Throughout Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones franchise, the looming threat of Nazism has backdropped the adventures Indy has gone on to protect whatever MacGuffin he’s after—which invariably one of Hitler’s lackeys is also on a quest to attain, in order to back up the Reich’s chase for power at all costs. And while yes, this involved a lot of punching on Harrison Ford’s part, the films also spoke to how the Nazi ideology of using white supremacy as a solution to control the masses would quickly backfire or (face) melt away—long before the Führer could get his small hands on any mystical objects that would pass judgment against the evils they represent.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, with the producing guidance of Kathleen Kennedy, based their tales on the idea that democracy’s biggest foes would look to the occult and super-powered artifacts for weapons to help further their agendas. Historically, these foes used the appropriation of customs like the Roman salute to signify their way is the next great empire. Decades after World War II, we all know what that heil salute means in the context of so many lives lost in battles and the Holocaust, not to mention hate groups that still persist today. It can hardly be called an awkward accident when someone evokes a blatant dog whistle. The Indiana Jones films demonstrate that it’s evergreen to see nefarious men in power attempt to use the lore of great civilizations that—need we have to remind you—ended up falling anyway to justify horrendous tactics against other races and marginalized people to keep an empire in power.
Indiana Jones as a character represents the good of the everyman working with a team of knowledge seekers who would instead look to the history of these objects to learn from the past, not try to repeat it. And of course, he’ll step up and use necessary violence against those who support the resurgence of fascism.
In Indiana Jones stories, the Nazi threat is that they’ll use archeological relics with a dash of mystical superstition to validate their belief system of manifesting racial superiority and fascist rule. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant represents unfathomable power to carry out Hitler’s depravities. The Holy Grail in The Last Crusade meant immortality, with the villains foolishly thinking themselves worthy of it. In Dial of Destiny the hope is to go back in time and win—and in The Great Circle video game (which takes place between Raiders and Temple of Doom), the goal is to attain a massive portal to move their armies anywhere.
Of course, they met with failure every time—outwitted by Indiana Jones and company, no matter how many times a covert arm of the SS aimed to use the promise of mystical power to gather puppets, including Americans. Their appeal usually strikes the lowest types of people because as The Great Circle‘s Emmerich Voss put it, “Insecure men are easy to manipulate.” In a time where knowledge of our history is actively being banned, we look to the arts to learn why it’s important to keep records of the good and the bad. We have to learn from history, something Indiana Jones has always stood for (and he isn’t above punctuating that with a solid punch), so we don’t get stuck in it.
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