INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, psychological*

CRUSADE is a frustrating finish to the eighties "Indiana Jones" trilogy. Whereas the first two films hewed closely to the idea of Jones as a tomb-raider who found supernatural life in the sanctums of dead memories, CRUSADE's mystic McGuffin, the Holy Grail, is a pile of inconsistent hogwash. 

On a DVD extra, director Steven Spielberg claimed that co-scripter George Lucas was fixated on the idea that the Grail-- an artifact produced by Celtic storytellers riffing on the Christian idea of communion-- ought to appear in CRUSADE. Supposedly Lucas also came up with the idea that the cup from the Last Supper could grant immortality to those who drank from it. This isn't consistent with any Grail myths I've encountered, but possibly Lucas and his collaborators could have jury-rigged some connection between the Grail's gift of immortality and some other Judeo-Christian myth, like that of the Wandering Jew. But not only did the writers of CRUSADE half-ass the concept of the Grail, they undercut the villains' reason for seeking the artifact by revealing at the climax that the bad guys could never have used the object in their quest for power in any way.

So the metaphysical value of CRUSADE is minimal at best. It's also undermined by Spielberg's conceit that the Indy-series was his take on the Cinematic James Bond, which led to a lot of mediocre sub-Bond scenes in CRUSADE (such as a tedious speedboat chase, in which a gang of killers, later revealed as "good guys," chase Indy and his female ally). The path to the Grail is entirely too easy, despite some de rigeur tomb-traps for the hero to solve, and the return of Nazis as the main villains only generates a few decent moments, both comic (Indy's encounter with Hitler) and adventurous (a decent but overlong scene with Indy fighting a tank full o' Nazis). However, the movie's saving mythopoeic grace is that it provides a psychological "origin" for Indiana Jones, in marked contrast to the first two films' silence about the hero's background.

Few heroes of adventure-serials had childhoods, but CRUSADE opens on a teen-aged Indiana (River Phoenix) on a Boy Scouts expedition in 1912 Utah. Young Indy witnesses a gang of tomb- raiders stealing a precious cross from an ancient burial site. Affronted by the theft, Indy steals the cross from the thieves and flees. The crooks, led by a whip-wielding fellow whose garments are a near-match for the later "look" of the mature Indy, give chase. The youth manages to reach the home he shares with his father, archaeologist Henry Jones (Sean Connery, though he's not "on camera" for the character's first appearance). Professor Jones is too engrossed in his intellectual obsession, the search for the Holy Grail, to listen to his son, and so does not even get involved when the villains-- who have convinced the local authorities that they are legitimate archaeologists-- reclaim the valuable cross. The leader of the robbers, billed only as "Fedora," gives Young Indy a consolation prize: his own fedora, which is implicitly the same hat that Mature Indy continues to wear throughout all later adventures. The mature hero is then seen in 1938-- the time of the film as a whole-- recovering the cross from the thieves' employer, though significantly, the roguish Fedora is not seen among the hero's 1938 opponents.

This prologue artfully encapsulates Indiana Jones' psychological dilemma without becoming over-explanatory. Though Indy shares his father's fascination with the archaic world, he also resents having been neglected by his father for the sake of research. (CRUSADE contains the only mention of Indy's unnamed mother, who has died of influenza by 1912 and whose absence presumably widens the gulf between father and son.) Since Professor Jones is, as Indy says later, a "bookworm" who never does research in the field, Indy rebels against his aloof father by becoming a globe-hopping adventurer who raids tombs rather than reading about them (though ironically in his one scene before his college class, Indy tells the students that most archaeology is done "in the library.") Indy never becomes a thief as such, though his appropriation of ancient artifacts is justified by contributing the items to academic scholarship, and he emulates Fedora as a means of forging his own identity. CRUSADE also reveals that Indy coined his own nickname after that of a prized pet dog, and this too was a way of distancing himself from his given name of "Henry Jr," and thus distancing himself from Professor Jones as well.

When 1938 Indy learns that a wealthy entrepreneur hired Professor Jones to seek the Grail in Venice (and later Turkey), the hero goes in quest of his missing father. Indy and his other father-substitute Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) journey to Italy and meet the professor's colleague Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody). After Indy and Elsa escape an assault for fanatics of a modern Grail-cult, the two of them pitch more than a little woo.

Indy and Elsa travel to Austria to rescue Professor Jones while Marcus travels to Turkey to seek the help of another RAIDERS luminary, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies). Indy learns that both Elsa and Donovan the entrepreneur are working for the Nazis. In due time the hero liberates his father from the villains, and Indy takes Professor Jones to join with their friends, and presumably to unearth the Grail before the bad guys get it.

In the many exploits that follow, Indy gets to be "the dad," shepherding his bookworm father through life-and-death situations, though once or twice Professor Jones manages to acquit himself by saving the day. Indeed, Connery plays so well against the "type" he established both before and after James Bond that Henry Jones Sr may well be Connery's best single performance, thanks to tapping his capacity for broad humor. One humorous moment is the revelation that Elsa slept with both men in her quest for information, though only Daddy Jones saw through her deception. But in the final scenes at the Temple of the Grail, both father and son get to show the depths of their feelings by rescuing one another from death, thus giving the audience the expected warm fuzzies-- though one never does learn just why Professor Jones was so obsessed with the Grail.

Though Elsa Schneider sides with the villains, she shares the Jones' obsession with archaic mysteries, making her loosely comparable with the similar figure of Rene Belloq in RAIDERS. But she also clearly falls for Indy to some extent, betraying Donovan in an end scene, though the allure for the archaic brings about her doom. One of CRUSADE's last lines has Professor Jones claims that he's achieved "illumination" as a result of his quest, but the line is so arranged that the audience knows he's referencing his newfound appreciation for his son's independence. Though both Joneses drink of the Grail's water, this incident proves the limits of the immortality-magic. Henry Sr is seen to have passed away in KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL and Henry Jr has clearly not become immortal in that film, much less in DIAL OF DESTINY, the film (as I have argued) does the most to build upon the psychological origins of Indiana Jones.

DAREDEVIL (2003)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, psychological*

Moviemaking is such a complex process that almost every film ever made represents at least one "road not taken." The 2003 DAREDEVIL, written and directed by Mark Stephen Johnson, probably never had any commercial alternative but to emulate the celebrated run of Frank Miller on the Marvel comic. But, as I'll note at review's end, the biggest road not taken was not so much Johnson's strategy of adaptation as the way his approach became sidelined in the 21st century's development of big-budget superhero films.

When I saw the film in theatrical release, I found that it compromised the Miller material by trying to cram too many developments into a movie of about 100 minutes. (A later-released "director's cut" was no improvement since it became bogged down in a side-plot, and so my review is only of the theatrical release.) On my recent re-watch, though, I found that Johnson had managed to give his version into a basic "hero's journey" structure, which, if not blindingly original, showed a better grasp of superheroes than many later productions.

In this film, the journey of blind lawyer Matt Murdock, a.k.a. the athletic Daredevil (Ben Affleck), progresses from the state of an unhappy, lonely vigilante to the ethos of a protective "guardian devil" of New York City. The psychology of the principal characters is never as elaborate as that of Miller, but Johnson does appreciate some of the darker undercurrents of the hero. Like Bruce Wayne reacting to the deaths of his parents, Daredevil fights crime in order to master the environment of evil which brought about the death of his boxer-father. To be sure, Johnson sets up his hero with the possibility of finding a specific killer, but this approach is dropped in favor of a more generalized crusade against crime. (This wouldn't be so much of a problem had the movie not ended with a showdown between the hero and the killer of his father.) Nevertheless, the blind lawyer-- who is capable of amazing athletic feats thanks to his super-senses-- doesn't get much satisfaction out of his crusade. The audience doesn't know how long Daredevil has been pursuing vengeance in the city, where most residents consider him a myth. However, the hero is seen as willing to kill for justice, or at least to let evildoers be slain by circumstance, as when he fails to rescue a rapist from the path of a subway train.

Murdock's conversations with his priest (with a name like Murdock, could the hero be other than Irish Catholic?) and his lawyer-partner Foggy Nelson (Jon Favreau) reveal his guilty feelings about continuing his campaign. He wants to avenge his father's death, but he seems to have no future, particularly with women in his life.

Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner) changes that. In the comics this somewhat murky heroine has an involved Freudian character arc that barely exists in Johnson's script, and she and Matt Murdock meet in college, Johnson understandably brings Elektra-- the martially trained daughter of a rich Greek businessman-- into Murdock's life at a time when he needs a breath of fresh air. Murdock and Elektra "meet violent" by having an impromptu hand-to-hand martial match on a kids' playground, but in no time they've graduated to passionate lovers after one or two dates. 

In the comics Elektra's father is a diplomat, which has some impact on her becoming skilled in martial arts. But here Dad is doing dirty business with the Kingpin of Crime (Michael Clarke Duncan), thus drawing a rough parallel to Murdock's father, who became entangled in criminal enterprises. When Natchios tries to withdraw, Kingpin decides-- rather vindictively for a crime-boss supposedly motivated by "business"-- to terminate both Natchios and his daughter. The crime-lord calls in the services of Bullseye (Colin Farrell), an assassin who kills his prey with the use of skillfully thrown objects, such as shurkiens and razor-edged cards.

Bullseye's assassination attempt succeeds with the elder Natchios, but Elektra survives. The bereaved woman doesn't see Bullseye, only Daredevil, who attempted to block Bullseye's murderous intentions. As a result of this rather chock-a-block encounter, Elektra wants to kill the red-suited adventurer for having slain her father, while Bullseye wants Daredevil dead for having caused him to "miss." This leads to a triptych of climactic battles: Elektra against Daredevil, Bullseye against Elektra (with fatal results for the latter), and Daredevil against Bullseye. For a cherry on top, Bullseye also subdues the Kingpin but doesn't kill the crime-lord when he has the chance, which is clearly meant to signal a newfound devotion to higher justice over vengeance. Thus, even though Daredevil has loved and lost, he's a more complete person than he was before.

Johnson plays up romance more than the comics did, and so that character-arc becomes rushed due to time constraints. Still, both the playground-fight and an evocative moment where Murdock "sees" Elektra through the medium of falling rain are nicely executed. Because Elektra's arc is so adumbrated, there doesn't seem much of a reason for her to dress up in a costume to attack the hero, nor is there any explanation as to why she wields a pair of sais as her chosen weapons. The fight-scenes in general are good but never quite great.

