PART II: |
The
Son Becomes the Father,
and the Father the Son |
Four years shy of the
100th anniversary of the publication of King
Solomon's Mines, a new kind of adventure
hero slammed onto the big screen. In Raiders
of the Lost Ark, the world's definition
of adventure was redefined in the name, Indiana
Jones. The ways in which this character changed
the landscape of adventure filmmaking are countless
and have been analyzed numerous times in numerous
ways. Needless to say, Hollywood studios ran to
the vaults to find properties they could mine
to mimic the success of Indiana Jones.
The phenomenon was not new. When
George Lucas' previous creation, Star
Wars, was a box office smash, movie studios
and independent producers ran to find their own
Star Wars. Sometimes,
they tried to do something new and “original”
like Battlestar Galactica,
but Star Wars
was most notably responsible for resurrecting
the properties and characters that had originally
inspired it. Studios brought back Buck
Rogers and Flash
Gordon in new movies and television shows
to compete with the galaxy far, far away.
Special effects houses were rejuvenated
and audiences became hungrier and more sophisticated
in their tastes for action and awe-inspiring visuals.
The adventure serials were good in their day,
but would not fly before the eyes of then-modern
audiences. Action films were being edited with
more rapid pacing and certainly more dangerous
stunt work was incorporated. With films like Bullitt
and The French Connection
in the late 1960s and early 1970s showing studios
that audiences wanted a good helping of visceral
action realism in their adventure films, the tide
in filmmaking was turning.
Similarly, movie studios tried
to recapture the adventure serial on their own
terms after Raiders of
the Lost Ark, with films like High
Road to China and Romancing
the Stone. Some enterprising independent producers,
Golan-Globus, dusted off Allan Quatermain's safari
hat 35 years after the 1950
version of King Solomon's
Mines and brought him back to audiences.
This time, however, Quatermain would be influenced
by Indiana Jones and not always to the character's
benefit.
1985: “Indy”pendent Producers Mire
the Great White Hunter

1985 version. |
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The
1985
version of King
Solomon's Mines, starring
Richard Chamberlain as Allan Quatermain and Sharon
Stone as Jessie Huston, a young woman in search
of her lost father, is clearly a cheap ripoff
of the Indiana Jones character. Aside from a few
story references to King
Solomon's Mines, Quatermain's
helper Umbopa, renamed Umbopo, and the mythical
mountains called the Breasts of Sheba, it is all
but a cheap attempt to carbon copy the Indiana
Jones franchise.
For one, Quatermain is now an American
for the first time, and he carries a large Webley
MKVI pistol and a sawed-off shotgun. For someone
who's supposed to be the great white hunter, he
really doesn't have any weaponry conducive to
that end. This new Quatermain also has a penchant
for sticks of dynamite. He's a goofy cad of a
guy with cheesy one-liners at every turn.
The first scene, in which we are
introduced to the villain, played by Raiders-alum
John Rhys-Davies, an evil Turk, takes place in
a cheap version of the Cairo bazaar. A fight breaks
out and Jessie is wrapped up in an oriental rug.
Basket chase, anyone? Audiences are also treated
to an alligator pit and a room of spikes later
in the movie.

Richard Chamberlain
as Quatermain. |
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Some kernels of Haggard's story
survive, including the restoration of Umbopa,
er... Umbopo, to the throne of the Kukuana Tribe,
but oddly his “real” name is Twala,
which is actually the name of the usurper in the
original book. The evil witch, Gagool, also makes
a return in this version of the story, sadly as
a hammy cartoon caricature.
The film's time line has also been
pushed up 30 years to take place during World
War I. This gives the filmmakers a ham handed
excuse to use Germans as villains just as Raiders
so effectively did. In set pieces not so well-made
as in the Indiana Jones series, Quatermain loses
his safari leader roots and instead is a cheapened
Indy, fighting Germans on a moving train and getting
dragged behind the locomotive. There are airplane
chases and cannibalistic natives all while they
seek to find King Solomon's Mines and the treasures
within. There is also the inclusion of a rousing
Jerry Goldsmith theme, very akin to John Williams
treatment of the Indiana Jones music.
If the influence of Indiana Jones
isn't clear enough in this first installment,
the second film, Allan
Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold should
make it obvious. Also very loosely based on a
Haggar story of Allan Quatermain, our heroes search
for the legendary City of Gold and come face to
face with the leader of a dark cult who sacrifices
his own people in a vat of molten gold. Temple
of Doom anyone? Deleted scenes in this
second film would have Quatermain using a bullwhip,
as if the connection wasn't obvious enough already.
Story in these films is sacrificed
for speed and “action,” which is too
bad as all of the mystery and intrigue of the
original novel is lost. Had they taken a page
from Raiders of the Lost
Ark, the producers would have seen that
a few slow moments to build suspense and story
go a long way. The 1980s version of King
Solomon's Mines is an attempt to cash in
on Indiana Jones' wake. The solid literary character
of Haggard's novels that is at his core a kind
of father of the Indiana Jones concept is regurgitated
in a pale imitation of the character he inspired.
2004: Indiana Quatermain and the Spirit of Compromise

