More thoughts on Lucas vs. Spielberg & Ford

Posted by Dirk Pitt from spider-we071.proxy.aol.com on November 10, 1999 at 23:06:59:

Yes, Lucas initiated the creative process of Indiana Jones, but keep in mind that were it not for fate we'd have had Tom Selleck instead. Not that Selleck would have been bad, but let's face it: Selleck's Indy would be to Ford's what Brosnan's Bond is to Connery's. Brosnan's is merely a character, little more than a cog in a marketing wheel; Connery, on the other hand, took a novelistic character and turned him into an icon. Just as Ford did with Indy.

Remember that orginally Lucas didn't want to use Ford (since he'd already cast him as Han Solo), but it was Spielberg who realized Ford was perfect for the role. If Lucas had had his way, Indy would be a soul-less playboy whose main purpose in archaelogical adventuring would be to fund his night life. It was Ford and Spielberg who steered Indy away from Lucas's ill-advised playboy, treasure-hunting fantasy. And I would venture that it was Ford who turned Indy from the selfish, cigarette-smoking, trigger-happy, bulletproof grave-robber into something more sublime: a universal, HUMAN hero. (It was Ford who made sure that Indy would appear scratched and bruised, as when he's on the ship with Marion)

In all three films the quest is not actually for "fortune and glory," but rather a battle between good and evil. Were it not for Ford and Spielberg I doubt we'd hear Indy uttering such lines as "It belongs in a museum!". Nor would we have had Indy's sheer frustration, his indignation, with the government at the end of Raiders for packing away the Ark in that chilling scene from Citizen Kane. It is the intellectual and moral Indy of Ford and Spielberg that argues that the Ark needs to be studied. Lucas's treasure-hunting playboy would simply have pocketed his honorarium and hopped on the next college co-ed.

-- Dirk

Follow Ups:

Re: Perhaps... Indiana Joe 00:07:01 11/11/99 (0)
Agreed. And let's not forget Lawrence Kasdan. ROB T. 23:39:50 11/10/99 (8)
- Lucas is not the Antichrist Beowulf 09:04:42 11/11/99 (1)
  - Re: Lucas Bashing INDIANA G.J.R. 10:23:44 11/11/99 (0)
- Okay, here's that article on Kasdan... ROB T. 03:49:16 11/11/99 (2)
  - Re: Yes, Kasdan was key! Dirk Pitt 06:19:16 11/11/99 (1)
    - Re: Well, it’s still Lucas’s character, not Kasdan’s Indiana Joe 15:20:05 11/11/99 (0)
- Kasdan is the man Alaska Jim 23:50:34 11/10/99 (2)
  - Re: Kasdan is the man, and so is Lucas Indiana Joe 00:46:53 11/11/99 (1)
    - Didn't Robert Zemeckis ever come to mind!?!?(NM) Short Round 05:32:02 11/11/99 (0)

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: Yes, Lucas initiated the creative process of Indiana Jones, but keep in mind that were it not for fate we'd have had Tom Selleck instead. Not that Selleck would have been bad, but let's face it: Selleck's Indy would be to Ford's what Brosnan's Bond is to Connery's. Brosnan's is merely a character, little more than a cog in a marketing wheel; Connery, on the other hand, took a novelistic character and turned him into an icon. Just as Ford did with Indy.

: Remember that orginally Lucas didn't want to use Ford (since he'd already cast him as Han Solo), but it was Spielberg who realized Ford was perfect for the role. If Lucas had had his way, Indy would be a soul-less playboy whose main purpose in archaelogical adventuring would be to fund his night life. It was Ford and Spielberg who steered Indy away from Lucas's ill-advised playboy, treasure-hunting fantasy. And I would venture that it was Ford who turned Indy from the selfish, cigarette-smoking, trigger-happy, bulletproof grave-robber into something more sublime: a universal, HUMAN hero. (It was Ford who made sure that Indy would appear scratched and bruised, as when he's on the ship with Marion)

: In all three films the quest is not actually for "fortune and glory," but rather a battle between good and evil. Were it not for Ford and Spielberg I doubt we'd hear Indy uttering such lines as "It belongs in a museum!". Nor would we have had Indy's sheer frustration, his indignation, with the government at the end of Raiders for packing away the Ark in that chilling scene from Citizen Kane. It is the intellectual and moral Indy of Ford and Spielberg that argues that the Ark needs to be studied. Lucas's treasure-hunting playboy would simply have pocketed his honorarium and hopped on the next college co-ed.

: -- Dirk

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