The archaeologist's spade
delves into dwellings
vacancied long ago,
unearthing evidence
of lifeways no one
would dream of leading now,
concerning which he has not much
to say that he can prove:
the lucky man!
Knowledge may have its purposes,
but guessing is always
more fun than knowing.
We do know that Man,
from fear or affection,
has always graved His dead.
What disastered a city,
volcanic effusion,
fluvial outrage,
or a human horde,
agog for slaves and glory,
is visually patent,
and we're pretty sure that,
as soon as palaces were built,
their rulers,
though gluttoned on sex
and blanded by flattery,
must often have yawned.
But do grain-pits signify
a year of famine?
Where a coin-series
peters out, should we infer
some major catastrophe?
Maybe. Maybe.
From murals and statues
we get a glimpse of what
the Old Ones bowed down to,
but cannot conceit
in what situations they blushed
or shrugged their shoulders.
Poets have learned us their myths,
but just how did They take them?
That's a stumper.
When Norsemen heard thunder,
did they seriously believe
Thor was hammering?
No, I'd say: I'd swear
that men have always lounged in myths
as Tall Stories,
that their real earnest
has been to grant excuses
for ritual actions.
Only in rites
can we renounce our oddities
and be truly entired.
Not that all rites
should be equally fonded:
some are abominable.
There's nothing the Crucified
would like less
than butchery to appease Him.
CODA
From Archaeology
one moral, at least, may be drawn,
to wit, that all
our school text-books lie.
What they call History
is nothing to vaunt of,
being made, as it is,
by the criminal in us:
goodness is timeless.
They're currently shooting a fifth one over here with Ford still in the lead. Apparently it's Nazis again, but it's set in the 60s, there are gonna be a bunch of flashbacks and it ties in with NASA and the moon landing.did they do a re-make yet? who would/will star? could this coloniaist "explorer" figure even find relevance in this day and age?
Yeah, Temple of Doom's definitely the worst in that regard. The locals are all portrayed as either harmless simpletons or bloodthirsty cultists, Willie screams and cries about breaking a nail, bugs etc the whole time whilst finding Indy irresistible and Short Round's just this weird caricature.By the time they made Raiders in 1981, perhaps emulating the way StarWars created an alien world in the Tunisian countryside, the producers went for studio inauthenticity rather than situating their story in the real middle east - they chose to tell a simplistic tale about cartoon Nazis and treasure with white folk galivanting around exotic orientalised backdrops like a Carry On film - the whole thing stinks of sexism and white supremacism, surprise surprise - the next episode in India was even worse in that respect iirc
Yeah, Temple of Doom's definitely the worst in that regard. The locals are all portrayed as either harmless simpletons or bloodthirsty cultists, Willie screams and cries about breaking a nail, bugs etc the whole time whilst finding Indy irresistible and Short Round's just this weird caricature.
Was gonna add "Chilled monkey brain" what a classic.
Also the really big scary guy.
I love Connery in Last Crusade, but I think Raiders edges it for me because the Ark's more mysterious than the Grail and Belloq's a great villain. Raiders also has the best theme; love the little callback when they see the painting of the Ark on the wall of the tomb in Crusade.
i watched the start of RotLA the other day, i wanted to re-visit those classic opening scenes. The pre-title chase in the "peruvian" rainforest looked clunky, and highly contrived, and the cairo scenes were obviously nowhere near - painting cosmopolitan 30's Egypt as a dusty desert town
unlike for example these luscious opening shots filmed in the same era in the gorgeous early islamic mosque of Ibn Tulun
or these gritty establishing scenes also from 1977 at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem
By the time they made Raiders in 1981, perhaps emulating the way StarWars created an alien world in the Tunisian countryside, the producers went for studio inauthenticity rather than situating their story in the real middle east - they chose to tell a simplistic tale about cartoon Nazis and treasure with white folk galivanting around exotic orientalised backdrops like a Carry On film - the whole thing stinks of sexism and white supremacism, surprise surprise - the next episode in India was even worse in that respect iirc
& these were the most iconic sequences in the whole series? i found it all rather disappointing, not up to my memory of it, and not impressive to modern viewers
did they do a re-make yet? who would/will star? could this coloniaist "explorer" figure even find relevance in this day and age?
it was nice to see Denholme Elliot though, always a twinkle in his eye
I've rewatched the first three over the last three nights and plan to rewatch the fourth tonight.have you watched any of them recently?
I watched raiders recently with neice and nephew, they both got bored before the end. Loses itself at the digging point I think, it all gets a bit bogged down. The very end is still good.have you watched any of them recently?