Movies I Can't Wait to See: Indiana Jones 4

I have a rather personal affection for Indiana Jones. I saw the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark on one of the rare occasions in my teenage years when I got to spend time with my father. I believe we saw it in a theater in Washington Court House, Ohio (that's the name of a town, as far as I know there is no theater in their actual court house). That was very quickly followed by obtaining the Raiders cartridge for our Atari 2600 video game. The game would bore any kid of the 2000s, but we worked at it for hours until we finally solved it, and loved it every step of the way.

In 1984, I got my first job as an usher/cashier/doorman/lackey at Cinema East. It was billed as the largest screen in Columbus, Ohio. In actuality, the cinema was too small to split into two screens, and had a balcony too, which would have made splitting difficult. But by '84, every other screen had been split into 2 or 3, or was part of one of the new multiplexes (6 screens in one theater? The hell you say!). So, even by today's standards, the screen was huge. But since it only had one screen, the owners decided to book blockbusters, and milk them dry. In the eight months I worked there, we showed Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for seven of them.

Consequently, I know every word, every music cue, everything about that movie. And though it is deemed to be the least of the first three movies, I still love it, all these years later. I probably have a good deal of nostalgia mixed in to make it better. Not to mention memories of that big screen, and the booming Dolby stereo. In 1989, and three jobs later, I returned to Cinema East to view Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It has its charms, but couldn't top the first two in my mind. Sean Connery as Dr. Jones Sr. was a masterstroke, though.

Now, almost 20 years later, Indy is back. Cinema East died right after part three, but Harrison Ford is still going strong, into his 60s. And check out this trailer, if you don't think he's up to it. It looks great to me.




COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT SIDE NOTE: The Greenlee Gazette "double G" logo above is a direct steal from the old Cinema East logo, which was an E wrapped in a C. It's also inspired by an (also defunct) Columbus department store, Gold Circle, which had a C wrapped in a G. Credit where it's due. . .