Monday, May 19, 2008

Indiana Jones and our Vanished Attention Spans

In the Washington Post article Indiana Jones and the Meaningless Void, Hank Stuever strives in vain to find ultimate meaning in the Indiana Jones movies:

"He's changed (thicker torso, craggier face) and we've changed (vanished attention spans, deadened senses). He's 60-something now, and we all think we're 23... Perhaps it was only ever about the fedora. Indiana Jones wasn't about anything, except the triumph of brown leather jackets, and the way men felt wearing them on their adventuresome, tiresome Casual Fridays....Every office still has that guy who thinks he looks great in a fedora."

Why am I reminded of some of the more recent  pseudo-Christian John Eldridge books? And what were/are the Indy movies ultimately all about? What movies are generally about: escapism. Fun. Like Spielberg and Lucas have said it since 1981: All we wanted to do was have fun. I'll look forward to seeing it eventually.

No comments: