"Are you trying to develop a sense of humor or am I deaf?"  -- Indiana Jones

     "Antidote...  to the poison you just drank...  the poison works fast...  you kill the girl, I'll find another...  -- unsavory character Laoche

     "Game's not over, antidote!"  -- Indy

     "Too much to drink, Dr. Jones? (laughing)"  -- unsavory character

     So begins the second installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, an ornate production incorporating ingenius plot elements with insidious abandon and passionate set pieces.  The film opens with a sublime scene in a nightclub in the Orient.  The opening credit montage is bubbly Busby Berkley-style cabaret dancing. 

     The hero of the story is Indiana Jones, a talented archeologist.  He is trading an artifact from the Manchu dynasty for a priceless diamond with some unsavory characters.  Prior to this epic trade, the unsavory mobsters attempted to acquire the artifact with disastrous results.  Dr. Jones, also referred to as "Indy," injured the hand of one of the members of this crime family.  The artifact that caused such a stir is the remains of Nurhachi, the first emperor of the Manchu dynasty.  The urn is being bartered for the shiny diamond at a round, revolving table.

     A melee occurs in the nightclub when Indiana is poisoned by Laoche, the patriarch of the crime family.  "Indy" throws a shishkabob stake right through the heart of the gunman.  The chase for the diamond, which gets mixed in with a huge bucket of ice cubes spilled on the floor, rivals the search for the antidote which has been thrown across the room.  Willie Scott, the perky love interest (a luminous Kate Capshaw), conceals the antidote in her brazierre while searching for the priceless diamond that she probably wants for a wedding ring.

     A tommy gun is introduced and an ornate, oversized gong obscures Indy from the encroaching bullets.  Indy and Willie make their valiant escape out a window and land in the backseat of a vintage car driven by a slim kid, Short Round.  Director Steven Spielberg turns action cliches on their ear by having the couple of newly introduced characters fall through a few stories of business curtains before they land in the getaway vehicle.  Indy gropes at Willie because he is looking for the antidote to the poison that is taking effect.

     The always dependable Dan Aykroyd plays a helper of Indy's who shows the good doctor to his getaway cargo airplane.  The plane is full of chickens.  Indy (Harrison Ford) closes the door to the plane as he bids farewell to the mobsters who just arrived at the airport runway.  Unfortunately as the door closes it reads in bold letters, "LAOCHE."  The mobster owns the plane and his henchmen are the pilots.

     The couple and the kid have to ditch the unmanned plane on an airfloat and this leads to an exhilirating water rapids scene.  This sequence is as exhilarating as the coal mine railroad set piece toward the end of the film.  The heroes of the story arrive in India and are greeted by a Hindu villager who has troubles of his own in his peaceful village.

     Children are being used as workers in the coal mines of a nearby Kali-worshipping hideout.  Kali is the goddess of destruction.  The almost pagan ritual practitioners have stolen a magic stone from the nearby village of the kind elder who offers Indy, Willie, and Short Round food which is in short supply.

     When our heroes venture on elephant toward the worshippers' palace they notice bats, which frighten the gullible Willie.  An ornate feast is offered and much of the food is not that appetizing.  Monkey brains... yummy!

     The Kali ritual is a viscerally exciting and potently scored sequence. Amrish Puri plays the insidious villain of the story with much strength and glee.  Crocodiles also make their way into the story and deliver a punch of poetic justice -- when a rickety rope bridge has broken over the rivers of the Ganges.   

Tags: Film Review

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