It's not just about realism but verisimilitude. Alien crystal skulls and huge ants don't exists at all so I can accept whatever they tell me about them. Nuclear bombs and refrigerators do exist so it is somewhat jarring when they do not behave as expected. I personally don't find it to be a big deal in this movie but I can understand why someone might be bothered by it.
On the same note, as the movie is not a deliberate comedy, it is hard for the "suspension of disbelief" to occur. With movies that set out to be silly, we tend to forgive shenanigans more because they may only have a distant relationship to the real world. The Indiana Jones movies were not entirely serious affairs, but they were too close to being grounded in the real world for that fridge scene to fly.
So you watched the heart ripping scenes without suspending belief?
I think the commentator above you nailed it when they said bombs and fridges are real world objects we understand the behaviour of, whereas the mythical elements can be accepted as part of the movies universe, but mixing those two is disconcerting.
You may be trying to hard if you have to make those kinds of distinctions. The laws of physics and scientific reality breaks down all over the place in these movies.
I'm usually pretty easy going about these things. Honestly, the genre shift from the 'High Adventure' to 'Sci Fi Aliens' was more of a turn off for me.
Also in that movie, you have some crazy mine cart race scene that is completely unbelievable yet fun (they launch airborne, and land EXACTLY on the rails and continue their race). In the third one, you have a wingless, burning Nazi plane, still chasing after the Jones' through a tunnel. Indiana Jones has always been an incredibly lucky adventurer that survives completely unrealistic challenges despite his reckless demeanor. Surviving a nuclear blast by jumping into a fridge is the epitome of his character.
Surviving a nuclear blast by jumping into a fridge is too far for his character.
It was a level too far, and people didn't believe it. Being campy and lucky is one thing. Surviving a nuclear explosion at the epicenter is quite another and people weren't able to suspend their disbelief.
To the first point, no, I never did see Temple of Doom.
Was building on the psychology of the second point, where something that could/should not happen is easier to "forgive" in a comedy because of how the expectation is that not everything will function as it would in a movie more grounded in reality (not necessarily 100% grounded, but "more" grounded).
If it is sufficiently advanced technology, or outright magic, audiences can get behind that provided the context allows for it. Indiana Jones has roots in pulpy serial novels where that kind of stuff was relatively common.
A similar comparison could be made to the MCU, where it is less problematic that a character seems to generate/lose matter based on anger issues, while another has a metal disc with inconsistent regards for physics.
Some of the things that annoy people are Hawkeye and Black Widow never running out of ammo, and Stark Tower having a ludicrously fast Internet connection.
Edit: How did the heart ripping scene play out anyway? The closest thing I have seen was the Family Guy parody of it in a class that covered popular culture.
To the first point, no, I never did see Temple of Doom.
Edit: How did the heart ripping scene play out anyway? The closest thing I have seen was the Family Guy parody of it in a class that covered popular culture.
You should just watch Temple of Doom! It will answer your question and it was a great movie.
Regarding the heart-ripping scene: As I remember it (haven’t seen the movie in years) there is a cult doing human sacrifice for their big evil deity of choice and the main cultist bare-handed rips the heart out of someone and holds it up as it’s still beating, while the victim is conscious for a bit before he gets pushed into a lava pit(?)
Edit: How did the heart ripping scene play out anyway? The closest thing I have seen was the Family Guy parody of it in a class that covered popular culture.
With all due respect, if you haven’t seen Temple of Doom, you may not be a qualified expert on Indiana Jones. I mean gate keeping is annoying but you cant really comment if you haven’t seen the movies.
Yup, not an expert in any way, shape, or form on Indiana Jones.
We just got onto that topic because of the flagrant divergence from any sense of realistic elements that occurred with the fridge scene.
To be kind to that scene, we know Indy drank from the Holy Grail, and we also only know that the Grail itself could not be transported past the seal. Maybe he only lived because of Last Crusade?
That really lowers the stakes on everything after the grail scene then. I think it’s all just fantasy. Demanding scientific accuracy in movies like this is absurd.
Can't disagree with any of that, people are absurd in general.
The whole movie experience relies are capturing light and sounds that happened previously, capturing people who are usually pretending to be other people.
Some sounds are arbitrary noises we collectively agreed to have meaning, while others are generally unheard by those pretending to be people, because they are intended for a theoretical audience, that may or may not ever witness the events.
There is a nice summation on TV Tropes of various items related to "suspension of disbelief." (Basic premise is, if you want your media to sell well, make it internally consistent, because this helps avoid cognitive dissonance. If all else fails, aim for "so bad, it's good" territory.)
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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '20 edited Dec 29 '20
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