Brilliant piece Morgoth and far too close to home. Your "Indi" timeloop parallels mine with an even bigger, yet still ultimately and deliberately butchered franchise.
The first two films my dad took me to the cinema to see were Close Encounters of The Third Kind and Star Wars. As a five year old boy, I was awestruck by both. I believe these two films literally formed part of my psyche, not just my childhood innocence. Unlike Dinosaurs and aeroplanes, I never grew out of my nascent fascination of space, and the idea of "are we alone."
By the time the final trilogy rolled around, me and 5 long-term friends were still religiously meeting up to see each decaying husk, usually on the opening night. However, by the time of the last episode in 2017, I'd been thoroughly blackpilled in the outside world and was just going through the motions. I went in cynical and boy did "they" not disappoint. Ignoring the awkward relics of Luke and Han (the latter being my Indiana Jones fantasy), every character in the evil Empire was still a white male. Yet in the Rebellion, you had to descend down the power structure to one-line starfighter pilots before you encountered anything but ethnics and in your face feminists, or both! I left the cinema sickened, the bastards had deliberately set out to destroy a fundamental part of my childhood.
The only time I've truly felt lost in fantasy in a cinema since then was the Top Gun reboot. Yes, it was cheesy and a bit camp, but for two hours I'd completely forgotten about the dystopian illusion our people have been incarcerated in outside the walls of that cinema.
It's a story as familiar by now as any hackneyed plot arc: beloved franchise gets disinterred from the vault to be ritually paraded about by grave robbers who see in the relics nothing sacred or magical, but know the rubes in the audience do, and therefore can be humiliated by the sacrilege. It's reminiscent of the way the commies in the Spanish civil war would dig up the graves of priests and nuns in order to desecrate their memories and thereby demoralize the peasants, or the way ancient armies would break the idol's of a city's gods after sacking it.
Like you, I'm simply numb to the whole thing. It's simply become an expected feature of the culture at this point. The trauma of it is two-fold: there's the desecration of cherished childhood memories, yes; but also the disillusionment of realizing that those entertainments were poisoned from the beginning. It was a sweeter poison than the bitter brew served up now, to be sure, but poison nonetheless. We're left with next to nothing to hold on to.
It's interesting however to compare the vast and indifferent shrug that greeted this stinker with the rage that welcomed the Rings of Power. I suspect it's because Tolkien's corpus, as one of the very few bodies of work that has survived the great disillusionment, still retains its sacred character.
" This, however, is problematic when you’re aware that politics and ethnic interests were baked into the form from the start"
This was one of the more disheartening things to learn when I first got "redpilled". Going back and watching old movies and shows "before everything got woke" made me realize that the agenda had been there all along, they were just more subtle about it.
TV and film have always been about literal mind control: the creation of an alternate yet plausible reality that you can fill with straw men. The fictional world looks different from the real, with gays having long term monogamous relationships, blacks that are not criminals but just downtrodden people due to racism, Nazis were just unapologetically evil and just hated Jews for no good reason at all, etc.
For example, It's kind of sad that most people's view of WWII is informed by the alternate realities posited in Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List
Brilliant nutshell definition of the modern as the essentially 'disenchanted' - with all that that ancient word implies; the old 'enchanted' world, being (conversely) one shot through with mystery, wonder, hierarchy and love, be it sacred or profane. You talk about the brutal power of rationalism and empiricism and perhaps you'd agree that the mind given over more or less exclusively to such analytical functions renders itself incapable of love. In this connection, one never thinks of technocrats in the same vein as 'love'. Who can imagine Yuval Harari or Klaus Schwab in love? - or adoring anything or anyone? It's just not what such people do - because in love you have to surrender power (!). - As for Phoebe Waller-Bridge-Builder, some heroically stubborn masculine part of me refused (even when badgered half-to-death) to watch her revisionist feminist Fleabag: "oh but it's so clever and honest and not the usual feminist stuff!" Meh.... And so it has proven: that once admitted, the Trojan Horse of FWB's new feminism has spilled out its vicious forces and wrought the ruination of every 'holy' mainstream fantasy. Not satisfied with castrating Bond (already way down the road to Eunuch-hood under Daniel Craig's stewardship [shame because he was a good actor once 'Our friends in the North', 'Enduring Love', etc]) she then takes Indiana's whip and wraps his knackers up in it. More fool Harrison Ford - and anyone still entrusting any modern actors with the stewardship of anything even remotely important. Indeed, for actor read apparatchik. Well, thanks for another great piece, Morgoth, your anatomy of spiritual melancholy is luminous and rich indeed.
