Will Indiana Jones Bring Kids to the Cinema?
By Raoul Railey
14:42, May 22nd 2008
One thing that can be said about ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull’ is exactly Ford’s line from the movie: “Same
old same old.” And if this is usually a bad thing about a film, the
rule does not apply to this one.
The Indiana Jones saga is too much of a legend to allow people,
even if they are its creators, to experiment. It is perfect just
the way it is. Indy is basically one of the very few characters
that can dodge bullets and escape from impossible situations
without making any viewer say “Yeah, right…Like I’m supposed to
believe it.”
Yes, scenes are not shot so beautifully like in ‘Schindler’s List,’
but this is exactly what makes people love the films. It is just a
story, and the director and the whole staff do not want to make you
think anything else.
It is most probable that both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had
similar thoughts because they have managed to give the movie the
series’ ’80s look. It seems that CGI was almost never used and
Harrison Ford, though aged 65, has performed his own stunts just
like in the good old days. Spielberg has even made the film’s
director of photography, Janusz Kaminski, study the technique the
cinematographer of the other movies in the saga, the now retired
Douglas Slocombe, used.
But the big issue remains whether Indy will manage to get kids to
come watch it, or will it be seen by older cinemagoers mostly.
During the last years, kids have been the ones to decide a movie’s
box-office success in its first days of screening. This is why the
producers have led a strong marketing campaign focused on children,
which consisted both in movie trailers on kids’ television, and
actor appearances at kid shows.
If ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ will manage
to both bring the kinds to watch it, and make them love it, the
movie’s success will be complete: the producers will make a lot of
money, and a new generation of Indy fans will emerge.
<!-- Article End -->