George Lucas Talked About Why the INDIANA JONES Movies Have Staying Power in Hollywood
Indiana Jones is one of the most beloved film franchises of all time. The films are fun, adventurous, exciting, and thanks to the great John Williams, have one of the great musical scores in film history. One co-creator of the Indiana Jones stories is Star Wars creator George Lucas, and over a decade ago, just ahead of the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Lucas sat down with Vanity Fair to reveal why he believed the Indiana Jones films had such a following and staying power for film fans.
He started out talking about the realism of the character’s injuries, and the stuntwork in the films:
“It’s one of the few times when the hero gets beat up and he also looked like he got beat up, and he actually continues through the movie looking beat up. He didn’t suddenly the next day come out, ‘Oh, yeah, my broken neck, my broken nose, that’s all fixed now, nothing like a good night’s sleep.’ … One of the reasons we do a lot of stunt work is, somebody did do it and somebody did survive it.”
He went on to talk about the mythology behind each story:
“We just had to make a good story and tell it well, and, yes, it’s an action movie, but it’s important for us that there’s a real supernatural mystery going on. Only Indiana Jones films are supernatural mystery movies. They’re always going after some supernatural object. It’s not a pretend object. It’s not something that we made up. It’s something that actually exists, or people believe exists—whether it does or not is in dispute. But for every person who says, ‘I don’t believe that,’ there’s another person who says, ‘Well, I believe it. I heard about it, and I saw it,’ and there’s stories. Even with the lost ark, when we did it, there were always people saying, ‘People are going to think it’s Noah’s Ark, people don’t know what that is,’ but there’s information that comes up around it.
He added that the same type of grounded story with one pushed element was also the basis for the story in Jaws:
“It was the same thing with Steven [Spielberg] with Jaws. They said, ‘Let’s make it a 30-foot shark.’ He said, ‘There is no such thing as a 30-foot shark. They have caught a 21-foot shark. We’ll make it a 24-foot shark.’ That’s where the difference is. We try to keep it within the realm of reality, but stretch it just a bit to make it more interesting and have more fun with it. And also, it’s based on some kind of real mythology that exists that people actually believe in. Shankara Stones was a bit of a reach, [laughs] but in Asia it’s not. As many people believe in the Shankara Stones as believe in the Holy Grail. That’s just Western, Eastern audience. But it’s the same thing with the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail has mythical connotations, has been ascribed with several powers, but nothing very specific. So we had a time when we were going to do it and we rejected it, and we thought we better add to it some sort of healing property, to give it something to grab onto—which have been alluded to in the history of the Holy Grail.”
So although the films have supernatural elements, the basis of realness in the stories and characters are a big element in the reason why they have succeeded and remained staples in the libraries of movie fans for generations.
While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn’t go over as well as the first three films, I think fans are hopeful that the next Indy adventure, which is most likely Harrison Ford’s last, will be as good and fun as the originals. We will find out next summer when Indiana Jones 5 hits theaters on on June 30, 2023.