9-29-2008 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The aspect of this film that I noticed the most in watching it this time was the implied racism of Spielberg's depiction of the native Indians. Watching this movie as a kid, I remember just being transported by the action and not reflecting on how flat and barbaric the native people looked as they waited for their great, white hero to fall out of the sky. Looking at it now, these messages seem obvious, but I completely overlooked it when I let the special effects and slapstick humor wash over me. The natives come across as dumb, brutal, ignorant worshipers of a rock while Indy can be both a dashing adventurer and a highly sophisticated academic researcher and intellectual. This film helps reinforce the colonial power's civilizing influence which comes across glaringly in the final scenes where the British military shoots the bow-and-arrow-wielding savages who were enslaving children and participating in human sacrifice. Racism in the Southern United States is easy to identify. The same racism in the Far East seems to almost be expected which is an indictment of Spielberg's handling of race in this film.