In the Indiana Jones movies, when they go into the non-European lands, they never show fully grown, in-their-prime masculine strength among the non-westerners native to the lands.
They might show a wise old man long past his physical prime, or a foolish young person who lacks experience, or beautiful women, or children.
But never a strong, experienced man in his prime like the hero.
There are two reasons for this.
One is that we simply got used to European colonialist tropes, and while they were not in the front of our mind, not driving the movie, the old, familiar patterns were often inadvertantly still followed.
But there is another reason.
In an Indiana Jones-type movie, there are two central things.
The hero.
And the Wonderful Thing.
In an Indiana Jones-type movie, the masculine strength is with the hero.
The hero, and the villain.
But there is something out there that is greater than the hero.
Something that the hero is seeking, something incredible, and amazing.
The Wonderful Thing.
And the non-European country, Egypt in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Syria in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, is the world of the Wonderful Thing.
Although the hero is the one with the masculine strength, the Wonderful Thing is greater than the hero.
And so is the land of the wonderful thing, the land where the Wonderful Thing and its world lies.
The non-European land.
If the non-European land had people with as much masculine power and strength as the hero, why would they need a hero from the European, Western world?
And yet the Wonderful Thing, and its world, the non-European world, is greater than the hero!
This position reflects the historical reality.
In the 19th century and most of the 20th Century, the non-western, non-European world was not strong.
As we discover what is real and wonderful in the older world beyond the western, European world, we go through an experience just like that in the Indiana Jones movie.
The Wonderful Thing is out there, in Egypt, in Arabia, in India and China and Japan.
And until recently, we needed the westerners to be the heroes because they had all the strength.
If we were to learn anything this soon, it had to be the westerners that learned.
We could wait until the East and the South recovered.
But if the modern world was to learn anything this soon, it had to be the westerners that learned.
And that's what the Hero in an Indiana Jones-style movie is really doing.
They're learning.
Only they need to defeat the bad guys too, so that there can be an action movie.
(Or maybe they don't actually need to defeat the bad guys! See the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark! But they certainly do learn, and they certainly do have an adventure!)
That's what movies like Indiana Jones really show!
The colonialist trope of only the westerners getting to be strong is not there by accident.
It is representing the historical situation that the movie is actually representing!
For in the 19th and the 20th Century, the non-Western world really was not strong, and the European Westerners really did have all the strength!
Even the Soviet Union- for the Soviet Union had little to do with old Russia, and was really following a German idea- Communism!
It had nothing to do with old Russia! The very centerpiece of the identity of old Russia- eastern Christianity- was outlawed in the Soviet Union!
Russia was colonized by westerners just like China- for Communism is a German idea!
The non-western world really was weak, all the strength really was in the west, with the Europeans.
And the Indiana Jones movies are showing how the west began to discover the true wonder of what is really out there!
And the two truly great Indiana Jones movies- the two with the Biblical artifacts from the 80's- are wonderful examples of this!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson