Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review: Harrison Ford still packs a punch
The hat is back. His whip is back. His ophidiophobia – fear of snakes – is back. And in short, at the beginning of the film, his youth also begins.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny begins with Harrison Ford’s great adventurer fighting the pesky, marauding Nazis in war-torn Germany and – thanks to the anti-aging CGI used by Martin Scorsese in The Irishman – Ford rises miraculously young again.
But has director James Mangold also miraculously restored the youthful glory of Raiders of the Lost Ark to the franchise? No, but there are enough elements in this final installment that will surely catapult it above its poorly-reviewed predecessor, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Mangold stole many popular Indy tropes and put them into his film. First up, of course, is Harrison Ford. Age may have withered him, but he’s still a charismatic lead and he still looks like he can pull it off.
There are Nazis; a sweet little orphan boy; a feisty Girl Friday, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge); a sexy enemy, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and a literal but brave professor (Toby Stephens). There are red lines marking routes on a map, familiar faces from previous adventures, and an absurd story that takes us on a crazy ride from Nazi Germany to 1960s New York, Tangiers and Syracuse.
And when I say crazy ride, I’m not kidding. Indiana Jones spends a lot of time jumping on and off a train, boat, horse, tuk-tuk, or Fiat 500. There is no means of transport that he does not use to fight or hunt down Nazis.
All of this is accompanied by the well-known Indiana theme and it’s often the music that drives the film through these unrelenting action sequences. Friends and foes are taken care of before we even get to know them, and everyone is a would-be killer.
Although this film is set in the late 1960s, when men landed on the moon and David Bowie was on the radio, it seems like a nod to the past. Waller-Bridge looks the same: in jodhpurs and a bob, she looks like Katherine Hepburn in her prime.
She’s also brought a bit of Fleabag fame with her: no handsome man can escape her attention, her eyebrows raised like a sexual antenna when one enters her orbit.
Unlike a Hepburn-Grant screwball comedy, however, the film lacks any real bells and whistles, the script is often clunky and frankly offensive, and at one point Indy says, “You’re German, Voller.” Don’t try to be funny to be. The screenplay (by Mangold and Jez Butterworth) does get some big laughs though.
Still, it would be rude to be too harsh in the final installment of this franchise. There are some really moving scenes as we see this fantastic character finally getting ready to hang up his hat for the last time. Thanks Indy, it’s been quite a ride.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny screened at the 76th Cannes Film Festival; The UK release date is June 28th
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-review-harrison-ford-phoebe-waller-bridge-b1082225.html Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review: Harrison Ford still packs a punch
