well.
Speaker 1So you had kind of the tandem there, and then the chemistry of short round in Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom worked phenomenal. You know, it just worked. Yeah yeah, you go to talking about movie quotes, you call him Dr Jones, doll Dr Jones. So I mean just so many good ones.
Speaker 2No time for love, Dr Jones Yep.
Speaker 1The chemistry between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford in the Last Crusade. I was not feeling the chemistry with Shia LaBeouf and Harrison Ford in the Kingdom of the Crystal Stone.
Speaker 2That was disappointing for me, because I am a fan of Shia LaBeouf and I've seen him do some really good things, and the first time I got introduced to him was in that Project Greenlight. Did you ever see that show with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?
Speaker 1I know what it is, but I didn't see it. It's where you could basically get your script right.
Exploring the Indiana Jones Film Franchise
Speaker 2Yeah, they helped do that and there was a new season out recently that I think they did that. But that was the first time that I saw him Shia LaBeouf because he was in some Disney movie holes and he just had this charm and charismatic way about him and he did a great job and I think the movie was Battle of Shaker Heights was the name of it and so that's what put him on the map for me and since then I've liked what he's done. But he's had some challenges in his life and some personal battles and I thought he was great. Casting him as this adventurer that's going to be like Harrison Ford offspring and being able to do something like that. I thought that was really good. But that's one of those times where the chemistry didn't really match up. For some reason it just didn't. It was oil and water, for some reason.
Speaker 1Yeah, it wasn't Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman bad, but it didn't feel natural and I think, yeah, I think, you know, with Shia LaBeouf I think back to the original Transformers film and he's got a timing he does, but he's got timing to go ahead and act with, because that role that he plays in Transformers and the timing he I mean you could see that the guy, the guy knows what he's doing.
Speaker 2He's got some chops to him for sure.
Speaker 1He was good. I enjoyed him in Fury yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's a gritty movie. That's a good movie, yeah. So that's one of the things, what's that he pulled his tooth out for that Because his character he thought his character had that grit to him. He like literally pulled his tooth out for that character in that movie. Oh my God, I didn't know that. Yeah, the deal was wild.
Speaker 1Did anybody? When he did that, did people have trouble recognizing him? Did anyone dare say to him you are not LaBeouf.
Speaker 2You are not LaBeouf. I love that line too.
Speaker 1Nothing to do with any of the Jones, but I love that line. So that was one of the things. The other thing to me, it just had a different feel to it once it got to like the jungle. It looked too green, it looked too oversaturated for me.
Speaker 2I think that it had. It fell into a dilemma of CGI, like the technology wasn't exactly there for what they were trying to do, and I think that's where it fell into it With Spielberg and Jurassic Park. There was like a blend of that and so it looked incredible. There was like a blend of practical and there was a blend of CGI and it was like, like we said, nobody was doing that at the time, so for him to be able to do that was incredible. And I think this fell into a trap of doing more CGI than practical and in-camera, and I think that's where that believability or fake came into play and it came across in the finished product.
Speaker 1Right it, just for me. It didn't visually feel like the other films.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You know it seemed a little too clean in spots. I thought the areas where they filmed in the desert area of 51 and in the warehouse at the beginning of the film felt like an Indiana Jones movie. It gets out in the jungle and things are a little too green, you know it. Just it didn't. It had its moments where it did. But you know Kate Blanchett, who all watching about anything.
Speaker 2Anything about I mean she's phenomenal, you know.
Speaker 1Again, it was one of those ones where even she couldn't do a ton with ultimately an uninteresting character I found yeah yeah, that's where I was too. It the interdimensional beings, as they called them. I didn't have a huge problem with all that, because if you're watching these movies and you're seeing a 900 year old knight help you or question you about the holy grail, then you really shouldn't have a problem with interdimensional aliens.
Speaker 2We've seen close encounters of the third kind, We've seen ET, we've seen Star Wars. I mean we've seen all these things. So we're completely okay with alien beings being here and being like the finale of their movie. So that's never been a problem with us. We've always been able to go along with that.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, definitely. So you know it was a film. It was the lowest rated of you know the Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes as far as a critical consensus and fan base Of the Indiana Jones children franchise.
Speaker 1Yeah, of the four that were out, and then we get to, so it was 2008. So we had like 19 years between Indiana Jones films and then, you know, we had another roughly 14 years going on, 15 between Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. So Dial of Destiny is the first time that you start to see a different core team with the addition of James Mangold, right, yeah. Taking over the director's chair.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was interesting to see Spielberg stepping down for that Still being a part of it, but not, you know, directly behind the camera like he usually was, so that was interesting.
Speaker 1That's always a concern when you have an established you know film franchise. Now you know James Bond. I don't know that there's been one person that's directed more than one Bond film.
