Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: disney, film, harrison ford, indiana jones, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

James Mangold Explains Why the We Needed to Revisit Indiana Jones

The director of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is offering his take on why Indiana Jones and the fourth installment struggled.

The last time we saw Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, audiences were generally impressed with the revival of the franchise, even amassing nearly $800 million during its theatrical run. However, the film's own leading actor recently admitted it wasn't his favorite note to end on, leading to the upcoming film helmed by director James Mangold, who, as it turns out, had a few less-than-positive thoughts as well.

Why Indiana Jones 5 Director Believes the Prior Film Failed to Connect

During a new interview with i09, the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director divulges, "You have this kind of [Erich Wolfgang] Korngold-esque score by John Williams that's just taking that home. The cinematography is noir-ish and extravagant. And the hero is wearing a fedora and emerging from shadows. Okay. So those three pictures work within that context. But now, suddenly, as we jump forward in time, what happens? The world goes through a period of modernism, and suddenly Indiana Jones—that music, that look—isn't what the world is."

The director of the fifth entry goes on to clarify, "[The world is] listening to Elvis Presley in the Crystal Skull context and in ours to the Beatles [and] the Stones. So how do you convert? And these were the questions when I came on the movie I was thinking about: 'How do we make a movie that maintains what we love about Indy but is aware that it may not be a perfect fit in this other time?' And that may be some of what they struggled with in the last picture—it's almost like someone showed up for a '40s picture, but the movie's in the '50s. There's this kind of dissonance, and what I thought is, 'We should make that dissonance a character of the film.'"

At the moment, the upcoming film hasn't achieved the most positive reputation with critics (so far), but that doesn't suggest that returning fans of Indiana Jones won't be satisfied with Harrison Ford's last appearance.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives in theaters on June 30, 2023.

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