Steven Spielberg on why ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ was “too dark”
He’s made many powerful, moving, and hard-hitting dramas throughout his distinguished career, but Steven Spielberg has never been a filmmaker to embrace darkness.
If anything, one of the very few repeated criticisms of his work points towards the opposite, with his reliance on sentimentality often veering into saccharine territory. There’s always a ray of light in a Spielberg movie, no matter how dark the subject matter may be, but one of his crowd-pleasing blockbusters left him immensely dissatisfied with his work.
Following up one of the most popular and successful adventure films ever made is a tall order for any director, never mind one of Spielberg’s talents, with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opting to walk an entirely different path to its predecessor. Whereas Raiders of the Lost Ark was light, breezy, and brimming with derring-do, Harrison Ford’s second outing as the title character was a lot more sinister.
Tinged with elements of horror and increasing the levels of on-screen violence, Temple of Doom permanently altered the MPAA’s rating system, too, with the PG-13 banner being unveiled with Spielberg’s full support and backing after the Indiana Jones sequel proved to be too extreme for a PG but not quite excessive enough for an R.
At the time, reception to the end product was a lot more muted than it was when Raiders of the Lost Ark released, although time has proven to be kind to Temple of Doom for upending the established Indy formula. Despite that, Spielberg thought the dread-laden second instalment wasn’t reflective of who he was in the slightest.
Laurent Bouzereau and J. W. Rinzler’s book The Complete Making of Indiana Jones found Spielberg in a reflective mood, where he confessed that he “wasn’t happy with Temple of Doom at all”. Echoing the sentiments shared by many at the time, he described it as “too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific”.
Further comparing it to a recent supernatural smash hit he’d co-written, produced, and potentially ghost directed, according to various rumours, it was Spielberg’s belief that Temple of Doom had “out-poltered Poltergeist“.
Hinting that his heart wasn’t entirely in the project from the beginning, the director would suggest that “there’s not an ounce of my personal feeling in Temple of Doom“. On the plus side, he did meet Kate Capshaw during production when she was cast as Willie Scott, and they’ve been together ever since, so there was at least a personal silver lining among the professional dismay.
Spielberg has tackled some weighty events in dramas, including Empire of the Sun, Schindler’s List, and Munich, to name but three, and yet it’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that left him feeling as if he’d crossed a line.
