Dan's Media Digest

OLD HEROES

A famous UK movie magazine has a "25 Years Of Indy" feature in their current issue, celebrating Steven Spielberg's classic Raiders Of The Lost Ark. The front cover has Harrison Ford in his iconic regalia; four-day stubble, hat, jacket, whip...

It got me thinking.

Indiana Jones 4 is slowly grinding its way into production after numerous false starts. I swear that movie must be rivalling Alien 3 for the number of drafts and script rewrites it's endured! Anyway, my point is that if Indiana Jones 4 gets off the ground, Harrison Ford will be returning to the role in his 60s!

He's an old hero. It will be interesting to see how different Indy is in the new film, but also weird to see a character you still imagine in his prime, now being so weathered by age.

Of course, aging is a constant of life. We all get old and eventually die. But movie actors have a sort of longevity because their work will outlive them. You don't think of Marlon Brando as an overweight old man, you think of him as The Godfather.

It's a blessing and a curse. Actors are constantly reminded that they're getting older, while the rest of us are blissfully unaware until the dreaded home videos and photo albums are brought up every year. Maybe this is why so many actors get plastic surgery?

Anyway... it's becoming something of a trend that aging Hollywood stars are attempting to resurrect their careers at a late age. Arnold Schwarzenegger sucked in his stomach, wore a bulky leather jacket, and was filmed from flattering angles under special lighting for Terminator 3. Sylvester Stallone is about to release the sixth Rocky film (and a fourth Rambo film is planned), but at least both plots will reference the aging of the character.

Bruce Willis has successfully aged onscreen and generally kept his action man status. Die Hard 4 is just round the corner, too. Jackie Chan is still going strong (but is rumoured to be taking it slower in recent years), but Jet Li is said to have retired from martial arts.

The strange thing is that foreign movie stars don't care so much about getting old. It's natural and expected that youthful action stars will evolve into mentors and grizzled veterans. The roles will adapt to their age, but they never lose their personalities and always command respect from the next generation.

I like to think this view will become the norm for Western audiences. Michael Douglas has recently ruled out a return to roles similar to his Jack Colton role in Romancing The Stone or Basic Instinct, but the likes of Paul Newman still exude the class and charm they always had.

So I can't wait for Indiana Jones 4. Harrison Ford may be older now... but so what? If Indy was a real person, he'd get older like the rest of us, and he'd still be chasing archaeological relics. He'd just avoid those gruelling punch-ups and perhaps not put quite as much wrist-flick into his whip...