Indy is back, justifiably old and weary, drawn into the usual tumult of travel, adventure and clashes (with the Nazis) of younger generations. There are honors and winks, there is fan service, not everything fits, but in the end the film makes sense: the only possible thing. The Review of Indiana Jones and Federico Gironi’s Quadrant of Destiny.
Alright, well, here’s the prologue. This prologue with Harrison Ford digitally tapered in which Indiana Jones still struggling with artifacts and Nazis: We are in the Swiss Alps, the year is 1944, Hitler is losing the war and his followers want to offer him – meager consolation. the spear of Longinus. Which is more typical of McGuffin, as the prologue only serves to introduce the actual exhibit (as well as the real McGuffin), the Destiny Quadrant designed and built by Archimedes (The correct name is “Antikythera Machine”) and the villain of the day, played by a Nazi Mads Mikkelsen.
After the prologue, pretty funny and too hectic, that’s it Magical Mystery Tour shot at full volume by a neighbor, wakes older Indy with a start: It’s New York, and it’s 1969, the day after the moon landing (and after the beatles you hear that David Bowie From “Space Oddity”that came out this year.
Here then is the film of James Mangold slowly begins to reveal its cards, not only that of the obvious homage to the previous chapters, but also that of repeatedly winking at the fans of the series, or what the youth of today call “Fan Service”.
Between a thousand repetitive (and somewhat repetitive) car chases, between horseback rides on the New York subway and tuk-tuk rides down the back streets of Tangier, between dives in the moray eel-infested Aegean and exploring the Ear of Dionysus (eg. B. near Syracuse). those who did not study because their grandmother was ill), Because “Indiana Jones and the Quadrant of Destiny” already tells us everything there is to say in the first scene of 1969: Namely that its protagonist is a now tired and old hero who simply retires and wins back a lost love , and who is instead forced to wake up from his somewhat depressed torpor and spring back into action after the havoc the new generations are wreaking.
Where to embody the new generations (even the viewers) is then Phoebe Waller-Briges Helena: someone who initially seems unsuitable as an (anti-)action heroine, but then convinces with his inimitable irony.
As soon as Professor Jones wakes up, it begins the well-known sarabande of journeys, chases, clashes. And here, too, the film’s cards show themselves: Because there are not only clashes with the villains, with the Nazis, who already in 1969 want the other half of the quadrant to go back in time and undo the outcome of the Second World War, but also that between Indy and Helena, a new generation obsessed with money (and therefore revenue) and tending to be somewhat selfish, even if they later learn the value of altruism and experience, which is not a trivial value.
We can say that Mangold’s film works quite well, more or less until our heroes arrive in Syracuse straight from the Greek sea; From Syracuse, however, it takes on a slope that’s a little too odd, which seems to portend the worst. An even worse thing that also seems to happen – also given the abundance of CGI that had previously peeked out here and there – when something happens that I’ll never write, even under torture, that almost seems like the most classic of leaps shark
And instead, Indiana Jones and the Quadrant of Fate works its magic just as you’re about to get your hands in your hair.
I won’t go into too much detail, though Again, as in the beginning, Mangold’s film takes on meaning, the only possible meaning, and tells us about an Indiana Jones who knows full well that he belongs to the past and who continues to be drawn into the present by the new generation Helena , this time not for money, but for sincere affection. An affection that is of course his, but also – and above all ours.
So much so that Mangold has now opened doors and windows to let in his most sentimental winds, We are frankly touched by a final encounter that will close a circle, a path, an era, and even, we hope, a saga, putting Indiana Jones in charge, in his time, in his future off the screen but inside brings back a house and a love story.
“Where doesn’t it hurt you?”
“Here”.
And tears in my eyes.