The Classic Adventure That Created Indiana Jones, A Rare Perfect Movie

By Jennifer Asencio
| Published 30 seconds ago

Before there was Indiana Jones, there was the 1939 classic movie, Gunga Din. The character at the heart of the franchise we know and love is a homage to the swashbuckling heroes of the 1930s and 40s, with Gunga Din so much at the heart of the tribute that one of Dr. Jones’s adventures challenges the same enemies. In 1999, Gunga Din was included in the United States National Film Registry in recognition of its historic contribution to cinema.

Gunga Din is based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling about a brave Indian water bearer who saves a British Army soldier, despite the soldier treating the Indian with colonial contempt and derision. The poem is told from the soldier’s perspective and salutes the water bearer who gave his life to save the soldier’s.

Attack Of The Thuggee Cult

In the movie, there are three soldiers: Cutter, Ballantine, and MacChesney, all close friends and adventuresome enlistees in the British Army, serving in India in the late 1800s. Cutter, played by the classic leading man Cary Grant, is a fortune hunter who is constantly getting into trouble as he seeks treasure in the Indian countryside. MacChesney is in charge of the company’s elephants, including one named Annie, who he treats like his own baby. Ballantine, much to his friends’ dismay, announces that he is leaving the service at the encroaching end of his tour to get married and go into the tea business.

Nevertheless, none of these men are afraid to get into a tumble, so when a British outpost suddenly goes silent, they are sent with troops to investigate. Their group is attacked by the mysterious Thuggee, thought to be a cult to the Hindu death goddess Kali. The squad is nearly decimated, and the British Army has to figure out how to deal with the Thuggee terrorists.

Chemistry Carries The Movie

Lurking on the sidelines is Gunga Din, the titular water bearer, who desperately wants to be a soldier himself. Cutter takes a liking to him, and in return, he tells Cutter about a golden temple in the mountains, igniting the soldier’s lust for treasure. But the quest for fortune and glory brings Cutter and his friends more than they bargained for and could lead to the defeat of the British Army.

The chemistry of the three stars, the smarmy Cary Grant, the burly Victor MacLaglen, and the heartthrob Douglas Fairbanks Jr., is a great deal of what carries the movie, despite it being named for the water bearer. Their behavior toward each other is a dance of manly social maneuvering, complete with teasing, tricking, stealing from, and even fighting with one another, but always loyal to each other to the end.

The Ultimate Boys Action-Adventure Movie

At its heart, Gunga Din is a boy’s action-adventure film about Army guys getting into fantastic adventures. The film also stars contemporary female lead Joan Fontaine, but it is no accident that Annie the Elephant gets more screen time. Even Ballantine has no time for sissy girls when the going gets tough. It is a masterpiece of male bonding, with the trio’s hijinks punctuated by their interactions with one another and how well they know each other, especially in the midst of a fight.

And Gunga Din has a lot of fighting: fistfights, explosive skirmishes, and the final high-stakes battle that pulls out all the stops. Don’t be fooled by the early-Hollywood special effects, because Gunga Din was a large-scale production that was revolutionary for its time. However, it is also very family-friendly despite all the action, since it reflected early Hollywood sensibilities about depicting violence.

A California Adventure

Although the movie was shot entirely in California, its cinematography is so magical that it seamlessly transports the viewer to India’s northwest frontier, so much so that Fairbanks, Jr. once observed that Indian people he met in his travels believed the film was shot in their homeland. From wide shots of mountain vistas and drilling troops in martial exercises to intimate scenes of murder and male bonding, the movie’s camera work is so celebrated that it is studied in film schools to this day and has been required viewing on numerous film sets.

However, Gunga Din is also a product of its time. The role of Gunga Din is played by Sam Jaffe, who is not Indian, nor are the major Indian characters, the Guru or Chota, played by Indian actors. All three wear blackface in the film. This should be taken as a byproduct of the era, not a condemnation of the film, but less educated viewers might judge it harshly through a modern lens.

Gunga Din’s Similarities To Indiana Jones

It’s easy to see this movie echoed throughout the adventures of Indiana Jones. Temple of Doom shares many plot elements and characteristics with Gunga Din, and not just because they share a villainous organization in the Thuggee cult. There are numerous references to events concurrent with the earlier film, including entire characters that are tributes to its ideas: a British soldier defends the Empire’s colonialism, while a mad guru leads the Thuggee in their terrible plan.

Stephen Spielberg has repeatedly said that Temple of Doom is his least favorite film in the franchise, calling the 1984 sequel too dark and horrific and saying it “out-poltergeist-ed Poltergeist.” This is disappointing because Temple of Doom is a loving tribute to the film that inspired it, putting Indiana Jones into the role of Cutter as he seeks “fortune and glory” by hunting down the Shankara Stones for a small Indian village. From there, the adventure Indy and his friends go on is, in essence, the same one as Cutter and Din’s trek out to the golden temple.

Unfortunately, Gunga Din is not streaming free on any major services. However, it can be streamed for a fee on Amazon, and it’s well worth buying the DVD, especially since it is a fun movie for the whole family.

Gunga Din created the framework for most of the action-adventure movies you love today. Best of all, it’s endlessly rewatchable as a self-contained, neatly wrapped package that requires no embellishment, gritty remake, or computer-generated action.