There are many legitimate reasons to eye-roll at the news that a fifth Indiana Jones movie is in the works. The fourth Indiana Jones movie, for a start (2008’s The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which Shia LaBeouf was not the worst thing).
General franchise fatigue, for another: do we ever need a fifth instalment of anything? Surely Ford, Steven Spielberg (returning to direct) and Kathleen Kennedy (who’s produced these movies and Star Wars) have enough cash in the bank already?
Yet the bulk of the backlash to the announcement instead concerned Ford’s age: 73 at the moment, 77 when the movie will be released in late summer 2019. The Noël Cowards of social media were swift to deploy their finest:
— Josh (@MushfaceComics) March 15, 2016Indiana Jones and the Hip Replacement of Doom
— Traci Oshiro (@TreTre0) March 15, 2016@jaredbkeller Indiana Jones and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
— Jess Camacho (@CamachoJess) March 15, 2016Indiana Jones and That Time His Computer Wouldn't Start So He Called His Grandson
— Brian (@BrianNeedsaNap) March 15, 2016Indiana Jones and the Last Werther's Original
— The 57th State ℅EF™ (@EF517_V2) March 15, 2016Indiana Jones and the Temple of Incontinence #NewIndianaJonesMovieTitles
It’s possible younger models to whom Ford will pass the baton are yet to be announced, but what seems clear is that this is not Indiana Jones: Origins – the route Disney are going down with their planned young Han Solo movie. Instead we will have Ford back, centre-screen, peering through a magnifying glass and hoping to get the better of anyone who holds nefarious intent for whatever long-buried treasure.
All of this can be done just as easily at 77 as 37. Indeed, it could also be achieved at 87. Just as academia is not a young person’s game, neither is archeology.
Granted, Indy is an action franchise, but its appeal isn’t really rooted in extraordinary stuntwork by its leading man. Rather, it lies in Ford’s grizzled charisma, a large part of which involves being reluctant to whip off his top to display unnaturally pumped ageing pecs (unlike fellow geriaction heroes Arnie, Sly and Sean Penn).
We love Ford for his slow, sly grin and his easy loping; for his faint, distrait air of not wanting to be there. He forever gives the wearied impression of not desiring to fritter his time away on this kind of claptrap – always an inherently elderly attribute, even when he was young. If Ford is back on board, one has faith in the project – a trust he risked squandering with Crystal Skull, but rebuilt in fine style with The Force Awakens.
But the social-media scoffing also belies a basic misapprehension about how the world works – borne, perhaps, from a desire among millenials to feel they are wresting agency away from their elders – as well as common-or-garden prejudice.
No-one questions the return of Spielberg, who’ll be at least 70 by the time they shoot. Yet of course with insurance and stuntmen, the lot of the director is likely to be far more physically taxing than that of his leading man.
And no-one seems to have noticed that the main news story in America this year concerns a showdown between a 68-year-old, a 69-year-old and a 74-year-old, all of whom are vying for a job that will consume the next four years – perhaps eight.
So maybe among the young, who pride themselves on their inclusivity, such ageism does not, in fact, extend to politics.
Cause for celebration? Perhaps. But this also means that the real seed of its determined emergence over the past day in reaction to the idea of a man approaching 80 cutting the mustard on-screen is simple vanity. And that is yet more depressing.
View all comments >
comments
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion.
This discussion is closed for comments.
We’re doing some maintenance right now. You can still read comments, but please come back later to add your own.
Commenting has been disabled for this account (why?)