Spot on, Morgoth. Brilliant analysis. You articulated my half-baked, inchoate thoughts precisely, and made me pleasantly remember a wonderful thing. I also remember, though, even as a nine-year-old lad (I spent my childhood just north of you in Edinburgh), being disappointed by the second film. Raiders of the Lost Ark seemed to me to be perfection somehow. Temple of Doom, from the start, was forced and artificial in a way its progenitor was not. I think what absolutely ruined the second film, other than its forced pseudo-humanitarianism (Indy saving the poor brown kids from that village), even or especially as a child, was that awful woman and the irritating Chinese kid. It's heresy in some circles, I know, but I think this downward trajectory parallels the awful introduction, in Empire Strikes Back, of the forced love interest between Han and Leia and the insufferable Yoda and his faux oriental wisdom. Temple of Doom is to Raiders what Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars. The final fights redeem them somewhat, but not fully.
Somewhat different topic but after looking up the cast and seeing the female lead (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), this film reminded me of another trend in Hollywood: the casting of odd looking and even downright ugly women in roles that used to be filled by stunning beauties.
"An ancient Harrison Ford is being berated by a woman who looks like a lesbian CEO of some London-based PR company." Hahaha, that made me laugh out loud, great stuff mate. It truly is disheartening though how they not only destroy our modern myths and touchstones, but conditioned up to not even care when they do. I definitely feel that was intentional.
I'm also glad to see you address the elephant in the room in regards to the JQ and Indiana Jones, very profound how you go into the Nazi's being a threat because they understood the mythical and were modern yet not entirely empirical like the Brits and Americans. An old bar that you miss but don't like the twat land owner is very much how I feel about a lot of media I grew up with only to learn such harsh truths about as well. You really are a gift to our kind, keep up the great work and don't ever let them get you down, Cheers.
Excellent essay! Just rewatched the first and third of these with our youngest son(24) who hasn’t seen them since he was little. They really are vastly entertaining. The second is the weakest and my husband wanted to skip it. We went to the movies to see the Crystal Skull when it came out years ago, that was dreadful,but not as bad as this. I hate the trope in movies where a brave and proud woman has a baby and hides his son from a man whose character is such that no matter how inconvenient having a child is, he would take responsibility. They used it in one of the Star Trek movies too, in exactly the same way, but it makes more sense if you are a famous biologist working across the galaxy than an itinerant adventuress who could really use a little help with the kid.
I am a fan of the weird fiction from the same time period which you describe so well here, the tension between the enchanted and disenchanted, the 30’s were the last time there were exotic, unexplored worlds. Lovecraft and Robert Howard and many others mined that fertile mountain of the imagination.
WW2 left little unexplored and ushered in our progressively disenchanted world.
I never found that scene of the warehouse unnerving, I always took it as a heavily ironic joke, it had something in common with MASH & Catch 22. Concerning Indiana Jones and the Feminist of Doom, maybe no reaction is the best reaction, ignore them and they might give up.
I always viewed the ending of Raiders in a more positive tone, maybe that was just my childhood optimism interpreting things in the best light. I thought the bureaucrats hiding away the Ark actually did understand what they were dealing with, and like Indy with Holy Grail in later films were wise enough to "let it go". In a more innocent age I could imagine a powerful but wise "good shepherd" hidden in our government who deliberately chose to hide away the mystical weapon rather than trying to research/harness its powers.
