The director of the Disney Grooming Syndicate’s box office flop Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is blaming fans for the movie’s failure.
James Mangold believes it was all about ageism, that no one wanted to see an 80-year-old Harrison Ford play Indiana Jones. Here’s how he rationalized his failure in a recent interview:
You have a wonderful, brilliant actor who’s in his eighties. So I’m making a movie about this guy in his eighties, but his audience on one other level doesn’t want to confront their hero at that age. And I am like, I’m good with it. We made the movie. But the question is, how would anything have made the audience happy with that, other than having to start over again with a new guy? And then here come lifelong heroes from my childhood into my life going, ‘We have something for you to work on.’ It was a joyous experience, but it hurt in the sense that I really love Harrison and I wanted audiences to love him as he was and to accept that that’s part of what the movie has to say—that things come to an end, that’s part of life.
Good grief. Gimme a break, Mangold.
When entertainers and artists are reduced to blaming the dogs for not eating the dog food, that is the sorriest form of rationalization and not a very good sign for the future. Adults learn from their failures. That’s part of being an adult. Rejection is a tool that should teach us to moderate, tinker, change, and by extension, grow.
Blaming the customers is stupid and arrogant.
Blaming the customers over Ford’s age is just a lie.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) didn’t make two billion dollars because of dishwater dull Daisy Ridley. It was Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher who put butts in seats. Harrison Ford was 73 in 2015. Carris Fisher was 59.
What killed Dial of Destiny were reviews, where even the positive ones expressed disappointment, combined with the stench of the wretched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) that came before, and the even worse stench of woke. Not only did the Dial of Destiny trailer reveal cheap green screen work, it revealed yet another treasured movie hero emasculated by a sexless girlboss. Who the hell wants to look at much less listen to Phoebe Waller-Bridge for 150 minutes?
The fact that an Indiana Jones movie. Allow me to repeat that — An. Indiana. Jones. Movie. — lost $150 million is not the fault of anyone but a bunch of smug and out-of-touch filmmakers who felt the need to “correct” what was “wrong” with what everyone loved about the original.
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