News culture “Too dark and much too horrific” Steven Spielberg believes that this Indiana Jones film really goes too far

Culture news “Too dark and far too horrific” Steven Spielberg believes this Indiana Jones film really goes too far

Too dark an adventure

In 1981, Steven Spielberg signed the first part of what would become one of the most famous sagas in the history of cinema: Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark, an adventure masterpiece for children and big, worn by star Harrison Ford.

After this first success, it was obvious that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted to bring back the famous archaeologist. Three years later, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in theaters, a surprising film, particularly because it contrasts enormously with the tone of its predecessor. This time, Indy experiences a darker, more violent and explicit adventure. At the time, the images were so crude that the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) was forced to review the classification of films by creating the code PG-13. For Spielberg himself, the film was too horrific for his tastes.

Spielberg’s regrets

Even today, Steven Spielberg certainly regrets the choices he made for Indy’s second adventure. In the book The Complete Making of Indiana Jones by JW Rinzler and Laurent Bouzereau, we learn that the filmmaker admitted that he “was not at all satisfied with the Temple of Doom“, describing the film as “too dark, too underground and too horrific“. And it is undeniable, The Temple of Doom, with its banquet sequence where our heroes eat monkey brains, or its famous ritual scene with the heart still beating, is a particularly dark film for a saga supposed to be addressed to the whole family. In the end, these choices had an immediate effect on the critical reception of the feature film. The press and the public generally appreciated this second part less, which, years later, remains despite everything, a cult film which largely contributed to the legend of Indiana Jones.