2004 version. |
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By
2004, the first three installments of the Indiana
Jones series had come and gone, as had other adventure
franchises like The
Mummy and Tomb
Raider. With that passing came digital special
effects and a penchant for longer stories based
on literature thanks to the successes of the Harry
Potter and The
Lord of the Rings films.
In this new, adaptation-friendly
environment, Hallmark took on the task of finally
bringing Allan Quatermain back in a 3-hour
miniseries, and this time around, the producers
had a clear vision of what the 21st century take
on Quatermain should be about. Quatermain became
part hunter, part cowboy and part Indiana Jones.
Clearly influenced by the excellent
character development within the Indiana Jones
films, this King Solomon's
Mines draws a new picture of Quatermain
as a man fighting for custody of his son and despite
his doubts about the legendary mines, needs the
money it would bring to regain his child. Patrick
Swayze plays an excellent, albeit American, Quatermain
with the serious experience of Stewart Granger's
portrayal and the rugged action hero traits made
popular by Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones.

Patrick Swayze as Quatermain. |
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But Indiana Jones' influence on
this King Solomon's Mines
is evident as they incorporate a malignant group
of pre-World War I Russians who shadow Quartermain
and his friends, who include Khiva once again,
this time less of a tribal African and more of
a Westernized African, as well as Alison Doody
of Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade playing Elizabeth Maitland,
the woman who hires Quatermain to find her father.
Henry Curtis returns in this version
as well, but not as the young adventurer of the
original 1937 film or the husband of the heroine
as in the 1950 version. This time, he is back
in the expedition as Quatermain's longtime friend
and wizened older safari veteran, making sure
that true to modern sensibilities the title character
becomes the younger, most robust character. This
is an interesting change from the days when Haggard
wrote the original story and the 1937 film in
which Quatermain is the oldest one in the group
and he is the hero because he has the most experience
and the most knowledge, while Curtis becomes the
young fist-swinging compatriot. Truly a sign of
our times that these characters have come down
through literally the centuries and evolved in
this way.
With Indiana Jones a successful
template to rejuvenate Haggard's story, the 2004
film borrows and modifies interesting elements
and does not tiredly rip off whole ideas like
the 1985 version. Instead, we are treated to an
ancient map, some lost landmarks and tombs and
plenty of action, with fistfights and gun battles,
damsels in distress who can still throw their
own punches like Marion Ravenwood, and peril from
both the natives and the agents of an enemy government.
Sounds like the best elements of an Indiana Jones
movie, doesn't it?

2004 version of Umbopa. |
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The Kukuana Tribe in this film has
the same dignity of the 1950 version and Twala
is a malicious and modern version of his previous
incarnations. Twala is effectively foiled by a
zen-like and wizened-beyond-his-years version
of Umbopa who is part Ghandi and part Yoda in
his intelligence and determination.
One of the most fascinating evolutions
in this version is the depiction of Gagool, the
witch. She is neither loyal to Twala or against
him. Rather, she sees the future and is loyal
only to the course of time. Gagool is not merely
a raving witch doctor or screaming old woman.
In this film, she is young but timeless and clearly
a potentially dangerous and deadly foe to cross.
The writers have made her a rich, multi-layered
character.
The final brush stroke left behind
by Indiana Jones on this
version of King Solomon's
Mines is the inclusion of traps in the
mines themselves and Quatermain finds himself
facing off against his traitorous protege in an
underground chamber with a floor that has spears
which come up from the masonry at just the wrong
time, making the ensuing fistfight even more perilous.
In the years since Indiana Jones,
the adaptations of Haggard's famous adventure
hero, Allan Quatermain have come full circle.
Where once they were a major influence on the
heroes of modern cinema, Quatermain has now been
reborn by the characters he helped inspire. The
son becomes the father and the father the son.
What matters most is that moviegoers and adventure
story lovers reap the immense benefits.
So, whether it's a brown fedora
or a wide-brimmed British safari hat, rest assured
that both Webley-carrying men of action will continue
into the foreseeable future together as the adventure
heroes by which all others are measured and inspired.
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