Additionally, Garner does the athletic performance well, but her take on the character is mixed at best. Bullseye in contrast is both well conceived and well acted. Instead of being an ice-cold killer as in the comics, Bullseye is amusingly twitchy in his ability to be annoyed by any small grievance, and Farrell, employing his own Irish accent, makes the character memorable even without a standard costume. Duncan is physically imposing but his character is underwritten. Favreau supplies excellent comic relief, and allegedly he later got the job of directing the 2008 IRON MAN thanks to making contact here with co-producer Kevin Feige. (The latter, prior to his regular status with the MCU, seems to have been something of a jobber with a specialty in superhero-films throughout the early 21st century.) Finally, Affleck has many good moments as the guilt-obsessed crusader, though there are also some scenes where the actor seems to be phoning things in. 

Though DAREDEVIL is far from a great superhero film, it shows a strong concern for capturing the essence of the comic-character's appeal and translating it into film. Feige defended the film in its day, but once IRON MAN took off, he evidently decided that his "road" from then on would be to follow a much lighter, less substantive view of superhero dynamics-- to say nothing of his increasing tendency for political virtue signaling. Since DAREDEVIL was only a modest success, making back just twice its budget, it's understandable that it didn't offer filmmakers a formula for financial success. But I still prefer the film to many of those that followed.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological *

On the DVD of SKULL the film's director Steven Spielberg asserted that he resisted for many years the appeals of various people, including his collaborators on previous INDIANA JONES films, Harrison Ford and George Lucas, to make another film in the series. As far as he was concerned, the series had been concluded by 1989's LAST CRUSADE film. Further, Lucas wanted to do a story in which the globetrotting hero encountered aliens, and Spielberg felt he'd done enough alien movies in his career. But over time, Ford and Lucas essentially wore down Spielberg, and he consented to direct Lucas's draft script, completed with another writer and then transformed into a screenplay by David Koepp. 

I didn't like SKULL then any more than I do now, but the film made a handsome profit. The character, born in 1899. was not quite as old as the real-life actor was in 2008, so the script could credibly give the audience what it wanted: an Indiana Jones still heavily invested in daredevil action. I contrast this with the many recent complaints about the deportment of Jones in the opening scenes of INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, in which he's seen as having given up the road of adventure for the confines of the classroom--though that part of his life seemed to be ending as well. It didn't matter that the Indiana of 1969 was at least seventy; audiences didn't want an Indy who got old.

Lucas and Spielberg were children whose adolescent outlooks were largely formed by the 1950s, which was, among other things, the period in which they both began watching old film serials on television. The script thus dutifully piles on lots of 1950s touchstones: motorcycle-riding juveniles, the Cold War, and alien invaders, though here the invaders are seen through the lens of the "ancient astronauts" fad of the 1970s. What the script does not provide is any sense of any of these cultural shifts mean to the hero, who, being born of the "greatest generation," ought to have shown a little more conflict about the rise of the baby-boomer ethos. All we get is a mention of the fact that Indy doesn't like Russians because he and his sometimes-turncoat pal Mac (Ray Winstone) used to run counter-intelligence on the Soviets during World War II. 

So Indy and Mac are drafted by a troop of Russians who seem to have no trouble getting away with major acts of violence in 1950s metropolitan cities. In command of the troop is Colonel Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), an expert on matters psychic, and she wants Indy to help her solve an archaeological puzzle in Peru. The solution, she believes, will give her access to ancient alien mysteries and enable Communism to conquer the world. Indy manages to escape captivity in Hanger 18, betrayal by his fellow adventurer Mac, and near-annihilation by a nuclear bomb.

But Indy never gives up on friends. He's approached by leather-jacketed Mutt Williams (Shia LeBouef), who tells the hero that Indy's old colleague "Ox" Oxley (John Hurt) has been abducted by Russians in Peru, as has Mutt's mother "Mary Williams." After another pointless escape from Soviet agents, Indy and Mutt make their way to Peru (where Mutt continues wearing his leather jacket in the South American heat). Indy solves a puzzle and finds a skull made of crystal, though it looks like it belongs to an ape with an elongated skull. Indy comments on the way it was carved, which doesn't make much sense when it later appears to be an organic remnant. 

The Russians catch Indy and Mutt, and at the Russian camp Indy is reunited with Ox and with "Mary," who is Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) under her married name. Eventually the four good guys escape the Russkies and Indy learns that Mutt is his natural son, produced by his bun being in Marion's oven at the time that Indy left Marion at the altar over fifteen years ago. All this familial drama is tossed off with a lot of fatuous jokes, but the very fact that Lucas and Spielberg, acting through Koepp, couldn't deal with such issues speaks somewhat to things they might not have wanted to say outright.

More daredevil escapes ensue-- pursuit by Amazonian killer ants, a plunge over a waterfall-- and eventually everyone involves ends up at a lost temple built by aliens and inhabited by their crystal skeletons. Irina pays the price for messing with things outside her ken, and Indy finally makes up for leaving Marion at the altar by making an honest woman of her-- until the next time they break up.

One reason SKULL may have made money is that Spielberg kept the costs down, unlike DIAL, and he did this by essentially repeating similar stunts in different environments. Unlike RAIDERS, where no stunt-type is repeated, SKULL has three separate scenes in which Indy and his foes are barreling from one spot to another in cars and/or motorbikes. The one in the Amazon jungle is at least watchable, but I could have done without the one set within Hangar 18. I suppose Indy escaping a nuclear blast in a refrigerator was technically original. But it strained credibility so much that the game was hardly worth the candle. 