Or to quote Proverbs "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The Ark at the end has found a new desert in which to be safely hidden away.
I finally sat down to give the original trilogy a chance since both you and Endeavour posted about it.
I’m pushing 40 but somehow avoided Indiana Jones growing up. I remember catching parts of it in the background of my childhood but never sat through the whole thing proper.
I couldn’t make it 45 minutes through Raiders of the Lost Ark. As soon as I saw “Nazi’s bad” themes I just pictured Spielberg rubbing his hands in the directors seat.
There’s a recent movie based loosely on Spielberg’s childhood which I also only caught parts of. In it, a small jewish boy is bullied by athletic White jocks in 1950/60’s California, etc. etc. I’m sure you can guess the rest.
I just can’t be bothered with it, even if it’s classic stuff from yesteryear and I’m glad indifference toward this repackages stuff is setting in.
Honestly though, another reason I won't watch Dial and didn't watch Crystal Skull (and have stopped watching Clint Eastwood as an actor) was that I don't want my heroes to get old. People get old, I'm old now, but my heroes shouldn't...my Luke Skywalker is forever a 20 year old boy, Indiana Jones should always be a mature man, Marion should always be hot and sassy. There is a limited window of time for an actor to play a role. It's why I don't hate recasting a character, if its done wisely and well. There have been many men cast as James Bond, some more successfully than others, but they were all James Bond (again, in theory). It's why Batman isn't tied to any single actor, neither is Superman.
There is a time to let things end, let Indiana Jones die. Long live Indiana Jones.
Brilliant piece Morgoth and far too close to home. Your "Indi" timeloop parallels mine with an even bigger, yet still ultimately and deliberately butchered franchise.
The first two films my dad took me to the cinema to see were Close Encounters of The Third Kind and Star Wars. As a five year old boy, I was awestruck by both. I believe these two films literally formed part of my psyche, not just my childhood innocence. Unlike Dinosaurs and aeroplanes, I never grew out of my nascent fascination of space, and the idea of "are we alone."
By the time the final trilogy rolled around, me and 5 long-term friends were still religiously meeting up to see each decaying husk, usually on the opening night. However, by the time of the last episode in 2017, I'd been thoroughly blackpilled in the outside world and was just going through the motions. I went in cynical and boy did "they" not disappoint. Ignoring the awkward relics of Luke and Han (the latter being my Indiana Jones fantasy), every character in the evil Empire was still a white male. Yet in the Rebellion, you had to descend down the power structure to one-line starfighter pilots before you encountered anything but ethnics and in your face feminists, or both! I left the cinema sickened, the bastards had deliberately set out to destroy a fundamental part of my childhood.
The only time I've truly felt lost in fantasy in a cinema since then was the Top Gun reboot. Yes, it was cheesy and a bit camp, but for two hours I'd completely forgotten about the dystopian illusion our people have been incarcerated in outside the walls of that cinema.
Endeavour did a video on this too. Which is surprising because I assumed nobody cared. I guess now we care about not caring.
https://royalendeavour.substack.com/p/indiana-jones-and-the-curse-of-the
It's a story as familiar by now as any hackneyed plot arc: beloved franchise gets disinterred from the vault to be ritually paraded about by grave robbers who see in the relics nothing sacred or magical, but know the rubes in the audience do, and therefore can be humiliated by the sacrilege. It's reminiscent of the way the commies in the Spanish civil war would dig up the graves of priests and nuns in order to desecrate their memories and thereby demoralize the peasants, or the way ancient armies would break the idol's of a city's gods after sacking it.
