George Lucas talked about why INDIANA JONES movies have power in Hollywood

Indiana Jones is one of the most loved movie franchises of all time. Movies are fun, adventurous, exciting and thank you great John Williams, have one of the greatest soundtracks in the history of cinema. A co-creator of the Indiana Jones stories is Star Wars Creator Giorgio Lucaand over a decade ago, just before the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Lucas sat down with Vanity Fair to reveal why he believed in Indiana Jones the films had such a following and such stamina for movie buffs.

He started by talking about the realism of the character’s injuries and stunts in the movies:

“It’s one of the few times the hero gets beaten and he looks like he’s been beaten too, and it actually continues the film with the battered look. Suddenly the next day he didn’t come out: “Oh yeah, my broken neck, my broken nose, it’s all fixed now, nothing like a good night’s sleep.” … One of the reasons we do a lot of stunt work is that someone did it and someone survived.

He went on to talk about the mythology behind each story:

“We just had to create a good story and tell it well, and yes, it’s an action movie, but it’s important to us that there is a real supernatural mystery going on. Only Indiana Jones movies are supernatural crime movies. They are always chasing some supernatural object. It is not a fake object. It’s not something we made up. It is something that really exists, or that people believe it exists, whether it exists or not is up for debate. But for every person who says, “I don’t believe it,” there’s another person who says, “Well, I believe it. I’ve heard of it and I’ve seen it, ‘and there are stories. Even with the ark. lost, when we did, there were always people saying, “People will think it’s Noah’s Ark, people don’t know what it is,” but there is information emerging around it.

He added that the same kind of story rooted with a pushed element was also the basis for the story Jaws:

“It was the same with Steven [Spielberg] with Jaws. They said, ‘Let’s make this a 30 foot shark.’ He said: ‘There is no 30 foot shark. They caught a 21-foot shark. We will turn him into a 24 foot shark. ‘ Here’s where the difference lies. We try to keep it in the realm of reality, but stretch it a bit to make it more interesting and have more fun. And besides, it’s based on some kind of true mythology that exists that people really believe in. Shankara Stones was a bit of a course, [laughs] but in Asia it is not. As many people believe in the Shankara stones as they believe in the Holy Grail. This is only Western, Eastern audiences. But it’s the same with the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail has mythical connotations, various powers have been attributed to it, but nothing very specific. So we had a moment where we would do it and we turned it down, and we thought it best to add some sort of healing property to it, to give it something to hold on to, which was alluded to in the story of the Holy Grail. ” .

So even though the films have supernatural elements, the basics of reality in the stories and characters are a big element in why they have been successful and have remained a staple in movie buffs’ libraries for generations.

While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull did not go as well as the first three films, I think fans are confident that Indy’s next adventure, which is very likely Harrison FordThe last one will be as good and fun as the originals. We will find out next summer when Indiana Jones 5 will be released in theaters on June 30, 2023.