This great question of our age, whether Indiana Jones in some sense expresses a subtextual opinion on the nature of women and the treatment to be accorded them, has since been informed by the addition of another
data point. This quest was upended again in the less-than-memorable
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Here Indy there are
two women in the world with whom Indy must contend, and so there must be two sociomythic representations folded within them.
First, breaking new ground in the series, the
main villain in
Crystal Skull was a woman.
The Last Crusade's
Else Schneider was, to be sure, allied with
decidedly the wrong side -- and paid for it as the
genre demands -- but ended up being no more than a semi-sympathetic lesser
villain, but was at the same time the
love interest. She was, naturally, never the one to be calling the shots. But
Crystal Skull's 'Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko' (lovingly crafted by
Cate Blanchett, who came up with the sharp brunette bob) works up the evil
Soviet archaeologist angle into a
S&M reminiscent screamingly subdued lather. Interestingly, film producer Frank Marshall (who has, without fanfare, assisted with the production of most of Spielberg's films, including all of the Indiana Jones installments), characterized the appropriateness of Spalko's character with the observation, "Indy always has a love-hate relationship with every woman he ever comes in contact with."
*
We know that Spalko is
evil by the fact that she is first introduced directing that Indiana (and another disposable character who will not hereafter be mentioned) be removed from the
trunk of a car, into which we immediately know she had directed he be put. She has kidnapped the good Doctor Jones so that he may lead her to an apparently poorly secured top secret government warehouse (the one where the
Ark of the Covenant was stashed at the end of the original film), so as to acquire one of the film's namesake crystal skulls. Spalko's characterization is at the same time sexualized and sexless. She shows no romantic interest in any other character, and yet carries herself as every bit the
dominatrix.
Indy escape's the bad woman's grasp (and that of her
hench-
muscle), but his escapades get him in trouble with
McCarthyist types back east, getting him booted from his teaching job. It is now that we learn that Indy's
father is dead, putting him momentarily alone and adrift amongst Freudian archetypes, a man who has lost his father, and has no son. Presently, Indiana is approached by a
Shia LaBeouf (too steeped in
Even Stevens to ever really be taken seriously as an actioneer), playing biker-type 'Mutt' Williams. Mutt informs Indy that an old friend of both, Harold Oxley, has been kidnapped following his finding of another crystal skull in the mountains of Peru. And, as added incentive, Mutt's own mother 'Mary' has been nabbed as well. Here is another interesting aspect of the Indiana Jones films, with our hero regularly being called into action as much by the search for a missing person or by a grudge against an identified evil as by the central
artifact itself. Naturally, this 'Mary Williams' talk is all a great feint, as we all know by now that we are reunited with the first Indy gal to appear on screen,
Marion Ravenwood. She is referred to by son Mutt -- who naturally, turns out to be Indy's heretofore unknown
offspring -- by her married name -- and why anybody would choose to go through life as 'Mary Williams' instead of the more dashing 'Marion Ravenwood'.... well, there is perhaps something to the
anonymity of mundanity. But here it all serves as a setup for the
reveal.
The logistics of this circumstance are disposed of through quick (and argumentative) exposition; sometime between
Raiders and
Last Crusade, Indy disappears a week before their planned wedding -- for noble reasons, naturally, fearing that his dangerous lifestyle would hamstring any hope of marital bliss. Marion discovers herself
pregnant with an unknowning Indy's baby, and sees the natural option to be marrying the next guy who comes along -- a standup RAF pilot named Colin Williams -- who is then conveniently killed in
World War II, leaving Marion to apparently yearn in celibacy for the next decade and a half (while Indy continued, we know, to sow wild oats). At least, it appears that we are to take things this way, the mad missing professor Oxley having then essentially acted as a surrogate father to Mutt, but without acting as a surrogate husband to Marion. Other critics have noted that Indy now gets to be a
dad without doing any of the child-rearing work, but also escapes being a
cad because he didn't know of his
fatherhood.
There are paternity hints in abundance. Indiana, you may recall from
Last Crusade, chose the name of the family dog over Henry, Jr.; 'Mutt' is a kind of dog (and the character's real name, it turns out, is Henry). As to the divergent feminine in this film, oddly enough the 'adventure gals' have no direct battle between the female leads. In a sense, this may be deemed complimentary to the sensibility of gender equality, for Spalko's swordfighting duel is between herself and Mutt. There is, one may surmise, a generational distinction going on here, with Spalko surely being much younger than Ravenwood. But in the end -- if the film is to be taken as a commentary on the legitimacy of female roles -- Spalko is punished for being the woman who wishes to know too much by having her brain overloaded with
alien knowledge; while Ravenwood is rewarded for spending those many years as the stay-at-home mom by getting
her grail -- pinning down the elusive Doctor Jones in
matrimony.
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*Breznican, Anthony (2007-12-09). "First look: Whip cracks over new 'Indiana Jones' movie". USA Today.
Afterthought:
Rumors abound that a fifth film in the series is in the works, and will bring back not only Doctor Jones, but wife Marion and son Mutt. At this point in the
mythology, such inclusions are of absolute necessity, for a second split between Indy and Marion would be an unthinkable assault on the inviolability of marriage between heroic figures. Naturally, not so for the Hollywood side of the equation. Spielberg, Lucas, Ford are all divorcees on their second or third wife. The character of Indiana Jones was named after Lucas' first wife's dog, but after the divorce the press materials were changed to claim it was Lucas' dog.
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FERRASSIC