Ford handles his stunts well enough, including the almost de rigeur fight with a bigger opponent, and LeBoeuf is okay in a fight-scene with Blanchett, who engages in both armed and unarmed combat. Feisty Marion (also looking good in her fifties) doesn't get to do anything but a lot of daredevil driving, in marked contrast to her varied stunts throughout RAIDERS. Hurt and Winstone are mostly just along for the ride.

The "ancient astronauts" are a mystery without a good resolution, though I liked a line in which Indy suggests that tribal humans bound their own skulls to resemble their "gods." It's strange that Lucas and Spielberg would make so much of the aliens seen in fifties sci-fi films, and yet portray SKULL's aliens as a bunch of dead gods whose motives for coming to Earth remain obscure-- again, more of a seventies trope than one from the fifties.

The most interesting thing about the bad family dramatics of SKULL is that they do reveal that Lucas and Spielberg intuited-- but could not quite put into words-- the immaturity of their aging hero. The only thing we're told as to why Indy deserted Marion is because she never let him win an argument. Really? LAST CRUSADE was a little more venturesome in the psychology department, but Lucas and Spielberg couldn't follow through on that concept, except under cover of concealing jokiness. That indirect psychological comment, as well as a comparison of Communism to the aliens' hive-mind, are the only reasons I give SKULL a fair mythicity grade. 

SPACE JAM (1996), JETSONS THE MOVIE (1990)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: (1) *poor,* (2) *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

I avoided SPACE JAM studiously for over twenty years, and I probably would have continued to do so if not for my current interest in crossovers. All the clips I'd seen for the show back in 1996 seemed incredibly lame, the result of a "movie-by-committee" with nothing on its mind but monetizing the association of Michael Jordan and the classic Warner Brothers cartoon stars.

Jordan's performance amid the capering cartoons is no better or worse than one could expect given the circumstances, and the same is true of all the human actors, who just do what's required of them by the flat, boring script. It's a totally workmanlike story of how aliens come to Earth to abduct the Looney Toons, who manage to put off the ETs by challenging them to a basketball game. When the Loonies realize they're outmatched, they call in-- guess who.

As for the cartoons themselves-- who, for me at least, will always possess an entertainment legacy far greater than Jordan's-- the writers don't manage to write one line, create one pratfall, that proves worthy of any of the characters. And I don't mean just the Big Guns who get the most screen time: Bugs, Daffy, Pepe, Elmer, Porky, Sylvester and Tweety, Coyote and Road Runner, and Tasmanian Devil. The misbegotten excuses-for-writers couldn't even manage one decent joke with the now-obscure WB character of Sniffles the Mouse.  The one new creation, a potential GF for Bugs, is Lola Bunny, but though adequately designed she's not funny either, and exists only to produce a small "girl power" vibe.

JAM was utterly safe and kid-friendly-- that is, the opposite of many of the edgier WB cartoons of the forties-- and so it made good box office, though I can't imagine it being entertaining for anyone but the smallest children. The only tiny pleasure I got from it was the "audience-scenes" for the game, which the animators packed with a few dozen obscure WB characters from yesteryear.

JETSONS-- THE MOVIE also probably wouldn't entertain any older kids. However, the "first family of space" was never as celebrated as the WB Looney Toons, and so one could say that even a total failure (which this is not) would be a case of "not having as far to fall."

The sixties teleseries, one of the few prime-time cartoons launched by Hanna-Barbera in its long history, was a one-joke concept: an ordinary nuclear family (husband George, wife Jane, teen daughter Judy and grade-school son Elroy) have silly sitcom misadventures on a far-future Earth, along with their maid Rose, dog Astro, and George's yell-happy boss Spacely. All seven characters appear in the movie, which was the last to be directed by the team that pioneered the company, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

While ongoing sitcoms usually keep the principals in one constant location, a common trope when adapting such serials into movies is to put the protagonists in some new locale. And so, after fifteen or so minutes of setup, George finds himself elevated to the position of vice president of a mining-colony that provides parts for Spacely Sprockets. But to accept the new position, George and his family have to leave their apartment and take up residence on the colony-world. The kids naturally have the usual objections to being uprooted, but they acclimate to their new surroundings with remarkable alacrity.

Further, George finds that the factory he has to oversee is fully automated, his only companion being a robot subordinate. (Actually, in all the seasons of the sixties series, I don't think I ever saw any human employees at George's regular job except George and Mr. Spacely.) But George's main problem is that some mysterious entities are sabotaging the factory. At first George is just worried about losing his job-- until the mysterious beings put the snatch on him.

These "devils in the dark" are actually cute little aliens who were displaced when the Earth-people built their factory, and so the Jetsons have to find a way to preserve the little guys' home while not torquing off Spacely by losing his profitable business. But seeing these little ETs causes me to recall that although the sixties show had lots of robots, I don't remember any aliens. JETSONS has the relocated family meet a handful of alien neighbors, and since none of them do very much, they're probably just reflections of the movie's basic theme of interspecies brotherhood. The movie never equals the show's sharper moments of writing, which in my book were always the stories about George butting heads with his boss. But there's some very creative background art in many scenes, and I note in passing that comics-artist Ric Estrada is credited with "pre-production design." 

