Comments on: Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Moundbuilders (Big Time Spoiler Alert)

By: JCG

JCG — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:54:38 +0000

I had read that the idea of aliens in the film was Lucas’s, and that both Spielberg and Ford were opposed. The inclusion of the aliens was apparently part of a compromise that allowed the film to be made at all.

To be fair, some films suggest lots of Western accomplishments came from outside, too; I recall, for instance, in Independence Day that Will Smith was told that many modern innovations such as the microchip came from reverse-engineering a crashed flying saucer, which must make the TI engineers so proud!

But I wish they’d left the aliens out.

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:29:11 +0000

I was wondering, and pardon my ignorance…

I have been reading about crystal skulls and they seemed to be related to the Mayan history. It seemed odd to me that the skulls appear in the Amazon’s as supposed to Guatemala/Mexico jungle.

Is there some kind of relationship?

By: Gina

Gina — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:37:48 +0000

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! My daughter (anthro grad -with a film minor- as of last week) and I both were floored at the racist overtones of the plot. I kept hoping the end would show that Russian lady that there was indeed another answer – and that they would show some amazing native technology that would prove her wrong.

By: Bryan Alexander

Bryan Alexander — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:10:46 +0000

Agreed on the racism. Did you note the classic racist parallel of incests and despised people, too? (Ants and locals scared by skull in same way)

I was wondering about the poor locals who took the time to immure themselves in traps.

US schools did fire some faculty in the 1950s, to our shame. Ellen Schrecker did great work on this score.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:41:30 +0000

I thought it was funny that he learned Quechua in Mexico with Pancho Villa’s crew and was speaking Mayan and crawling around in Mayan pyramids in the Amazon.