Best Film of 2000 B.C.E. - 2009 C.E.

Modern Depiction of the Tree of Life

Okay you culture snobs, I think it goes without saying that you have been purposely avoiding the inclusion of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on your "best of 2008" lists. Spielberg's long-anticipated magnum opus clearly operates on levels of esoteric beauty and significance what has slipped under the radar. It is the timeless, cross-cultural story of the messiah archetype's journey to an ultimate reality, the Hindu concept of moksha.

Jesus-Buddha-Muhammad

Prof. Henry Jones Senior, Dr. Henry Jones Junior, and the recently-introduced Henry "Mutt Williams" Jones the third are a characterisation of the Christian idea of the Holy Trinity, expressed as a dharmic henotheistic representation. Jones Sr. is the foundational father, Yaweh, Brahma, or otherwise considered: he has paved the foundational structure upon which our road to enlightenment will be built upon. He is followed by the Jesus-Buddha figure, Indiana, who is the messiah and martyr figure. Spielberg ingeniously harkens us back nearly three decades to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Indiana is crucified for trying to protect the Ark of the Covenant.

Vanguards of the New Era of Enlightenment

The ark represents not only the four cardinal virtues of both Christian and Platonist philosophy in it's fourfold geometry and tenfold (remember that in the base ten number system, ten is the unit comprised of four even quarters) commandments, but also by it's super-mundane presence in the Jungian fact of collective consciousness. The ark is the sacred knowledge of law, which Yaweh (Henry Jones Sr.) had long sought to protect alongside the blessed knowledge of all, enlightenment: the holy grail, out of which Jesus (Indiana) drank ambrosia (the Holy Water) and was bestowed with the knowledge of good & evil (and thus cured His Father, at the expense of being banished from the Garden of Eden, thus resulting in the ultimate destruction of treasury of Petra). However, this is deviating from the original topic.

A combination of Jung's "Abusive Mother" archetype and Frudian facts of the Oedipus Complex, Spielberg has all the bases covered and watched vigilantly.

Following Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the ultimate successor of the Jones lineage is found by a supernatural search: the Dalai Lama, "Junior Junior", is revealed as the perfect completion of the Triple Goddess' form.

Vishnu the Destroyer & Jesus the Preserver

Try watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull again with these thoughts in mind, and see if you have a change of heart. Next week I will delve further into the symbolism as it applies to the movie's turning points and thematic developments.