Harrison Ford always wanted to tell a new Indiana Jones story: ‘We didn’t dodge the hero getting older, we took advantage of it’

“Isn’t there another story?” The actor Harrison Ford, now 81 years old, kept asking about the possibility of returning to the big screen in a new performance as Indiana Jones. And finally, from Thursday, June 29, his Ecuadorian fans will be able to see that dream come true after the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fatenow directed by James Mangold (Logan).

A two-time Oscar nominee, Mangold has extensive experience telling emotionally satisfying stories about historical figures like Johnny Cash (walk the line2005)and was equally adept at dramatic stories about foreign figures. His films, often about fascinating and contradictory protagonists, are thought provoking. in the middle of the entertainment.

that experience made him the chosen one to take the lead, left by Spielberg, of Indiana Jones’ latest adventure. “He’s a director who has the same sensibility I have in terms of editing, pacing, character development and scene balance. I thought, if I don’t make another Indiana Jones movie, James Mangold should do it,” said the director of Jurassic Park.

for Mangold, the experience of watching Raiders of the Lost Ark when I was 17 years old at the Orange County Mall on opening day, in June 1981, it was unforgettable. He was fascinated by the light-hearted spirit of the classic adventure, which borrowed styles and techniques from previous decades of the cinematic art form. It was a combination of car chases, suspense, punches, romance and witty humour, with a unique modern sensibility.

“Indiana Jones is a character who always surprises us. He can be selfish and he can be empathetic, he can be brave and he can be a coward. And Harrison is able to keep all these conflicting elements going. Indiana Jones is not a Greek hero from Mount Olympus, he is a very human character. I think all his eccentricities, anxieties, neuroses and manias are part of his appeal. But he has a super power and it is that he is very luckyobserved Mangold.

While the filmmakers tried to honor the character, they felt it it was important to acknowledge the protagonist’s age, as Ford was set to turn 79 during filming. That’s why they put the movie in the late 1960s, a time when an adventurous hero of the ‘great generation’, inspired by the classic film series of the 1930s and 1940s, already seems like a relic.

“We’re not avoiding the fact that Indy is 40 years old since we tell the story, but we took advantage of it”noted Harrison Ford. “We took on the challenges he faced and brought real humanity and warmth to the story. It is an admirable work of the imagination the one created to understand the context within which the story develops. It’s very daring. Very exciting. And very brave.”

Mangold explains: “I wanted the character of Harrison to start as far away from Indy as possible so that the audience would feel the excitement of seeing him when circumstances force him to put that hat back on. In 1969, no one really believes in heroes like Indiana Jones anymore. In many ways, the adventure we came up with is a kind of reckoning between an old-school hero and an ambivalent and even more cynical modern world.”