Like you, I'm simply numb to the whole thing. It's simply become an expected feature of the culture at this point. The trauma of it is two-fold: there's the desecration of cherished childhood memories, yes; but also the disillusionment of realizing that those entertainments were poisoned from the beginning. It was a sweeter poison than the bitter brew served up now, to be sure, but poison nonetheless. We're left with next to nothing to hold on to.
It's interesting however to compare the vast and indifferent shrug that greeted this stinker with the rage that welcomed the Rings of Power. I suspect it's because Tolkien's corpus, as one of the very few bodies of work that has survived the great disillusionment, still retains its sacred character.
" This, however, is problematic when you’re aware that politics and ethnic interests were baked into the form from the start"
This was one of the more disheartening things to learn when I first got "redpilled". Going back and watching old movies and shows "before everything got woke" made me realize that the agenda had been there all along, they were just more subtle about it.
TV and film have always been about literal mind control: the creation of an alternate yet plausible reality that you can fill with straw men. The fictional world looks different from the real, with gays having long term monogamous relationships, blacks that are not criminals but just downtrodden people due to racism, Nazis were just unapologetically evil and just hated Jews for no good reason at all, etc.
For example, It's kind of sad that most people's view of WWII is informed by the alternate realities posited in Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List
I always wanted the baddies to win.
Brilliant nutshell definition of the modern as the essentially 'disenchanted' - with all that that ancient word implies; the old 'enchanted' world, being (conversely) one shot through with mystery, wonder, hierarchy and love, be it sacred or profane. You talk about the brutal power of rationalism and empiricism and perhaps you'd agree that the mind given over more or less exclusively to such analytical functions renders itself incapable of love. In this connection, one never thinks of technocrats in the same vein as 'love'. Who can imagine Yuval Harari or Klaus Schwab in love? - or adoring anything or anyone? It's just not what such people do - because in love you have to surrender power (!). - As for Phoebe Waller-Bridge-Builder, some heroically stubborn masculine part of me refused (even when badgered half-to-death) to watch her revisionist feminist Fleabag: "oh but it's so clever and honest and not the usual feminist stuff!" Meh.... And so it has proven: that once admitted, the Trojan Horse of FWB's new feminism has spilled out its vicious forces and wrought the ruination of every 'holy' mainstream fantasy. Not satisfied with castrating Bond (already way down the road to Eunuch-hood under Daniel Craig's stewardship [shame because he was a good actor once 'Our friends in the North', 'Enduring Love', etc]) she then takes Indiana's whip and wraps his knackers up in it. More fool Harrison Ford - and anyone still entrusting any modern actors with the stewardship of anything even remotely important. Indeed, for actor read apparatchik. Well, thanks for another great piece, Morgoth, your anatomy of spiritual melancholy is luminous and rich indeed.
Spot on, Morgoth. Brilliant analysis. You articulated my half-baked, inchoate thoughts precisely, and made me pleasantly remember a wonderful thing. I also remember, though, even as a nine-year-old lad (I spent my childhood just north of you in Edinburgh), being disappointed by the second film. Raiders of the Lost Ark seemed to me to be perfection somehow. Temple of Doom, from the start, was forced and artificial in a way its progenitor was not. I think what absolutely ruined the second film, other than its forced pseudo-humanitarianism (Indy saving the poor brown kids from that village), even or especially as a child, was that awful woman and the irritating Chinese kid. It's heresy in some circles, I know, but I think this downward trajectory parallels the awful introduction, in Empire Strikes Back, of the forced love interest between Han and Leia and the insufferable Yoda and his faux oriental wisdom. Temple of Doom is to Raiders what Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars. The final fights redeem them somewhat, but not fully.
Somewhat different topic but after looking up the cast and seeing the female lead (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), this film reminded me of another trend in Hollywood: the casting of odd looking and even downright ugly women in roles that used to be filled by stunning beauties.
"An ancient Harrison Ford is being berated by a woman who looks like a lesbian CEO of some London-based PR company." Hahaha, that made me laugh out loud, great stuff mate. It truly is disheartening though how they not only destroy our modern myths and touchstones, but conditioned up to not even care when they do. I definitely feel that was intentional.
