How the Indyfan.forum almost ruined my life, but then it got better...

Posted by Nick Kismet from 209.210.100.7 on August 07, 1999 at 00:24:29:

A few nights ago, my 3 week old son refused to go to sleep, and refused to let me sleep too. So I stayed up with him, and put Temple of Doom in the player. I think this is the first time I've watched Indy since I started paying attention to the forum...definitely the first time I've watched ToD in a while.
It started out badly. I couldn't just sit and watch and be entertained. I was a forum fan, nitpicking every little thing...I kept thinking about all the posts I would make. Like, what's with all the dancers when Willie goes into the dragon; is that supposed to be a fantasy sequence? Is that Elvis at Lao Che's table? Then I just got mad; the movie seemed so horribly amateurish. Why did the pilots fly thousands of miles across China (how long would that take in a Ford Tri-motor anyway) before crashing the plane? (btw, I do remember the little aside in the movie novelization about the pilots deciding it was bad luck to just kill the passengers) Why are the propellors not turning when Willie looks out...then stopping when the engines stall...then spinning like crazy as the plane (which has no fuel) ctashes and explodes?
Then it started to happen...
It was when Indy is listening to and translating the shaman. Just the way the whole scene takes place...it was so perfect. I don't think Harrison Ford has ever been more on top of a character as he was in ToD. Every move, mannerism and word conveys everything I love about the Indiana Jones character; he's tough, smart and very self-assured.
And then, I really started to enjoy the movie...
Oh, sure, the dinner scene seems a little contrived and horribly inaccurate (Hindus eating meat? Thugees shedding blood in their sacrifices?) But who cares?
Sure Willie and Shorty get on my last nerve, but the movie isn't called Willie Scott and the Temple of Doom.
No, for all its faults, there are some moments of magic in Temple of Doom that make it worth a couple hours of my time every now and then.

One final forum type question...
Is there anywhere in the world where lava behaves the way it does in the Temple? A lava moat with a whirpool type vortex?
I know that you can walk up to a lava flow near the Hawaiian volcanoes, but that stuff is either flowing slowly downhill as it cools, or spewing out of the crater under pressure. Just curious because I'd like to use a lava moat in a story some day.

Nick Kismet's World

Follow Ups:

My Favorite Scene Thuggee Bear 10:17:21 8/07/99 (1)
- Read this one instead, I was a little hasty with the first post! Thuggee Bear 10:21:30 8/07/99 (0)

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: A few nights ago, my 3 week old son refused to go to sleep, and refused to let me sleep too.  So I stayed up with him, and put Temple of Doom in the player.  I think this is the first time I've watched Indy since I started paying attention to the forum...definitely the first time I've watched ToD in a while.
: It started out badly.  I couldn't just sit and watch and be entertained.  I was a forum fan, nitpicking every little thing...I kept thinking about all the posts I would make.  Like, what's with all the dancers when Willie goes into the dragon; is that supposed to be a fantasy sequence?  Is that Elvis at Lao Che's table?  Then I just got mad; the movie seemed so horribly amateurish.  Why did the pilots fly thousands of miles across China (how long would that take in a Ford Tri-motor anyway) before crashing the plane?  (btw, I do remember the little aside in the movie novelization about the pilots deciding it was bad luck to just kill the passengers)  Why are the propellors not turning when Willie looks out...then stopping when the engines stall...then spinning like crazy as the plane (which has no fuel) ctashes and explodes?
: Then it started to happen...
: It was when Indy is listening to and translating the shaman.  Just the way the whole scene takes place...it was so perfect.  I don't think Harrison Ford has ever been more on top of a character as he was in ToD.  Every move, mannerism and word conveys everything I love about the Indiana Jones character; he's tough, smart and very self-assured.
: And then, I really started to enjoy the movie...
: Oh, sure, the dinner scene seems a little contrived and horribly inaccurate (Hindus eating meat?  Thugees shedding blood in their sacrifices?)  But who cares?  
: Sure Willie and Shorty get on my last nerve, but the movie isn't called Willie Scott and the Temple of Doom.
: No, for all its faults, there are some moments of magic in Temple of Doom that make it worth a couple hours of my time every now and then.

: One final forum type question...
: Is there anywhere in the world where lava behaves the way it does in the Temple?  A lava moat with a whirpool type vortex?
: I know that you can walk up to a lava flow near the Hawaiian volcanoes, but that stuff is either flowing slowly downhill as it cools, or spewing out of the crater under pressure.  Just curious because I'd like to use a lava moat in a story some day.

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