Essay about Indiana Jones

Submitted By lovebug1899
Words: 2255
Pages: 10

Indiana Jones

Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., usually nicknamed as "Indy" for short, is the main character of the Indiana Jonesfranchise. George Lucas created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials. The character first appeared in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, to be followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles from 1992 to 1996, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. Alongside the more widely known films and television programs, the character is also featured in novels, comics, video games, and other media. Jones is also featured in the Disney theme park attraction, Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland which also exists in a similar form at Tokyo DisneySea.
Jones is most famously played by Harrison Ford and has also been portrayed by River Phoenix (as the young Jones in The Last Crusade) and in the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles by Corey Carrier, Sean Patrick Flanery, and George Hall.Doug Lee has supplied Jones's voice to two LucasArts video games, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, while David Esch supplied his voice to Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb and John Armstrong in Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.
Particularly notable facets of the character include his iconic look (bullwhip, fedora, and leather jacket), sense of humor, supposedly deep knowledge of many ancient civilizations and languages, and fear of snakes.
Since his first appearance in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has become a worldwide star and remains one of cinema's most revered film characters. In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked him as the second greatest film hero of all time. He was also named the 6th Greatest Movie Character by Empire magazine. Entertainment Weekly ranked Indy 2nd on their list of The All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture. Premiere magazine also placed Indy at number 7 on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. On their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked Indy at number 10.

In his role as a college professor of archaeology, Henry Jones Jr. is scholarly and learned in a tweed suit, lecturing on ancient civilizations. In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it is revealed that Jones is influenced by the Marxist Archaeologist, Vere Gordon Childe, whose qualified acceptance of cultural diffusionism theory he propounds. Ironically, though Childe loathes fieldwork,[29] Indy goes on to say, "If you want to be a good archaeologist, you gotta get out of the library." This is in tongue-in-cheek contrast to the previous film's comment, "Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library."
However, at the opportunity to recover important artifacts, Dr. Jones transforms into "Indiana," a "non-superhero superhero" image he has concocted for himself.[30] Producer Frank Marshall said, "Indy [is] a fallible character. He makes mistakes and gets hurt. [...] That's the other thing people like: He's a real character, not a character with superpowers."[31] Spielberg said there "was the willingness to allow our leading man to get hurt and to express his pain and to get his mad out and to take pratfalls and sometimes be the butt of his own jokes. I mean, Indiana Jones is not a perfect hero, and his imperfections, I think, make the audience feel that, with a little more exercise and a little more courage, they could be just like him."[32] According to Spielberg biographer Douglas Brode, Indiana created his heroic figure so as to escape the dullness of teaching at a school. Both of Indiana's personas reject one another in philosophy, creating a duality.[30] Harrison Ford said the fun of playing the character was because Indiana is both a romantic and a cynic,[33] while scholars have analyzed Indiana as having traits