- Title
- 'I came to find my father": Indiana Jones and the quest for the lost father
- Creator
- Wight, Linda
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- Text; Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/179179
- Identifier
- vital:15600
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781476676920
- Abstract
- “I came to find my father”Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Lost Father Linda Wight Numerous commentators have observed the pervasive concern with father- son relationships in the films of Steven Spielberg. Lester D. Friedman writes, “No matter the genre, father figures—good and bad, dependable and unreliable, genetic and assumed—pervade Spielberg’s movies” (95). Spielberg has been particularly noted for his repeated depiction of “psychologically and emotionally lost boys” and “missing, consumed, distant, or malevolent father figures” (34), a pattern often attributed to Spielberg’s own well-publicized troubled relationship with his emotionally distant father (34). Father- son relationships are a feature of each of the Indiana Jones films,though it is in the third and fourth installments that the quest for father- son reconciliation takes thematic primacy. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy’s seduction of the teenage Marion is framed as a betrayal of her father, Abner, who loved Indy “like a son,” while Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom positions Indy as surrogate father to eleven- year-old Short Round and the Indian children whom he frees from a Thuggee cult. The later films expand on these concerns. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade explores the adolescent rebellion implied by Indy’s betrayal of Abner in Raiders, attributing Indy’s immaturity and search for surrogate father figures to the emotional neglect of his bio-logical father, Henry Jones. Last Crusade emphasizes that a positive father-son relationship is crucial to both father and son’s achievement of a mature, well- rounded masculine identity. Thus, the quest for the Holy Grail becomes inextricably bound up with, and indeed secondary to, the quest for father-son reconciliation. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull again positions father- son reconciliation as crucial in the quest for a secure and respected masculine identity. Building upon his role as surrogate father in Temple of Doom, Indy discovers he has a biological son, “Mutt,” with Marion.
- Publisher
- McFarland & Company, Inc
- Relation
- Excavating Indiana Jones : essays on the films and franchise p. 114-125
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright McFarland
- Subject
- Archaeology in motion pictures; Jones, Indiana (Fictitious character); Indiana Jones films--History and criticism
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