Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | |
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Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
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Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
Produced by | Robert Watts |
Screenplay by | |
Story by | George Lucas |
Starring | |
Music by | John Williams |
Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
Edited by | Michael Kahn |
Production
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Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | |
Budget | $28.2 million |
Box office | $333.1 million |
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones franchise and a prequel to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark and followed by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989 and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. After arriving in North India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic and ritual human sacrifice in honor of the goddess Kali.
Executive producer and co-writer George Lucas decided to make the film a prequel as he did not want the Nazis to be the villains again. After three rejected plot devices, Lucas wrote a film treatment that resembled the film's final storyline. Lawrence Kasdan, Lucas's collaborator on Raiders of the Lost Ark, turned down the offer to write the script, and Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz were hired as his replacements, with the screenplay partly based upon the 1939 film Gunga Din.
The film was released to financial success but mixed reviews, which criticized its violence, later contributing to the creation of the PG-13 rating. However, critical opinion has improved since 1984, citing the film's intensity and imagination. Some of the film's cast and crew, including Spielberg, retrospectively view the film in a negative light, partly due to the film being the most overtly violent Indiana Jones film. The film has also been the subject of controversy due to its portrayal of India and Hinduism.