Many of the show's original voice actors reprised their roles here, such as Penny Singleton, Don Messick, Jean Vander Pyl, George O'Hanlon, and Mel Blanc. JETSONS was the last round-up for both O'Hanlon and Blanc, who both died shortly after production. Janet Waldo recorded the dialogue of Judy Jetson but the studio substituted a track by renowned singer Tiffany, who also contributed three song-stylings. I certainly can't blame the studio for trying to import a modern celebrity's cachet, since I don't know how much currency the franchise had by 1990. The movie enjoyed modest box-office success, though today I imagine its main significance is that of nostalgia for the old TV show.

SMALLVILLE 2:12: "INSURGENCE" (2002)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*

"Insurgence," in addition to being a forgettable episode, is oddly named. The word means "an armed revolt or uprising," which doesn't apply well to the main conflict. Lex learns that his father Lionel has actively used spy-devices in Lex's house, and as a result Lex loses a valuable contract. Furious, Lex decides to abide by *lex talionis,* the law of retribution, by bugging Lionel's Luthorcorp office in return. Lex hires a specialty team to break into the office in Metropolis, but three of the four team-members plan to rob Lionel's vault. The thieves kill the dissenting member of the team, but while trying to break into the vault they encounter Blind Lionel and his secretary Martha Kent. The cops are called and a hostage situation evolves-- but who are the insurgents? The robbers, who "revolt" against Lex? It can't very well be Lex himself, since Lionel has taken their competition to a new level-- though Lex could be seen as indirectly responsible for the threat to the lives of Lionel and Martha.

The dramatic arcs, such as they are, are mostly padding for further "mythos developments." One of the most pervasive is that of "the key," an octagonal fragment of Baby Kal-El's spaceship first seen in the first-season episode "Obscura." "Insurgence" is one of various episodes since then in which this object changes hands, specifically passing out of Lionel's keeping and into Martha's, though the item's significance will not be revealed for some time. Thanks to the plundering of the vault, viewers learn for the first time that Lionel, who always seemed to know little about Matters Kryptonian, has actually accumulated many kryptonite rocks and refined them into enough bricks to fill a pallet. Why? To be addressed later, I suppose. The episode also introduces two new characters who will each appear in a handful of episodes: cop Maggie Sawyer (on "loan" from SUPERMAN comics) and Jennifer Small, wife of Lana's putative new daddy. Clark's main purpose in the story is that he comes to the rescue of the two hostages. Though he can't get into the office building because of the police cordon, he's able to leap the distance between that building and its neighbor-- none other than the Daily Planet skyscraper, making its first appearance on the show.

In the scheme of ongoing dramatic interactions, Lionel is once again seen as a disruptive influence on the relationship of Jonathan and Martha, though Lionel's motives for his attentions to Martha are not yet fully revealed. But the robbers' actions clue the Kents in on Lionel's machinations, so Martha remains in his employ as a means of maintaining her own covert operation. The episode is also noteworthy for suggesting that Lionel may be getting over his blindness, though presumably not in time to see how the kryptonite bricks affect Young Clark Kent.

JONNY QUEST (1964-65)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological *

The tradition of heroic adventure represented by the so-called "Golden Age of Newspaper Comics" was in decline by 1964. Yet thanks in large part to artist-animator Doug Wildey, Hanna-Barbera broke out of its rut of "kiddie-cartoons" with JONNY QUEST. Almost sixty years later, JONNY represents the "gold standard" for the company thanks to Wildey's skillful interplay of Caniff-like graphics with a greater usage of sci-fi concepts, possibly encouraged by the growing popularity of the James Bond films. Only a few key episodes can be deemed mythic under my definition-- I'll mark these with three asterisks-- but in the kinetic sense, there's not a weak episode among the 26 original tales.

THE MYSTERY OF THE LIZARD MEN-- This script was surely the first one written, for there's no reference to the cast-member Hadji, even though he appears with the others in the intro. There's just eleven-year old Jonny, his father Benton Quest, his "big brother"/ guardian Race Bannon, and his comical dog Bandit. Oh, and in a couple of scenes the Quests consult with a mini-computer known as UNIC (but pronounced "Eunice"). Most likely the showrunners decided that the heroes didn't need a computer to provide backstory, so UNIC disappeared.

Seeing MYSTERY again as an adult, it's evident how flimsy the main concept was. First, the viewer witnesses how ships drawing near the Sargasso Sea are annihilated by a red beam, later revealed to be a laser (just like the one on the 1963 GOLDFINGER film). These attacks come about because some foreign operatives plan to shoot down a moon-rocket with their ray-beam (a little like DOCTOR NO). Both the use of the laser and the agents' masquerade as "lizard men" in scuba suits actually draw the attention of the U.S. government to the anomalies. But then, who cares, given all the delirious pulp action made possible by these lizard-loonies?

Jonny's cultured father, despite being a scientist, is treated by the government reps as if Benton were a field-agent on whom they could call at any time (though in most other episodes Benton is called into action by non-governmental individuals). Rather comically, the government men claim that Race is there to protect the "security" of son Jonny, though of course the exploits of Bannon and the Quests are anything but "secure."

ARCTIC SPLASHDOWN-- Again the space-race is paramount, for a U.S. capsule has descended into the Arctic ice, possibly due to outside tampering a la DOCTOR NO. Rather than calling in the Air Force, the government wants Benton and company to make sure the capsule self-destructs before foreign agents can get it. (When said agents do appear, they have a general East European tonality.) Hadji joins the cast with no explanation, and he does the first of many "Hindu magic tricks" by pulling a dog biscuit from Bandit's ear. SPLASHDOWN is the first of many episodes in which Bandit and the boys have generally comical adventures with exotic animals, this time a walrus and a family of polar bears. This is essentially a naturalistic adventure.

