Cultural Icons

Many people waited with great anticipation for the fourth Indiana Jones. After seeing the movie most people expressed that it was okay, but not great. But what was the problem with the movie? The story they developed for the fourth Indy movie broke one of the major rules surrounding the use of cultural icons. When a screenwriter decides to tell a story that is centered on an iconic figure, whether it’s Santa Claus, Spiderman, Zorro, or Indiana Jones, there are certain rules that must be followed. First of all, the rule the fourth Indiana Jones broke is that iconic figures are ageless. Could you imagine Spiderman as a middle aged Peter Parker balancing crime fighting with family and career? What about Parker paying a mortgage on a home in the suburbs? Of course not! Spiderman IS the financially strapped college student Peter Parker. To remove Spiderman from that setting is to undermine Spiderman. But this is precisely what the writers of the fourth Indiana Jones did to Indy. Now I realize many people so desperately wanted to see Harrison Ford return as the heroic archeologist, but the fact of the matter is he was simply too old to be Indy anymore. Indiana Jones, as an iconic hero, cannot age. Like Spiderman, forever frozen in time as the college student, Indiana Jones is locked forever as a fedora wearing middle aged bachelor college professor living in 1930’s who constantly runs into NAZI’s. Showing a weathered and aging Indiana Jones living in the 1950’s dealing with cold war politics, learning he has a son, and feeling compelled to get married shattered a cultural icon. I know the Harrison Ford fans out there won’t like this, but in order to do a fourth Indiana Jones they either needed to find another actor to be Indy or do a prequel with a younger Indy.

Another rule in dealing with cultural icons is that you can’t taint them with family problems. This was the problem with the second Zorro movie. Giving Zorro a wife and bogging him down with marital difficulties was like spray painting a stained glass window. Zorro is the picture of justice and the hero who fights for the oppressed. Seeing Zorro fighting with his wife and wandering around drunk out of fear of losing her was like giving Superman a heroin addiction.

Yet another big no-no in dealing with iconic figures is you can’t bring the problems of everyday life into the realm of fantasy. This was the big mistake made in the third Santa Clause movie with Tim Allen. Santa was living with Mrs. Claus in the magical land of the North Pole fighting with the in-laws and having marital strife. The North Pole is viewed as being a land of fun and fantasy. The whole excitement behind Tim Allen’s character being Santa was that he was taken out of our ho-hum world and got to live in the wonder and excitement of a world of childhood fantasy. The problems that occur in the North Pole have to be in keeping with the realm of fantasy. In other words, everyday problems don’t occur in the North Pole, rather the problems that occur there are also fantasy in nature. Jack Frost trying to take over Santa’s workshop is fine, but not marital problems. Those problems are only allowed to occur outside the North Pole in the real world.

The bottom line is that you don’t mess with cultural icons. You have to be true to who they are and the worlds in which they live.