the swan song of the mythical franchise, without Spielberg but directed by a James Mangold in the nails

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Screened out of competition at Cannes, Indiana Jones’ fifth and latest opus is happily hitting the screens.

More than forty years separate The Raiders of the Lost Ark of IIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which comes out Wednesday, June 28. The first has not aged a bit, and this fifth film in the franchise is a variation on the passage of time, with a Harrison Ford who has played it since 1980. Si Georges Lucas, is still in production (via Disney) , Steven Spielberg handed over to James Mangold (Le Mans 66, Logan) to do it.

Serial

In 1969, Dr. Henri Jones was about to retire from his chair of archeology at Hunter College in New York. It is then that his goddaughter Helena Shaw visits him by surprise, in search of a relic entrusted to him by his father. She wants to recover Archimedes’ dial, which would make it possible to locate temporal cracks in the universe. Deposited in the college archives, it is stolen by the young woman who wants to sell it to the highest bidder. Professor Jones then becomes Indiana Jones again for the last time on a journey to the four corners of the world, confronted with neo-Nazis on his trail.

What a joy to find this prince of discoverers, scholar in archeology and ancient treasures, shameless adventurer and heartbreaker at times. Lucas and Spielberg designed Indiana Jones with James Bond and Tintin in mind (The broken ear) while wanting to rediscover the spirit of the serials of the 1940s, films with episodes screened before the great films of the time. They found in 1980 an epic breath, just as Lucas had already done with Star Wars (1977), itself inspired by Flash Gordonother serial.

Sundial

At the realization of dial of destinyJames Mangold can hardly stray from the charter IndianaJones. The director follows the specifications in the order of the conventions, with his trapped crypts, his belligerent adversary (here judiciously entrusted to Mads Mikkelsen), a child, Marion, and resurrected Nazis from the first and third opuses. It’s all pretty well put together, except for a bloated first part of car chases, fights and machine gun battles, before magical archeology takes over.

The longest film in the franchise (2h34), it’s the first part that suffers because of the overly developed action scenes. The scenario completely abandons the mystery to take up the thread only in the second part. Film on time, its action on the hero is perceptible, even touching. Flashbacks and Antiquity with Archimedes are part of this, the relationship between the past and the present being the raison d’être of archaeology. We feel the potential handover with the new heroine that could be Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), the goddaughter of Jones, armed with other finery than the hat, the jacket and the lasso of Indiana Jones. We can already imagine the screenwriters at work.

The sheet

Gender : Adventures
Director: James Mangold
Actors: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones
Country : UNITED STATES
Duration : 2h34
Exit : June 28, 2023
Distributer : Walt Disney Company France

Summary: 1969. After spending more than ten years teaching at Hunter College in New York, the esteemed Dr. Jones, professor of archeology, is about to retire and live out his days of peace. Everything changes after the surprise visit of his goddaughter Helena Shaw, who is in search of a rare artifact that her father entrusted to Indy years before: the famous Archimedes dial, a relic which would have the power to locate the cracks temporal. As an accomplished con artist, Helena steals the object and leaves the country in a hurry to sell it to the highest bidder. Indy has no choice but to chase after him. He takes out his Fedora and his leather jacket for a last trip…


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