THE CURSE OF ANUBIS-- This time Benton is summoned by a scholarly colleague, and the Quest group journeys to Egypt.  though Doctor Kareem actually hopes to frame the Americans for crimes involving the desecration of an Egyptian pyramid. Kareem's ambitions have something to do with Arab nationalism, though even when I was a kid, I didn't think that the current Muslim population of the so-called "Middle East" would have been that exercised about the profanation of a pagan tomb. Nevertheless, in keeping with established pulp-story tropes, modern Egyptians still act as if they believe in the ancient deity Anubis.

However, in the series' only usage of a supernatural force, that belief turns out to be justified, for a guardian-mummy in the profaned tomb comes to life. The mummy stalks around openly in its bandages but is only seen sporadically, not really taking vengeance on anyone until the bang-up finish.

PURSUIT OF THE PO-HO-- The wife of a Benton-colleague-- possibly an anthropologist, though the script does not say so-- summons the Quests to help liberate her kidnapped husband from a tribe of savage South American Indians, the "Po-Hos" of the title. Benton gets the idea of spooking the Indians by making them believe that he's a new god to whom the Po-Hos must bow down. To their credit-- and this is the natives' only virtue-- they aren't fooled for a moment, and they just kidnap Benton, planning to sacrifice him alongside the other man. Race's attempt to masquerade as a native god makes the episode "uncanny," as well as providing a comic conclusion.

RIDDLE OF THE GOLD-- A U.S. agent asks Benton to investigate the provenance of a new source of gold appearing in a Hindu mine, so the Quests are off to India. The gold does turn out to be counterfeit, created via uncanny science, but the main importance of the episode is that it's the first appearance of perennial enemy Doctor Zin, though Benton's dialogue establish that he and Race have met the villain before. Zin operates through a minion who can kill victims with a Bond-like device: a cigarette lighter with a poisoned needle in it. Hadji, raised in Calcutta, takes pleasure in visiting his native land. Modern kids won't understand Jonny's quip about using Mount Everest to hold a TV aerial.

TREASURE OF THE TEMPLE-- The Quests return to South America, though this time it's specifically the Yucatan Jungle, where Benton wants to investigate a Mayan Temple. The scientist's only interest is scholarly, but a scurrilous treasure-hunter, Perkins, thinks the Quests may chisel in on his hunt for Mayan treasure. This is another naturalistic adventure, and the villains suffer one of the show's grisliest fates, being implicitly devoured by crocodiles.

CALCUTTA ADVENTURE-- At last Hadji gets an "origin story." The story actually begins in media res, as the Quests reminisce about the time Benton went to Calcutta to lecture other scientists about his invention of a sonic weapon. (For some reason, Benton thinks this deadly weapon can somehow be channeled "for the good of mankind.") The Quests have also been called in to investigate mysterious ailments in the area, not knowing that their old buddy Zin has created a nerve-gas facility in the mountains. One of Zin's henchmen almost kills Benton, but street-urchin Hadji rescues him, earning the Quests' gratitude. Hadji puts the heroes in touch with his friend Pasha Peddler, a jive-talking merchant who helps the good guys access the facility-- though he charges the Americans heavily for his services. Pasha never appears again, but his love of money is arguably transferred to the character of Jade. Contrary to a Wiki-article, Pasha does not have lighter skin-color than other Indians in the story. Hadji goes back to America with the Quests and Pasha arranges for his adoption.

THE ROBOT SPY-- One of the most flamboyantly "sci-fi" episodes starts with Benton creating a ray-gun able to paralyze the systems of planes. Doctor Zin decides to become pro-active about invading Benton's own sanctum with a "robot spy," also described as a "Trojan Horse." The robot is a bit cartoony, consisting of a spherical "eye" and four spider-like legs, but its ability to plow through all manner of military attacks testifies that Zin is every bit Benton's equal at contriving super-weapons. Though the robot succeeds in stealing data about the para-power ray gun, Benton triumphs by using super-science to beat super-science.

DOUBLE DANGER-- It's another Zin episode, but this time he uses a much simpler method of espionage. Having learned of Benton's plan to harvest a rare Thai drug for the space program, Zin hires an impostor to masquerade as Race in order to steal Benton's research. While the real Race is being held prisoner, his double fools everyone--except the Quests' mercenary ally Jade, a chip off the old Caniff Dragon Lady. As was the case with Zin's initial episode, everyone in the Quest circle is already familiar with Jade despite this being her first appearance. Jade invites the double to greet her with a kiss, and so figures out that he's a phony. The episode culminates in a dramatic rescue that involves Hadji playing "mahout" to a rampaging herd of elephants.

THE SHADOW OF THE CONDOR***-- For the first time, no one summons the Quests to their next adventure. They just happen to be flying over the Andes Mountains, with Race in the pilot's seat, when the plane must make an emergency landing. To their surprise, there's  a private estate in the lonely, condor-haunted mountains, complete with a landing strip. The estate's owner is former World War I aviator Baron Von Frohleich, and he maintains a small contingent of fighter planes of that era. Frohleich secretly wants one last aerial dogfight in which he can kill an enemy pilot, and he maneuvers Race into such a dogfight-- but one in which Frohleich alone has loaded guns. The Baron is undone by his own disrespect for the local wildlife, though the condor isn't exactly a "good guy," since he almost carries off Bandit to be nest-food. This one's "uncanny" given the oddness of the Baron's murder-plot.

