October
14
Paging Dr. Jones; Ford Wants to play Indy and Jack Ryan Again
Lucasfilm has launched an unusual promo for today's DVD release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Here's the Lucasfilm marketing memo:
Greetings, On behalf of our promotional partner Papa John's, I wanted to make sure you received the news about their fun "Indiana Jones" promotion to celebrate today's DVD and Blu-Ray release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." It offers a free Papa John's pizza to anyone in the United States named "Dr. Jones" -- and if they live in Indiana, they'll get a DVD, as well!
Also promoting the DVD is Moviefone, which posts a Harrison Ford Q & A complete with confession that 1) he's not necessarily passing the fedora to Shia LaBeouf just yet, and 2) he'd love to do another Tom Clancy sequel. Hear that, Paramount? They replaced Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan with Ford, then replaced Ford with a much younger Ben Affleck. That series is stalled under current management and is in need of a major recharge.
Recently I watched the ultimate Jack Ryan movie, The Hunt for Red October, with pleasure for the nth time. Every time it comes on cable, I can't help myself. What is it about this movie that makes me so happy? Director John McTiernan is in his prime, with DP Jan DeBont at his side; the script by Larry Ferguson and Donald Stewart is crisp. The actors--Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sean Connery, Sam Neill, Stellan Skarsgard--are all in top form.
I asked Glenn at the W party about Red October. He beamed, because it's one of his fave roles too, maybe his best. He told me how he followed a submarine captain around for a while and decided to base the entire character on him: glasses, subdued manner, everything. "Maybe the movie is about bringing out the best in these characters," he said.
Hmmm. There is something satisfying about how these men are really good at their jobs, listen to each other, and act optimistically, in the hope that the other side will do the right thing. These are people you can rely on.
Any theories?
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A film like "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" needs all the promotional pushing it can get. What a shame ... a lost opportunity and proof some sequels exist solely for the bottom line.
Posted by: Christian Toto | October 14, 2008 at 02:19 PM
I think what made Red October great was the fact that the film relied on Baldwin being intelligent, yet not superhuman. It was the first time that we humanized the Russians. The most tension filled moments were filled with dialogue and quick thinking and not with guns and bullets (although the Chef was pretty cool). The movie evenly set up the Russians as much as it did the Americans. Too many times they were played like cloned cartoon nazis (see Rocky IV). When we see Neil die in Connery's arms with the "I always wanted to see Montana"... we like that.
Ford in the October role would have been wrong, mostly because we see him as Dr. Jones ready to kill the "pure evil" infront of him. Ford almost redeems himself from not getting the Jack Ryan role in October by playing a Russian in the forgettable but not horrible K-19.
This actually flows into the Crystal Skull dilema. The Communist were cartoon characters. If Lucas would have just told us that they were a secret remaining Nazi cult, I wouldn't have blinked. Maybe Lucas/Spielberg should have taken a page from the Epstein's more than the Hanna's on their last one.
Posted by: SeanH | October 14, 2008 at 03:27 PM
The Crystal Skull was a major disappointment. Indiana Jones and ALIENS???
George Lucas sure knows how to crap up a franchise. Spielberg should never had given in to him.
Yeah, and the Commies were out of place in this film too even if it were the "fifties".
I agree. I could have accepted a bunch of Nazis that just wouldn't let it go over the Commies. Weird isn't it?
Lucas shouldn't be a part of ANY Indiana Jones film any more. Like Star Wars, he's determined to ruin it.
Posted by: Jerry | October 14, 2008 at 04:33 PM
I agree with Sean above that what makes "The Hunt for Red October" satisfying in the end was the full respect given characters on both sides of the conflict, esp. the Connery/Russian submarine captain. In a sense all these men were trapped in a game not of their choosing, but charged with winning nonetheless, even if a "victory" in a nuclear conflict is very questionable. The nerve they displayed in living up to the split-second challenges they faced revealed the depth of their courage and their livelong commitment to their nation(s).
When it comes to thinking about "rebooting" the Jack Ryan series, I think you have to ask what books Clancy has written in recent years reach this level of drama. As time goes by, he seems to have become less and less interested in the realism that once was his stock in trade, and more and more intent on imposing his geopolitical vision on his readers.
Posted by: Kit Stolz | October 15, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Great post as well Kit Stolz. October was much more than any spy thriller than Clancy's other airport bookstore impulse buys.
Posted by: SeanH | October 19, 2008 at 08:36 PM