I'm also glad to see you address the elephant in the room in regards to the JQ and Indiana Jones, very profound how you go into the Nazi's being a threat because they understood the mythical and were modern yet not entirely empirical like the Brits and Americans. An old bar that you miss but don't like the twat land owner is very much how I feel about a lot of media I grew up with only to learn such harsh truths about as well. You really are a gift to our kind, keep up the great work and don't ever let them get you down, Cheers.
Excellent essay! Just rewatched the first and third of these with our youngest son(24) who hasn’t seen them since he was little. They really are vastly entertaining. The second is the weakest and my husband wanted to skip it. We went to the movies to see the Crystal Skull when it came out years ago, that was dreadful,but not as bad as this. I hate the trope in movies where a brave and proud woman has a baby and hides his son from a man whose character is such that no matter how inconvenient having a child is, he would take responsibility. They used it in one of the Star Trek movies too, in exactly the same way, but it makes more sense if you are a famous biologist working across the galaxy than an itinerant adventuress who could really use a little help with the kid.
I am a fan of the weird fiction from the same time period which you describe so well here, the tension between the enchanted and disenchanted, the 30’s were the last time there were exotic, unexplored worlds. Lovecraft and Robert Howard and many others mined that fertile mountain of the imagination.
WW2 left little unexplored and ushered in our progressively disenchanted world.
I never found that scene of the warehouse unnerving, I always took it as a heavily ironic joke, it had something in common with MASH & Catch 22. Concerning Indiana Jones and the Feminist of Doom, maybe no reaction is the best reaction, ignore them and they might give up.
Another excellent article Morgoth!
I always viewed the ending of Raiders in a more positive tone, maybe that was just my childhood optimism interpreting things in the best light. I thought the bureaucrats hiding away the Ark actually did understand what they were dealing with, and like Indy with Holy Grail in later films were wise enough to "let it go". In a more innocent age I could imagine a powerful but wise "good shepherd" hidden in our government who deliberately chose to hide away the mystical weapon rather than trying to research/harness its powers.
Or to quote Proverbs "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The Ark at the end has found a new desert in which to be safely hidden away.
Another great piece of writing. You're a good audio podcast creator, but a GREAT writer sir.
I finally sat down to give the original trilogy a chance since both you and Endeavour posted about it.
I’m pushing 40 but somehow avoided Indiana Jones growing up. I remember catching parts of it in the background of my childhood but never sat through the whole thing proper.
I couldn’t make it 45 minutes through Raiders of the Lost Ark. As soon as I saw “Nazi’s bad” themes I just pictured Spielberg rubbing his hands in the directors seat.
There’s a recent movie based loosely on Spielberg’s childhood which I also only caught parts of. In it, a small jewish boy is bullied by athletic White jocks in 1950/60’s California, etc. etc. I’m sure you can guess the rest.
I just can’t be bothered with it, even if it’s classic stuff from yesteryear and I’m glad indifference toward this repackages stuff is setting in.
"Morgoth, whatever you do.... DON'T LOOK AT IT!!!!"
I agree strongly with you, my man.
Honestly though, another reason I won't watch Dial and didn't watch Crystal Skull (and have stopped watching Clint Eastwood as an actor) was that I don't want my heroes to get old. People get old, I'm old now, but my heroes shouldn't...my Luke Skywalker is forever a 20 year old boy, Indiana Jones should always be a mature man, Marion should always be hot and sassy. There is a limited window of time for an actor to play a role. It's why I don't hate recasting a character, if its done wisely and well. There have been many men cast as James Bond, some more successfully than others, but they were all James Bond (again, in theory). It's why Batman isn't tied to any single actor, neither is Superman.
There is a time to let things end, let Indiana Jones die. Long live Indiana Jones.