Indiana Jones Star John Rhys-Davies Slams The Dial Of Destiny
by Witney Seibold · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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James Mangold's 2023 adventure film "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" was met with a lot of ambivalence back when it was first released, and star John Rhys-Davies, who has played the role of Sallah in two of the previous movies, wasn't fond of the way it turned out either. In a video interview posted on the Off/Frame Instagram account, Rhys-Davies admitted to being very disappointed in the film, largely because it focused too much on all-new characters, rather than on Indy (Harrison Ford), and himself:
"I'll be honest with you, I was very disappointed in it. The film is meant to be a nostalgia film. They filled the cast up with people we had never met before, so there can be no nostalgia, really. I found the scenes that I'd been promised in the thing were cut immediately after I signed the contract. I think it's a disappointing film."
"Dial of Destiny," despite catching up with Indiana Jones in the year 1969, and featuring Sallah in a small role, was more focused on the adventures of the irascible Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Indy's adult goddaughter and something of a con woman who sells artifacts on the black market. Helena is a great character, I'd say, but Rhys-Davies has a point in that the movie was a little too focused on her, and not on the nostalgic characters the audience paid money to see.
And as an actor, of course, he has every right to be upset about his part being reduced after he signed his contract to appear in the movie. Rhys-Davies doesn't go into detail about what larger role Sallah was to play in "Dial of Destiny," but in the finished film he certainly doesn't play a major role at all.
John Rhys-Davies hated that Antonio Banderas wasn't given more to do
John Rhys-Davies also noted that Antonio Banderas appears in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," and that he wasn't utilized correctly either. Banderas plays a frogman named Renaldo whose screentime is very brief indeed. Regarding Banderas, Rhys-Davies said:
"And what is tragic, really, is ... I mean, there are a number of tragic things. I mean, Banderas, the most exciting actor of his generation. [...] I think he's a wonderful actor. But, really, what a terrible thing to do to him.
Some might defend the tone and the visuals of "Dial of Destiny," which are largely accurate to Steven Spielberg's Indy movies, but no one could argue that Antonio Banderas or John Rhys-Davies were used well. Perhaps the filmmakers didn't want to write a 2023 adventure story with two actors — Ford and Rhys-Davies — who were born in the 1940s.
It certainly could have been cheaper. "Dial of Destiny" was, according to some reports, a $419 million movie, making it possibly one of the most expensive movies of all time. This means that its worldwide box office total of just under $384 million didn't come close to turning a profit. /Film even saw the writing on the wall a week before the movie's release: "Dial of Destiny" wasn't going to make nearly enough.
Now, had the filmmakers scaled back on the film's action mayhem and caught up with an elderly Indiana Jones and Sallah who spent their time in libraries and slowly trekking into quiet caves, maybe you could have had something. Perhaps John Rhys-Davies could have played a much more central role. But then, an action-light Indiana Jones movie might be anathema to the nature of the character.
We're all still a little ambivalent about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
It has only been a few years since the release of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," and the film doesn't seem to have undergone any kind of major relitigation in that time. The weary ambivalence towards the legacy sequel still seems to be firmly in place.
Reviews of "Dial of Destiny" were generally good, but no critic seemed to be all that overwhelmed. /Film's review, by Lex Briscuso, was positive, giving the film an eight out of 10, and said that "the film has a fun plot that feels completely true to the sense of adventure the series has always brought to its audience."
Although Owen Gleiberman's review in Variety just as accurately called it "a dutifully eager but ultimately rather joyless piece of nostalgic hokum." "Dial of Destiny" was the first Indiana Jones movie not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, and the entire affair felt like a tired victory lap with many new figures juggling the baton. It didn't help that star Harrison Ford was almost 81 when the movie was released to the public. He was hardly the same action star he was in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," released 42 years prior, and wasn't as well-suited for the fighting and whip-swinging the character was better known for.
"Dial of Destiny" isn't a low-quality embarrassment, but it's also simultaneously too large and too small. It only ever felt like a means to milk more money out of 1980s I.P., and never a serious step in the evolution of the character. John Rhys-Davies wasn't the only one who was disappointed.