Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom: Willie Scott Edition

I've always loved Temple of Doom, even as the dark sheep of the original Indy Trilogy. Sure, Willie Scott (played by Kate Capshaw) was unbelievably irritating and added NOTHING at all to the movies, but it was still Harrison Ford in his prime as our favorite archaeologist-adventurer.

What Lapis set out to do would be nearly impossible without completely digitally removing Kate Capshaw, but in the end he did a fantastic job of toning down Willie's annoyingness. The edits are extremely clean and quick, and you really won't notice too much difference, though you will FEEL Willie is somewhat less screamy.

I thought the best changes were cutting Willie's dropping Indy's gun and complaining about cracking a nail (WHO CARES?! YOU'RE BEING CHASED BY PEOPLE TRYING TO KILL YOU!!), as well as completely cutting out all of her screaming at animals during the Indy/Short Round card game. In fact, the latter really does a good job of focusing on Indy and SR, letting you enjoy their relationship without being distracted by a poor joke/screaming Willie every 2 seconds. I also liked cutting Willie's 'I'm losing my voice' lines after falling off of the elephant, but I could have done with cutting her falling off too.

Ultimately, there is only so much that can be done with Temple of Doom. Spielberg himself said it was a troubled time for producer George Lucas and the two of them made a much darker film that intended. I don't have a problem with that. My issue is how horrible, annoying, and just plain arrogant the so called 'love interest' of Indy 2 was, and Lapis has done a great job of toning her down as much as possible. This fan edit as replaced the original cut in my library. Thanks Lapis!

I loved this edit very much. It reminded me what I love most about this website - fanfixes that redeem the original film and actually improve it.
Temple of Doom was always my least favourite Indiana Jones film, perhaps competing with Crystal Skull. It had a few iconic scenes, true, but I never liked Kate Capshaw's incessant screaming and whining, and Short Round always felt redundant. But Lapis Molari's edit somehow redeemed the film for me. By toning down both characters, especially in scenes where they really should have fewer antics and shenanigans, Lapis strengthened them and also allowed the bond between SR and Indy to shine.
The visual and audio editing, as you can expect from Fanedit.org, are top notch.
Well done, Lapis Molari. This fan edit will definitely replace the original cut for me.

I like Temple of Doom. For a long time it was my favorite Indiana Jones film. Today, it would probably be The Last Crusade. I don't really bother ranking them as they are all great. However, there's no denying - Willie Scott was annoying and very forgettable female sidekick. By making those little, yet so effective, trims to her character the movie improves ten fold.

Lapis Molari knocks it out of the park with this fanedit on the technical level.

I hadn't watched the film in years (I've always hated this and Crystal Skull) but was willing to watch it in fanedit form with fresh eyes.

First, the editing is flawless. I noticed no unusual cuts, audio or pacing issues. The quality is all there, so now we are left with the film itself.

This time watching it, I didn't completely hate it. And that is an improvement for me. It's still nowhere near as a good as Raiders or Last Crusade, but it's lightyears ahead of the insipid Crystal Skull (even with fanedits).

So, for a deeply flawed film, this fanedit is a great improvement. It's definitely better than the theatrical cut and it has replaced my official version on my media server.

Good job, Lapis! Good job indeed!

As someone who didn't see any Indiana Jones movie before adulthood (and even then, only saw Temple of Doom once), I can safely say this is a great edit. Nothing felt like it was missing, & whenever I did notice something was cut ("We're not sinking, we're craaashinnnnnnnng!"), I didn't mind because the cut was so seamless.

My only real complaint is that some of the cartoonish portrayal of Indian culture is still in tact. I understand you can only do so much trimming away, but the "chilled monkey brains" bit didn't need to be there, as we already know that the Maharaja & his advisor are in cahoots with the Thuggee Cult. Honestly, any edit of ToD should come with one of those content warnings like the Banned 13 Looney Tunes cartoons, since this movie can be a bit yikes for some people.

Still, I do think Temple of Doom is a great movie & this is another solid edit from Lapis. I didn't even realize it was their first edit for the site, so extra kudos in that regard.