Note: Please be warned that the following article contains mean remarks towards Caucasian people, including calling them "evil white people". This, by no means, is an attempt to insult or jeer any Caucasian people. It is just a remark to emphasis how culture imperialism has had a negative impact towards people of colour. It just happens that cultural imperialism only occurs with white people. Please don't cancel me for this 10 years later. I actually love this series.
Hello. I just finished watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I have quite a few things to say. Mainly negative. Overall, in its primary purpose of entertainment, it has excelled in every way. The narrative, direction, the engagement and overall feeling are way ahead of its time, and for god’s sake Harrison Ford. I told myself not to fangirl Harrison Ford in this piece of article because this is not the place or time to do it, but yeah Harrison Ford. He truly is Indiana Jones. He embodies the coolness and charm of the archaeology professor + adventurer. With Dr Jones and his fangirls, that scene was amazing and I could not stop smiling. The glasses enhance the entire look. Ok, I will stop. Even Karen Allen as Marion, she is magnetic and refreshing and her character is pretty well-written. She can live without Indy (HE brought her into all this trouble she was fine on her own her introductory scene says it all) but she also makes a great companion for him. Although Marion can not be seen as his equal, she is also smart and daring like Indy. I really love that for her.
Ok now that I’ve finished talking about the good parts of this film, let’s start ranting, shall we? First of all, Marion did not need to wear that stupid white dress and that stupid sexy nightgown. It was entirely unnecessary and the stylistic choice was only to downplay her as an object. You see, I don’t have any problem with the inherent male gaze. Actually, as a female woman watching this film, I am very satisfied with the amount of Harrison Ford in unbuttoned shirts. Might as well make a compilation of that. The Dr Jones scene was clearly indicating the desirable nature of Indy (hence his fangirls), and the first two acts contain a lot of scenes with Indy in his half-unbuttoned button-down shirts. In act 3 when he was in the Nazi base, and in the wound-caring scene, we even get to see a shirtless Indiana Jones. And him putting his shirt back on. The half-nakedness was astonishing, and I was completely content with this large amount of female gaze-ish scenes. (Got sidetracked sorry.) Those scenes were fine because they were necessary. You would expect Indiana Jones not to have time fulling buttoning his shirt. It is hot out there. You would also not wear a shirt when you have a wound on your arm. I fully respect that. I do. But what I DON’T understand, is to have Marion, the only female character, to wear a long dress and a nightgown in Egypt while being kidnapped. The film clearly indicated that Marion was semi-forced to wear that white dress, and she had TIME to change back into her regular, non-sexy clothes. If Indy is not in his undies, why is Marion still in her nightgown? The only truly valid explanation is to objectify Marion. Do not think for a second that I am an angry feminist who only wants to see men with shirts off but not with women, I mean that we need to be logical and sensible with these things here. This does not make sense at all. Marion’s character is not the hot blonde Bond girl type, she did not exist only to be Indy’s love interest. Even if she did, the writers did a damn good job not making her look like one. But she did NOT HAVE TO WEAR LONG DRESSES FOR 60% OF THE FILM! THIS IS THE MIDDLE EAST NOT AMERICA! It was highly unnecessary. I hate it. Even with Slave Leia, it was logical as Jabba is a pervert and likes all alien girls in slave costumes. But I’m pretty sure that Nazis would let a hostage wear something a hostage would wear, like rags or military potato sags. Unacceptable.
The second and even more problematic thing apparent in the entire concept of Indiana Jones is obviously cultural imperialism. The film made it obvious that this is about Americans vs Nazis from Germany, and yes Americans always win. But if you think about it, this is just a bunch of white people going against some more white people in a land that belongs to Egyptians and Nepalis. These white people should take their fights back to their own countries and not disturb the people and property of other nations. You see, both Indiana Jones and the Nazis are trying to get the Ark by force and through “raiding” the place. The only difference between these two forces are their motives, one for “educational purposes and putting the good stuff in a museum”, and the other one for the Führer. Now I don’t know about diplomacies in the 1930s, but I’m pretty sure that this is not how you respectfully ask a country to lend you a piece of their history for “educational purposes”. You are stealing national treasures from weaker countries and causing massive disruption to their people and property. This is not even the white saviour complex, this is white people vs more white people and ignoring other non-white people existing. This causes damage to societies and civilizations. Indiana Jones even killed the weird sword fighting dude in Egypt and got away with it. He blatantly killed a local man, and they were not even fighting. I am mad about the blatant cultural imperialism in Indiana Jones. Take your stuff from other people respectfully. Do not steal from people of colour and throw it around to other white people just because you’re a different kind of white people.
Indy got away with his crap because he is a white, hot professor from America. He got lucky because the Nazis got the Ark first and killed themselves. He should’ve been the one that’s killed. This entire thing is a farce. As a far-left woman of colour, I don’t like it when people glorify historical white people stealing stuff from other people and treating women like crap. My argument extends to the evil British Museum and Kylie Jenner’s cultural appropriation. In conclusion, I will watch all 4 Indiana Jones and wait for the 5th one patiently, but until then, Indiana Jones should not steal from other people.
P.S. I am a fan of the third Indy because it is about travelling to Europe and there is no cultural imperialism. I hate the second one with a burning passion.
#InHerOwnWrite