‘Sword vs Gun’: the movie scene that typifies Harrison Ford
He’s been one of the biggest names and most popular stars in the industry for almost half a century and played several enduringly iconic roles along the way, but as he’s pointed out on countless occasions during that period, Harrison Ford couldn’t care less.
The actor has never been interested in the trappings of fame or the additional baggage that comes with being a celebrity, and he’s never even tried to hide it. One of the easiest ways to be pierced by Ford’s thousand-yard stare is to ask him a question about the intricacies of Star Wars mythology, which he could not give less of a shit about.
His responses range from somewhere between “I don’t know” to “I don’t care”, and even when he reprised the role of Indiana Jones for a fifth time in the recent Dial of Destiny, he was as curmudgeonly as ever when telling crew members to “leave me the fuck alone” because he was simply being himself, which in this case was a man pushing 80 getting on and off a horse repeatedly.
Blade Runner is another legendary performance that he’s been happy to trash in public. He decided to become the latest distinguished veteran to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe because he thought it looked like fun. This guarantees a memorable press tour, considering that he’ll be bombarded with comic book-related questions he’ll know absolutely nothing about.
In typical Ford fashion, when he was informed that he often comes across as a bit of a grump during press engagements, he decried that opinion as “horseshit”. The point is, he’s always come across as somebody who wanted to become an actor without having even the slightest consideration of the bells and whistles that came with it, a sentiment perfectly encapsulated by one of the most memorable scenes of his career.
Everybody knows that Raiders of the Lost Ark was supposed to feature a lengthy, rehearsed, and choreographed fight scene between Indy and a sword-wielding assassin, only for the cast and crew to end up suffering under sweltering conditions and a rampant bout of dysentery. As a result, the sequence was completely tossed out in favour of a moment that’s ten times more iconic. Displaying that he can’t be arsed with hand-to-hand combat, the intrepid archaeologist simply pulls out a gun and kills his would-be assailant with a single shot.
It’s a straightforward sight gag that typifies not just Indy but Ford as a whole. Consider for a second that the assassin represents the industry at large, ominously advancing towards the protagonist as the embodiment of everything else that comes with stardom. The press coverage, the paparazzi, the intrusion, the lack of privacy, the press tours, the hype campaigns, the autograph signings, convention appearances, and the countless other external factors that are inevitably linked to the job.
Not to be too obvious, but in this instance, Indy really is Ford. He’d much rather turn up, shoot his scenes, and then go home for the day, draw a line under his involvement when production wraps, and then reappear out of nowhere the next time he’s required on set. Unfortunately, unlike Indy, he was unable to dispatch the encroaching threat with such ease.
