Whip it good: Indiana Jones marathon this Saturday
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Would you like to pretend ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ never happened?
It’s easy to do this Saturday during a fedora triple-feature at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre because it ends with everyone’s favorite action-archeologist riding off into the sunset in 1989, back when Shia LaBeouf was just a three-year-old tyke.
The Indiana Jones marathon is part of 9th Annual Festival of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction, an event with a programming schedule more lively than its name. There’s also a ‘Star Trek’ double-feature on Sunday (the Leonard Nimoy-directed ‘Star Trek III: In Search of Spock’ from 1984 and Nicholas Meyer’s underrated ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ from 1991) and an outstanding ‘ghostly romance’ night on Aug. 27 (with Joseph Cotten in the forlorn gem ‘Portrait of Jennie’ from 1948 and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic ‘The Ghost and Mrs. Muir’ from a year earlier). There’s also a John Carpenter night (‘The Thing’ from 1982 and one of my favorite guilty pleasures, ‘They Live’ from 1988, with the best alley-fight scene ever) on Aug. 29 and more, such as an Aug. 28 visit by actress Diane Baker as two of her 1960 films are screened.
As for Indy, this Saturday night the adventure begins at 6 with the pretty-much perfect ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ from that grand year of 1981, followed by the darker and less-than-perfect ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ and, finally, the sunnier and (to my mind) more satisfying ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.’
For fun here’s a nifty fan-made trailer for ‘Raiders,’ which shows how well the film ages when framed for today’s sensibilities...
To buy tickets for any shows at the festival, go to the American Cinematheque page at Fandango and for more programming information go the festival website. The Egyptian Theatre is at 6712 Hollywood Blvd. and the phone number is (323) 466-3456.
-- Geoff Boucher
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