Harrison Ford Is Just A Grumpy Old Man In Indiana Jones 5?
Director James Mangold has hinted that Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones will take on his next adventure as an aged, bitter man.
If you were expecting Harrison Ford to be as spry, upbeat, and physically fit in the fifth Indiana Jones movie as he was in the first one, you should adjust your expectations now. The actor is now 80 years old, and while that obviously isn’t too old to still kick butt and go on adventures, it is too old to pretend like he’s a spring chicken. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s director James Mangold said: “We can’t hide from where we are in our lives — none of us can — and neither can Indiana Jones,” which may allude to a movie based on a character more like Max Goldman in Grumpy Old Men.
He goes on to say that “I wanted to follow Harrison’s own lead and simply deal with it straight on. It’s not just a movie about a hero in his twilight years who is called back into action.” So, in other words, we’re about to see Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones in a way we aren’t really used to, even after Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull in 2008, in which the actor was 64 years old.
While this might sound like a bit of a downer (or at least like it’s going to be tough to suspend our disbelief during action sequences), it is good in a way, because, as the director points out, there have been far too many movies in which an aging character played by an aging actor keeps pretending like they are “not that old” when, really, they are.
According to Mangold, “It’s more than just that his bones might ache, it’s that his soul might ache, or that some of his optimism or sense fitting into the world might have evaporated.” But fans have been taking offense to this line, saying that Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones might be old, but that doesn’t mean that he should have lost his “sense of optimism.” Just because someone is old doesn’t automatically mean they are also sad or grumpy!
But, Mangold wasn’t finished explaining. He described how Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones has seen the whole world change around him, and maybe not always in a good way. He is no longer able to see everything in black and white, good versus evil, because instead, everything is starting to seem gray. “What happens to a hero built for a black-and-white world, when he finds himself in one that is gray?” Mangold asks.
So, it sounds like Indiana Jones will have to make a lot of decisions that may be a lot tougher now that he is no longer as young and perhaps idealistic as he once was. He has grown older and wiser and, apparently, disillusioned, and this is something he will have to come to terms with … as will the audience.
Mangold also describes how the beginning of the film uses de-aging technology to remind the audience what a strapping young man Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones once was, only to give them “whiplash” by cutting to the present-day of the film, where they see 70-year-old Indy in New York City, anonymous in a world that has no idea what he once did to save it.
Even in the trailer, Harrison Ford’s voice is weary as Indiana Jones talks about how his adventuring days “have come and gone,” which makes fans worry that their one last trip with Indiana Jones will be less like a fun journey full of gunfights and danger and more like a depressing trip to visit one’s beloved but ailing grandparent in a nursing home.