Speaker 2Yeah, I can't think of one.
Speaker 1You know, you hear Indiana Jones and you know to me I think, harrison Ford, spielberg, george Lucas and John Williams, that's core four when you take one of those parts out. And Spielberg was an executive producer, so you know he was a real hit. And I'm knowing what I've read about James Mangold. I'm sure that you know there were discussions that James Mangold you know, tip of the cat.
Speaker 2We could also bring into play Kathleen Kennedy. She's been a part of this franchise the whole way through as well. So not to snub Kathleen, because she's been an integral part as her career has grown, and so has the franchise of Indiana Jones.
Speaker 1That's fair to say. Yeah, I guess I've. There's a lot of vitriol. That's the second time I've used this word today.
Speaker 2The big one. Was it in your calendar?
Speaker 1Yeah, no, no, it wasn't. It wasn't on my screen saver on my Mac either. No, I just with. She catches a lot of flak from the Star.
Speaker 2Wars movie. Yeah, and there is A lot of it.
Speaker 1They don't realize that she was there at the beginning, when everything was good.
Speaker 2You brought up like the intercoles of this and I thought that there was some video where Spielberg was talking like introducing everybody during the Dial of Destiny, like a pub that was happening, and I thought she kind of got slighted because he was like we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for these integral people and he named off like John Williams, harrison Ford.
Speaker 1Like I did.
Speaker 2Like you did.
Speaker 1Did I just snub, kathleen?
Speaker 2Kennedy, you did the same thing that Spielberg did. That's why I had to bring it in. Poor Kathleen sitting over there, she was like waiting for a high five and turned it into a slow clap for herself. Poor girl.
Speaker 1The awkward slow cap from the top. Yeah, oh, I'll just so high five and turn it into a clap the old trip and start running out of nowhere. Oh God, what a shit. I'm sorry KK. But, just KK.
Speaker 2We don't need to go any further with the case. I know we're doing Nazis and everything. No, we're gonna stop it. Stop it, stop it too.
Speaker 1Yep, agreed so with my snub of Kathleen Kennedy Dial of Destiny. You know this marks, I believe at the time of shooting Harrison Ford was near 78 years old.
Speaker 2He was up there a little longer than the tooth, as they say.
Speaker 1But I think there's not too many of us who wouldn't want to be in the condition that Harrison Ford is at now 80, but 78 years old.
Speaker 2And the dude keeps on going. He keeps flying on his own, crashing on his own. I mean, the guy is a survivor, we all know yeah definitely.
Speaker 1You know, during the filming of Force Awakens, a prop door on the Millennium Falcon slammed shut on Broke's leg during the Force Awakens.
Speaker 2During this, during the filming of this, he had shoulder surgery right.
Speaker 1Yeah, and during a fight scene had to get shoulder surgery and I have to wonder. There is a scene towards the end of the movie where he and Phoebe are in pursuit of the dial and they're climbing up the side of this thing and she's like wondering why he's not, are you gonna go? And he's like he goes. I'm just wondering what I'm doing up here with Two bad shoulders and no knees and stuff like that.
Speaker 1That's one of the things without going and doing our usual breakdown of scene by scene, so I don't make this four hours long the overall feeling of dial of destiny to me felt like an Indiana Jones movie, like it would have fit right in with the beginning had Harrison Ford, indiana Jones, played this part in his 40s. It felt like that kind of feeling which is, I think, a testament to James Mangold and being able to capture kind of that feeling with all the nods of things. One of the things that is a bad thing to do in an Indiana Jones film is be on a motorcycle with Indiana Jones. That never, that rarely goes well For other people.
Speaker 1Yeah, getting thrown off near a vehicle, you'll be run over.
Speaker 2Yeah, he's undefeated in that, and that's how these kill counts. Just keep clicking up, keep going.
Speaker 1And we will stop right there with this episode of this won't teach you anything. As usual, when I get talking to Funko Hipster, things go way longer than we ever anticipate and it ends up being a two or three episode marathon. But when you have something as interesting to me and pop culture as Indiana Jones, it's easy to do so. Thanks for going ahead and hanging out, and a reminder that if you wanna email and reach out to the show, you can email us at this won'tteach at gmailcom. Twitter at this, won't teach. Instagram at this underscore won't underscore, teach, underscore you underscore anything. And Facebook at this won't teach. Once again, thanks for your support. Give us a like and a subscribe if you like what you're hearing. Maybe tell your friends. We really appreciate it and we can't wait to go ahead and cover some more subjects, but next episode we will finish up our discussion on Indiana Jones and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Thanks again for listening, and this has been. This Won't Teach you Anything. Music.
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