Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Turns 30

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom turns 30 years old this weekend. Some movie houses in larger cities are commemorating the release of the film by showing it all Memorial Day Weekend. Temple of Doom is both compelling and repelling, and accomplishment in its own right. The movie is dark, conceived at a time when both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were going through divorces which may have played into the sometimes frightening tone of the film. Spielberg later apologized for some of the aspects of of the film which led to the category of PG-13 being created. Child slavery isn't a very popular topic and TOD displays the oppression in spades. Critics pretty much wrote scathing reviews of the movie because the subject matter is sometimes hard to watch let alone enjoy.

But other than the seemingly non-stop Kate Capshaw screaming which gets on my nerves, I kind of like the film. It is daring and definitely brings a counterpoint to the comic book hero stylings of Indiana Jones. Sometimes going against the grain isn't always a bad thing.