Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 30 years already!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in the United States on 1984, May the 23rd (30 years ago this friday!) and in France on 1984, September the 12th.

In the Indiana Jones series, The Temple of Doom holds a special place in my heart. I was 13 years and a half when it was released in France (yeah I was still counting the half-years at 13 years old, so what? :) ), and I had recently discovered the pleasure of sountracks with Return of the Jedi, which my parents had bought me. I had already seen Return of the Jedi in the meantime, my first Star Wars (well my first "Guerre des Etoiles" as it was named in France) in the theater. The next step? This peculiar archeologist played, as Han Solo, by Harrison Ford (dubbed as in Star Wars by the immensely talented Francis Lax!), and supervised by George Lucas.

It was a tough call, since the movie was forbidden for those who were less than 13. Let's be reminded that it was for this movie that was created the PG-13 rating in the US, which is still in use today (my dear John Carter was rated PG-13). The rating wasn't abusive. Apart from the crawling insects (those aren't cakes), the low savory dishes (monkey brain in sorbet, surprise snake), we saw a man having his heart ripped away with bare hands... I loved from beginning to end this mix of horror and humor! I loved it even more than Return of the Jedi!

Back home I had only one demand: that my father bought the record! The music of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the first vinyl disc that I bought with my own money.

It's thus that sitting before my stereo, headset jack on my ears, I was dreaming about the further adventures of the archeologist, invented by my own imagination with the help of the cues. I remember in particular an "Indiana Jones meets Gremlins" for which I had begun a little comic book...

All that to say that still today, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is my favorite in the saga. It's the only one that doesn't try to be Raiders of the Lost Ark! It's in this one that is featured THE iconic vision iconique of the character according to me: