Racism, ratings and revenge: Revisiting Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the haunted Scottish castle.

That was the original pitch for the sequel to the 1981 mega hit, Raiders of the Lost Ark (Raiders).

A follow-up was always going to be inevitable because director Steven Spielberg and writer/producer George Lucas, along with their business partners, had agreed to make a trilogy before the first film blitzed the box office.

Now, the Indiana Jones trilogy is back in cinemas in Australia (yes, it’s a trilogy, we don’t speak of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

But don’t listen to anyone who says you should skip Temple of Doom, because it’s a worthy — if often misunderstood — follow-up to Raiders.

Dark times

Horror was on the map for Temple of Doom because Lucas wanted to match the dark tone of his…