That last one is worth mentioning for the fact that that Eastwood directs himself in the movie, and gives himself not one but two scenes in which he sneaks off with some ladies for a three-way. Granted, one of the encounters is implied — maybe they’re just in a hotel room playing pinochle — but it does feel like the filmmaker is trying a little too hard to prove he’s still got it.
Eastwood tried to make the movie back in the 1980s but it fell through. The screenplay then rattled around Hollywood for decades, at one point coming close to being made with Schwarzenegger in the lead role. In a 2003 interview about the chance of the movie coming together after the then-governor of California ended his time in office, a producer noted: “He’ll find a third act in his movie career if that’s what he wants.” And possibly a fourth.
All of which takes us back to Ford, not quite 40 when he first played Indiana Jones. The actor, while far from frail, has had some high-profile accidents in recent years, including being knocked to the ground by a heavy door while filmingin 2014. A year later, a plane he was flying suffered engine failure, and he made an emergency landing on a golf course. Both incidents resulted in broken bones.
There is also a sense, in movies as in life, that the wisdom of age can trump the energy of youth. In a cheeky poll that is the mainstay of British journalism, 2,000 adults were asked recently which celebrity would be best suited to deal with an alien invasion. Topping the list: Schwarzenegger, closely followed by Will Smith, practically a baby at 52. Also in the top 10: Bruce Willis , Cruise, Weaver and … Sir David Attenborough, the 94-year-old natural historian.
Ford placed No. 6 in the poll. So here’s a cautiously optimistic tip of the fedora to Indiana Jones Part Five. As long as the story doesn’t overtax what a healthy senior citizen could do — please, no more surviving-a-nuclear-explosion-in-a-fridge — then audiences should be willing to accept Indy back for one last crusade.
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