My colleague Jack Butler typed a detailed review of the latest Indiana Jones movie that is almost completely correct. Butler is right to call out the film’s uninspired story, glaring plot holes, and its underemphasis on Indiana Jones, favoring his cheeky goddaughter, Helena Shaw. But his cynicism goes too far in parts.
Butler believes the movie’s treatment of regret and loss “feel forced and underexplored.” I respectfully disagree. The film’s most memorable scenes are those in which Indy laments the passage of time, the loss of loved ones, and the actions he wishes he had taken to save them, both literally and figuratively.
Case in point, when Shaw asks Indy what he would do with the Antikythera (the film’s time-traveling MacGuffin), Indy says he’d tell his son not to enlist in the Vietnam War. When Shaw asks what Indy would do differently to succeed in dissuading him, Indy replies that he would tell his son that he would die in combat, breaking his parents’ hearts and fracturing their marriage. As Indy walks away from Shaw, she notes aloud that he’s still wearing his wedding band.
(Okay, maybe this last remark by Shaw is a bit ham-fisted.)
Another poignant scene is the finale. (Spoilers follow.) A wounded Indy tells Shaw to leave him in the past — literally, during the Siege of Syracuse, circa 212 B.C. Indy feels he’s of no use to anyone in the present and is happy to succumb to his wounds watching history unfold in real time. Indy’s resignation comes across as neither melodramatic or “forced” but jaded and pitiable. Shaw promptly incapacitates Jones, somehow manages to drag him aboard an airplane, and spirits him away to the present.
When Jones awakens, he finds himself bandaged in bed with Shaw and his wife nearby. Incredulous to see Marion casually putting groceries away in his fridge, Indy asks her if she’s really back. Marion puts the same question to him. The answer? They’re both back, together, in spite of their shared tragedy.
Is The Dial of Destiny the best Indiana Jones movie? Absolutely not. Is it worth the price of admission? If you have Regal Unlimited and can see it for no extra cost other than the large popcorn and Pepsi slushy, absolutely. I’d argue it’s even worth full ticket price — especially if one isn’t seeing the film in New York City.
Despite its many shortcomings, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is an action-packed adventure with an incredible score and a perennial moral: In order to forge ahead in the present, one must let go of the past.