Blockbuster
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In this fifth opus, James Mangold launches the archaeologist in search of yet another grail. A fast-paced and unexpected film about age and its limits.
“There is no more place here for men like us”, throws Indiana Jones a space engineer decked out in operetta Nazi as they both spin, aboard a World War II bomber, towards a spatiotemporal fault. In the tumult that has been shaking the screen for a little over two hours, the line goes almost unnoticed – yet it contains most of this fifth part of the adventures of the character created in 1981 by Steven Spielberg. What she is saying, of course, is: “Gone are the kindly irresponsible heroes who like to surround themselves with totally brainless or cleverly asexual female stooges to run after sacred relics which they will hasten to snatch from their country of origin to stick them in a museum. But it must also be understood in a more literal way: “There is no longer a place here for men like us”, because they age, die, are forgotten and others come to take their place with new dreams and new adventures to lead. Life ruthlessly follows its course and any attempt to backtrack will only hasten the process and make it even more cruel.
No more room therefore for Indiana Jones who, after a breathless prologue on board a train full of Nazis, came to recall all that the character was with a digitally rejuvenated Harrison Ford (the exercise, an absolute foil in normal times, is here surprisingly convincing), appears to us as a weary university professor