Today’s enemy is tomorrow’s camp villain

Having recently had the misfortune of paying money to see the mess that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I got to thinking about movie villains. The original trilogy (which was great...well apart from Temple of Doom) were all set in period just prior to World War 2. The villains in these three films were unsurprisingly Nazi's.



But these were Nazi's that had been filtered through the shimmering lens of Hollywood and puked onto the silver screen a gross caricature of the disgraceful reality. Sure they had the goose-stepping and the black uniforms with the skulls on them, but every time they did their "Hail Hitler" salute you almost expected them to turn it into an "I'm a little tea pot " recital. These were fun family films after all and they needed a fun family villain. Parents don't want to bring their kids to a movie and then have to try and explain the horrors of the holocaust to their cute little frightened minds. No, no, no... no holochaust in Indy land, just the silly accents and being chopped up by propellor blades, thank you.

So, years later Steven Spielberg had a bit of a serious change of style and attitude toward the events of World War 2 and showed in stark contrast to his previous representation of Nazi's, a more accurate and frightening truth. In both Shindler's List and, to some extent Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg conveyed a brutal reality. And vowed never to show Nazi's in such a fluffy light again.

Trouble is, his old buddy George Lucas hasn't had an original idea since 1983 and keeps bangin on Steve's door with the "I've already exhausted my other original idea to death, lets drag Harrison Ford back into his Fedora!" line. "But Harrison's really old now and I don't do fun Nazi's anymore!" comes his muffled reply. "Hang on!?" Spielberg, exclaims, "I've got it, the solution, those dirty...Commies!!!"



So, here's my point. How long is it before enemies of the American people are viewed as, retrospectively by Hollywood, caricature villains? The Soviet's who posed a clear and present danger at the time and had committed incredible acts of genocide, just like the Nazi's, are now passed this threshold it appears. Let's ignore movies like Dr. Strangelove and Spies Like Us for the minute because this doesn't really work otherwise.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed in 1989 and set in 1938, a 51 year difference, enough time period to have Nazi's as bad (but not as bad as they really were) bad guys. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was shot in 2008 and set in 1957, again a 51 year Silly Soviet buffer.

Does this mean that poor old Harrison Ford will be dragged out of the retirement home at the ripe old age of 116 for Indiana Jones and the AL-Qaeda Scrolls? I kinda hope so. It's comforting, at least, to know that all enemies no matter how threatening they seem at the time, will either be victorious or represented in Hollywood film as caricature.


I've recently moved my blog to myspace