Seems the same for me Mel. My Dad got me hooked on these movies. I do have to say my fav out of all of them was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! Gives me the warm fuzzies LOL!
I love Indiana Jones, and I do not 100%ly hate the Temple of Doom...but, to be honest, that actually was the least favorite of them all for me, and it was not just because they used the Cult of Thuggee as the main bad guys.
The Temple of Doom was seen as nothing more than just a little bit of entertainment for me, I had a REALLY hard time trying to tell myself "it is just fiction, the writers are not being prejudiced." I was personally really disgusted at how they portrayed another culture in such a negative light (I.e., eyeball soup, monkey-brains, etc.). I think that if the movie tried to do more to clarify the fact that it was just a few bad guys and not all Kali devouts, it would have been better. As much as I hate to be critical of a movie that someone loves, I just think that if they made a movie where all of the Jews were killing non-Jews and portrayed as sadistic and malicious in the process, the movie would be considered anti-semitic. They made Shiva into the equivalent of God almighty and Kali worshipers into some Satanic cult. At first I was going to dismiss everything going on until I heard one of the boys say that Kali's blood was used to brainwash people and that he prayed to Shiva to be protected from a malicious Kali. The scene when the Prince was using voodoo just sealed the coffin.
I suppose my over all disgust with it is the reaction that it provoked. Ever since this movie, it forever confirmed the negative stereotype that the West has on Kali (wasn't the biased Britannica definition of her and the colonial propaganda enough?). No non-Pagan Westerner that I have crossed (other than online) actually know the distinction between the Cult of Thuggee, and your everyday Kali devotee - if they know anything about the deity at all. Even more, a several of those people generalized it just because of that movie. I mean...I have to be very careful on who I talk to about my faith because that movie more or less set the stereotype of how the common person portrays it. I would hope that most people here would know that I would -never-, ever do any of the stuff in the movie. I can actually understand why they had to do it in Sri Lanka - India actually banned the movie from being made there; I think they also banned the movie from showing in the country period just because of how insensitive the movie was to their culture. It would be like trying to film a movie on Dracula being a devil in Romania.
I respect everyone's opinions and preferences, do not get me wrong. I am not belittling anyone for them. I just wanted to confirm why that movie was probably one of the least favorites for me.
But on a positive note, George Lucas 'redeemed' himself when he did the Star Wars movie and I really do look forward to the new Indiana Jones movie. Hopefully, him and Steven Spielberg learned from Temple of Doom and will at least be a little more mindful of how they try to portray another culture. In the movie King Arthur, there were Christians who were bad, sure, but Arthur himself was the epitome of your good Christian paladin to counter that. It is my hope that people try to be more mindful when they are doing fiction based on history or real life societies. It makes me sound like a pro political correctness figure, and it is not my intent at all, but with today's society, it seems no one is going to know anything unless a movie shows them. So again, maybe it is just my over all disgust at the reactions at these types of movies.
Ugh...I am sorry if I ranted through most of the post. I just have some reservations (well, not so reserved anymore, LOL) on the Temple of Doom.
Sincerely,
ResplendentSeraphim
"Please do not spam me. I am a vegetarian." --Me
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