Martinex1: This may not be your typical match-up, but if you are looking for action and adventure then who can be better to compare than Indiana Jones and James Bond. They may be of different eras but both series contain villainous masterminds seeking world domination, femme fatales, tongue-in-cheek humor, amazing stunts, and cinematic excess. I suspect many of us grew up in the decades where some of the biggest films were
Raiders of the Lost Ark, Live and Let Die, and even
Moonraker! Can't you smell the popcorn as your shoes stick to the floor? Thrills, spills, and heart racing action!
What are your movie going memories and how do these heroes compare? Who would you prefer to see in the theater? And what is your reasoning?
Get your whips and poison pens ready, it is time for a comparative battle between Ian Fleming's cold war creation James Bond and the Lucas/Spielberg archeologist Indiana Jones!
11 comments:
Greetings from the frozen North. I'm not sure I have anything wise to say but, hey, when you have a chance to beat Edo from Croatia to this site, you have to say something... anything...! I do perceive Indiana Jones and Roger Moore's Bond being fairly similar b/c Moore's version of Bond was rather nonchalant, the casual adventurer, somewhat self-deprecating. Or, to put it another way, I don't picture Indy naked in a bottomless chair getting spanked in the nether regions by a knotted rope.
As an aside, b/c my recollection was dim from 35 years, I thought that the "Romancing the Stone" series would be like Indiana Jones and checked it out two years ago. While I still enjoy watching Indy (and Bond!) I was disappointed by "Jack and 'just' Joan." Anyone else? Now to walk the dog in zero degrees F.
Oh, how can I choose between two favorites? Love both series; Indy hooked me from the first minutes of his first film. Blended fascinating archaeology with humor and action, tossed in some Nazis, and created anot irresistible franchise!
That said, I must grudgingly give the nod to Bond. With such a variety of approaches: The nearly camp humor of Moore, the cool finesse of Brosnan, the cold sharp edge of Craig, the perfect melding of Bond-ish elements in Connery. The music, the gadgets, gambling in a tux. So much good viewing...
Charlie Horse 47- Those "Joan Wilder" adventures were good fun, especially Danny DeVito. Seemed, though, like a potential franchise that never really found it's feet.
And that should be "An" irresistible franchise. Lousy autocorrect...
When I watched Romance the Stone after 30 years my children were in the room and I was surprised with the crude humor which apparently didn't register with me in my early twenties. I guess I had to grow up LOL
I was also not a fan of "Romancing the Stone." I'd have to watch it again to remember the particulars, but I remember feeling like the humor was forced and the action just okay. I think Raiders got the blend of humor and adventure just right. I like Michael Douglas, but in those movies I found him grating a bit.
I am torn on the answer to my own question. The Bond series has more clunkers that push my decision toward Indy (but the Crystal Skull movie was also not good). I think if I just considered the Connery, Lazenby, and early Moore titles I would go with Bond. if I had to pick best overall movie, then I think Raiders would win.
Hmmm, I'd have to go with Indy; Bond is a little too perfect at everything (and in the books he's almost a sociopath). Indy makes mistakes, so he's easier to relate to ... he's basically an intellectual who sometimes gets thrown into weird situations; I could see myself as Indy, but not as Bond.
I liked Romancing the Stone/Jewel of the Nile, though I haven't seen them in years. I thought the first one was better; Jewel had strange pacing problems, like part of the story was missing. But I thought Michael Douglas was convincingly swashbuckling and Kathleen Turner made a good (and sexy) "in over her head" character.
Mike Wilson
I have to go with Dr. Jones. One of my favorite fictional characters of all time. In fact he's number one on my list of greatest fictional action/adventure heroes ever created. The list goes 5. James Bond, 4. Superman, 3. Sherlock Holmes, 2. Batman, 1. Indiana Jones.
Also, even though James Bond has been featured in many more movies than Indy, none of them are quite as good as "Raiders of the Lost Ark", or "Last Crusade". IMHO
Well, Charlie, savor your victory while you can; tomorrow or Monday or something, is another day... ;)
Not as much of a Bond fan as I used to be, so I'm definitely going with Indiana Jones, albeit pretty much exclusively on the strength of Raiders, as I'm not the biggest fan of the follow-up stuff - didn't like Temple of Doom, Last Crusade was just o.k. and that last one, yeesh, awful (in my head canon, after that last scene in Raiders, Indy and Marion go on to have a bunch of swashbuckling adventures together, punching out Nazis and generally saving the world from archeologically-related threats).
Oooh man how can one choose between these two? I like both of them in differing ways - I prefer Indy's movies in terms of straight up adventure, and yes, Doctor Jones is a more relatable character than the seemingly indestructible Bond, although as Mike Wilson said in the books Bond is a much more rough-edged person than the smooth suave superspy we see in the movies.
- Mike 'one Coke please, shaken not stirred' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Make mine Bond, if only because the posters were better :-)
Apples and oranges for me.
Indiana Jones is one of my favorite modern movie characters
(yes, a 35 year old movie is modern to me).
One of the very few modern movies I got on dvd -
also got the first poster and an Indy hat.
But James Bond, to me, is the Ian Fleming books.
I read, and greatly enjoyed, those during the Cold War period;
a timely time to read those spy novels.
I could handle the Connery Bond,
but the Moore rendition put me off the movies for decades.
Later versions, outside the Cold War scenario,
just don't sit right with this Bond originalist.
D.D.Degg
Post a Comment