SKULL AND DOUBLE CROSSBONES-- When Benton tests a mini-sub in the Caribbean, local pirates hope to use his resources to unearth sunken treasure. This includes the odd sight of Bandit swimming underwater with the help of a special aqualung.

THE DREADFUL DOLL-- The Quests are still in the Caribbean, but now Benton's researching marine biology with the help of a bathysphere. A planter from a local island implores Benton for medical help with his daughter, who seems to be stricken by a voodoo spell from local witch doctor, Korbay. In the same tradition as the Lizard Men, Korbay is using a hoax to drive away most of the planters so that no one sees that his partner Harden is constructing a submarine beneath the island. Korbay is the only Negroid character in the episode.

A SMALL MATTER OF PYGMIES-- Though real pygmies only have tribes in Africa and Asia, for some reason the script seems to think they live in South America, where Benton maintains a lab. Race, Jonny, Hadji and Bandit are flying a small plane to rendezvous with the scientist. The plane fails, but the heroes survive the crash and start walking back to civilization. They see a lone pygmy about to be sacrificed to a black panther, so Race kills the beast with a rifle. This honks off the pygmies who set their victim out to be killed, so the little men take Race and company prisoner. The heroes then get help from the man they saved. For some reason the pygmies are also compared to Asian cargo cults. Hadji's use of levitation makes this one marvelous.

DRAGONS OF ASHIDA ***-- Benton is invited to a isle somewhere in the vicinity of Malaysia, going by the usage of Malay terms like "tuan" and "amuck." The diabolical-looking, presumably Japanese master of the isle is a zoologist who has devoted his life to breeding lizards into horse-sized "dragons," but he's no longer the respectable scientist Benton knew. He's become a worshiper of strength, claiming that "in nature, only the strong survive," and eventually the Quests learn that this distant descendant of Count Zaroff hunts people with his dragon. After Ashida challenges Race to a martial arts duel and loses, the sorehead terrorizes the Quests with both his monstrous lizards and with their trainer, the one-eyed sumo wrestler Sumi. Race's martial skills get a big workout this time.

TURU THE TERRIBLE-- While the Quests seek a special mineral in the Amazon jungle, they learn that the local natives are being abducted by Turu, a prehistoric pteranodon. The heroes eventually learn that a weird old man raised Turu from a "chick" and trained the creature to abduct natives in order to work in his mines. Great aerial battles ensue between the beast and the jet-pack-wearing adults, giving the two kids little to do this time.

THE FRAUDULENT VOLCANO-- Mount Tarawa on the island of Tabiti has been blowing its top quite often, which is only natural because Doctor Zin has set up shop inside, creating explosions for his own purpose. Benton happens to be in the area testing a new means of extinguishing oil-fires, so the Tahitian governor calls the scientist in for a consult. When Race and Benton fly over the volcano in a plane, Zin's men shoot down the plane with a ray-gun, and then capture the two men when they parachute to earth. Since Zin tells his captives that he means to sell his research to hostile powers, one presumes that it's the ray-gun he means to sell, and that the volcano-activity is yet another means of frightening away the curious. The minions of Zin's volcano sport some cool flying platforms.  Jonny and Hadji get to rescue the adults this time. Not much action for Bandit this time.             

WEREWOLF OF THE TIMBERLAND-- Some vague research leads the Quests to the Canadian woods. There the heroes learn that a gang of lumberjacks are smuggling gold, trying to scare away locals by having one man dress like a werewolf. The Quests get some help from a mysterious Amerindian man, White Feather, who has the habit of disappearing from sight when anyone looks away from him. Uncanny for sure.

PIRATES FROM BELOW-- For once the Quests stick close to their Florida home, and some villains come to them. Benton is developing a new submarine for the U.S. Navy, a vehicle complete with remote control grappling-arms able to dislodge annoying squids. Another submarine, full of spies with East European accents, descends upon the compound, taking Race, Bandit and Jonny prisoner. The foreign agents have even built a subterranean base, protected by a net-barrier. The villains have cool hovercrafts and mini-subs as well.

ATTACK OF THE TREE PEOPLE-- The Quests are vacationing off the coast of Africa when their boat catches fire. Race and Benton are rescued by a cruiser, while Jonny, Hadji and Bandit end up on the uninhabited coastline. A tribe of great apes takes a liking to the boys and their dog, making it harder for them to watch for rescuers. Two reprobates take the boys prisoner for the purpose of ransom, but they don't count on being "monkeyed with."

THE INVISIBLE MONSTER***-- On a remote island in the South Pacific, a physicist unleashes energy-forces that coalesce into a living creature that feeds on all forms of energy. Before being "consumed" by the creature-- which apparently means being disintegrated-- the scientist calls in the Quests, who as usual don't bring in the local authorities. The monster is terrifying both in its invisible phase and after the heroes manage to "paint" it into visibility. 

THE DEVIL'S TOWER-- Benton has to take off time from atmospheric research in Africa when his probe goes missing atop an escarpment. When Race flies the group to the top of the plateau, they're all captured by a surviving tribe of cavemen. The primitives are controlled by an ex-Nazi, Von Deuffel, who has been stranded atop the escarpment for years, having forced the cavemen to mine diamonds for him. Von Deuffel escapes in the Quests's airplane, but makes the mistake of trying to kill the heroes directly and meets his doom.

