Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 38 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

After my last couple Film at 11 podcast episodes, I needed an easy win that I knew my son would enjoy. I’d previously watched Raiders of the Lost Ark with Joseph back in Episode 21, and he was such a fan of it he dressed up as Indiana Jones for Halloween this year. Following up with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was practically a gimme, and sure enough, he was thrilled by this one just as much.

I grew up with Temple of Doom and love it for a lot of reasons, even as adult in me recognizes that it’s by far the weakest of the original three Indy movies. Part of me wants to nit-pick it to pieces, while the rest of me tells that part to shut up and just enjoy the damn movie. Ultimately, the latter half won out. Both Joseph and I had a really good time with this viewing.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) - Ke Huy Quan & Kate Capshaw
Title:Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Year of Release: 1984
Director: Steven Spielberg
Watched On: Blu-ray
Also Available On: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Amazon Prime Video
Paramount+
Fubo
Roku Channel
Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

The Blu-ray

I reviewed the 4K Ultra HD edition of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom a couple years ago (linked below). However, as I did when I rewatched Raiders of the Lost Ark for the podcast, I made a deliberate decision to return to the older Blu-ray edition from 2012 for this viewing. I own that Blu-ray as part of a handsome four-film box set called Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures that I imported from the UK (and which is not so complete in retrospect, lacking the later-made Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). I knew my son wouldn’t notice or care about the difference.

The video transfer on the Blu-ray is imperfect, but acceptably watchable. The 2.35:1 image is a little flat and perhaps overly-bright. Some colors (especially reds) look oversaturated and bloom. The picture shows signs of mild artificial sharpening and other digital manipulation, which leaves grain looking noisy. Much like the Raiders of the Lost Ark Blu-ray, this one was also given a noticeable yellow push in the color grading for some reason. I don’t find it strong enough to be objectionable, but I doubt it’s accurate to the movie’s original color timing, either.

In terms of video, the later 4K Ultra HD remaster is a legitimate improvement in some, perhaps many respects. However, it’s been just as digitally manipulated in others. If the Blu-ray has one notable advantage over it, the matte paintings and other optical composites stand out a slight bit less in 1080p than when exposed to the harsh clarity of 4K resolution.

Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray box set

The main reason I might prefer to watch the Blu-ray rather than the 4K Ultra HD edition is sound quality. I was very displeased with the Dolby Atmos remix on the 4K release, which had almost all the dynamic range flattened out of it. The prior DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the Blu-ray sounds at least somewhat better. The opening musical number is pretty robust, and the track in general has a moderate amount of bass – more than the Atmos version, anyway.

That said, unfortunately, I think the soundtracks for the first three Indiana Jones movies get worse every time they’re remastered, as the sound engineers keep futzing with them and applying every digital filter in their toolkits in an overzealous attempt to clean up and noise-reduce the hell out of the audio. The Blu-ray was already pretty far down the line in that process. This track may have slightly more bass than the Atmos remix, but punches, gunshots, and other sound effects that ought to hit with a nice thump still land rather weakly. The movie’s sound mix comes across as a loud cacophony that’s a little shrill and lacks depth.

For supplements, Temple of Doom includes only a couple trailers on the Blu-ray disc with the feature. An additional disc in the box set labeled “Bonus Features” offers further content encompassing the entire franchise up through Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The only item specific to Temple of Doom is a vintage hour-long making-of special. Other featurettes cover a host of topics including stunts, music, the characters, and so forth – all bridging multiple films.

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2 thoughts on “Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 38 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)”

  1. Temple of Doom was my intro to Indy. We saw it theatrically and the gross out lunch was the highlight for me as a kid. Did you really go trick or treating as The Dude? Don’t tell me you made the Mrs. go as Walter! Was Thomas influenced by any movies for his Halloween costume? I’m wondering for someone who’s new to the Indiana Jones movies, if watching the last two entries in closer proximity (time wise) to each other would influence their enjoyment compared to the original three. Do you plan on showing them the newer ones any time soon?

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    1. The Dude sweater is my default Halloween costume, but this year I was the one in the house who stayed home to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.

      I think Joseph and I will stop for a while after Last Crusade and not tackle the last two Indy movies until some time has passed, as they were made.

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