Little known fact - my degree is in Anthropology, of which Archeology is a subdiscipline. Pretty much every lower-level archeology class at every university I attended (and there were several) started by talking about how fucked up Indiana Jones is and how the point of archeology is to study and understand cultures using physical evidence, not to steal trinkets to put in some museum.

i suspect this is an ongoing theme for dr. jones; however, we must observe "temple of doom" to be completely sure.

ha! well done, although i disagree with the conclusion. this is exactly why i don't like movies like this. all action, no results. who cares?

To be fair, the heroes were spared a face-melting fate because they closed their eyes and didn't give into the temptation of witnessing the power and wonder of the God of Judaism. This also explains your other point of why God didn't go on a more global Nazi face melting spree. The power of the Ark only affects those at ground zero, and those unworthy enough who think they can set eyes on the glory of God. I don't know how Deus Ex Machina that actually is.

Not quite off-topic: Something struck me the other day while watching Firewall. Harrison Ford is one of those actors who has managed to make a career out of almost no facial expression. Yet somehow, it works -- unlike, say, Alec Baldwin, whom we describe as a graduated of the Plywood School of Acting.

I've long said that Mr. Ford has made a whole career out a really fabulous "Oh, Shit!" expression.

Excellent point. Perhaps we should all stay home. Might not be such a bad idea.