THE QUETONG MISSILE MYSTERY-- In a fictional Chinese city (probably an analogue of Hong Kong), Benton is asked to consult on more mysterious deaths of locals by poisoning. The poison comes from contamination produced by a hidden missile base, under the command of a Chinese mastermind wearing a uniform that looks Red Chinese. The base, hidden in a swamp, is surrounded by stationary mines able to destroy any invading boat. The general's minions kidnap Jonny and Hadji to make Benton and Race knuckle under, but of course that just provokes the heroes to come to the rescue.

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GARGOYLES-- A Norwegian scientist invites the Quests to his castle just as an acquisitive spy uses a unique method to uncover the scientist's anti-gravity secrets. Of the seven gargoyles on the castle's parapet, one is a disguised acrobat posing as a stone figure, the better to steal the prized secrets. The acrobat works for a notorious local schemer, and the thieves fall out in the end, so that the heroes don't even have to do their own killing. The best scenes are those in which Jonny tries to convince the others that he saw a stone gargoyle move.

TERROR ISLAND-- Mad scientist Chu Sing Ling plots to unleash gigantic monsters-- giant crabs, lizards, and spiders-- on the world, and he wants help. The Quests happen to visit Hong Kong, so Chu has Benton kidnapped. Race tells Jonny, Hadji and Bandit to stay clear while he launches his own search for the missing scientist. To that end he enlists the services of winsome mercenary Jase, making the second of her two appearances. Jade didn't actually do much in her first appearance, but here she's shown to be ruthless with the use of a pistol as she questions the local riffraff. Chu is hoist on his own monstrous petard, and Jade and Race share an impressive liplock. Jade has a possible double entendre line when she tells Race, "I almost never kidnap my friends-- for money, that is." 

MONSTER IN THE MONASTERY-- The Quests pass over Nepal and Benton decides to visit an old acquaintance, a Nepalese spiritual leader with the odd name of "Raj Guru," which in real Sanskrit might mean something like, "King Teacher." The Raj Guru's city is being besieged by creatures that look like Yetis, though the monsters seem fully conversant in the use of human tools like catapults. Jonny and Hadji chase Bandit into the abandoned palace inhabited by the Yetis, and learn that the monsters are just men in costumes. (Not sure they're all Asians, but the leader is, suggesting another Red Chinese plot.) The boys only manage to escape the insurrectionists after many daredevil stunts, but by the time the adults make the scene, all the conspirators have been killed, albeit bloodlessly, by a real Yeti. The odd name of the ancient palace is "Kali Yuga," a real term connoting the last age of mankind.

THE SEA HAUNT-- The title may be a pun on the TV show "Sea Hunt," which had concluded three years previous to QUEST. The episode also provides a bang-up finish to the series. Flying somewhere near Sumatra, the Quests see an abandoned Dutch ship and they land their plane on it to investigate. Both the ship's log and a single survivor, a Chinese cook, attest that the ship is being "haunted" by a huge, near-invulnerable humanoid fish-creature, whom the Chinese cook calls a "dragon." The beast destroys the Quest plane, stranding the heroes on the ship, and they have to fight a tense holding action to survive. Charlie the Cook actually sends the "dragon" back into the deep. The ship's hidden cargo is a cache of gold, which is probably a clever reference to dragons and their association with treasure-troves.

DRAGON FURY 2 (1996)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

Okay, here's the sort of forgettable junk that isn't worth the time it takes to dismiss it.

There's a mention on IMDB that the script by the credited writer was so bad that the main actor and other personnel tossed it and concocted their own story. Suffice to say that they didn't succeed in making anything better than awful.

Mason (Robert Chapin) is once more the hero, despite having died at the end of the first film. I'm not sure that the first FURY showed that he had traveled back to his own time, but assuming it did, he's taken in by a future-doctor who puts his body into cryostasis for the next 15 years, and then for unstated reasons decides to revive Mason. But Mason, though hale and hearty once more, has lost his memory and flees the doctor's helping hands.

The real reason for the fifteen-year sleep is to provide Mason with a new romantic partner, one with slightly incestuous overtones. Future-warrior Crystal Blu (Cathleen Anne Gardner) heads a group of rebels against the authority of an evil overlord, Molech (Mike son-of-Chuck Norris). Whereas there was a troop of "dragons" fighting the overlords in Part One, now all the dragon-swordsmen serve Molech. There is no reference to the plague or the medical dictatorship from the first film.

So amnesiac Mason wanders around until a minor dragon-warrior finds him and invites the badass blonde to join Molech's team. Mason does become one of the dragons because he has no reason not to. Eventually Crystal fights with the new Molech-servant and then manages to knock him out and take him back to rebel HQ. The aforementioned doctor tells her at some point that Mason was trained by Crystal's late father, and this revelation leads the young woman to sleep with the time-displaced dead man. There's another assault on Molech's fortress, and Crystal dies to give Mason a good reason to duel Molech. Oh, and there's a cute young girl who has psychic predictions, which don't make any difference to the plot, which again is non-stop fighting, but with far inferior direction this time.

The only half-decent thing about FURY 2 is the logo, in which the Roman numeral "2" is formed by two side-by-side swords.