Peruvian Indy Jacket

Indiana Joe · Post by **Indiana Joe** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:12 am

The Hovitos were native and naked. It's hot and humid in the jungle so why bother with clothing?

Indy was well-travelled and clothed. He surely knew of nomadic desert tribes completely clothed to protect themselves from the sand and sun.

So we find the opening scene to one of our beloved, Oscar-nominated films. Indy is not only wearing a long sleeve shirt and pants but a leather jacket as well.

Now, some of you may recall some of _'s statements in a thread from last year. http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... eve+length

The question is at what temperature do you stop wearing the jacket? I honestly wear it in the low 80's and have no problem with the heat. I'm just thinking that Indy must've been dealing with some serious jungle temps and humidity so high you could drink the air. Do you endure some high temps to get the Indy look with the leather jacket?

Also, why would Indy be wearing the jacket in the jungle and not on the streets of Cairo?

IndianaJames · Post by **IndianaJames** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:17 am

I always contemplated this, and why he wore it in the LC while riding a horse across the desert!! My conclusion, simply for some level of protection agains flying darts, spears, dirt roads, or tank treads. This is my theory of course leaving out the fact that in real life he wore it because the director wanted him to and it was the costume....

Cheers
I J

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:28 am

Bugs, my friends.

Honestly, I come from a place that is ridden with bugs, second only to jungles.

They will, and I @#$% you not, eat you to death if you are not properly protected. They can bite through a shirt, but a jacket is another story,.

Thats my theory anyway.

Regards,

Farn

Indiana Texas-girl · Post by **Indiana Texas-girl** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:38 am

I wouldn't doubt it. I was out cracking whips last weekend and saw the biggest mosquitoes ever! They were as wide as a quarter. I could see their face! The head reminded me of the Aliens monster (Sigourney WEaver movie). Then a few days later a spot below my elbow swells up and I'm getting a cold with slight nausea...I am now wondering if I might have the West Nile Virus...my symptoms match up pretty close:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnil ... mptoms.htm

Or maybe I'm just paranoid, but I do have a cold and possible light fever. I hope it's paranoia. Any doctors out there?-(real ones, not Dr. Henry Jones etc)

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 1:00 am

Go get yerself checked out! ASAP!

When it comes to disease, you can never be too careful!

Post by **Ken** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 7:16 am

I think he wore the jacket because it just looked darn cool.

Ken

PS - Holly sorry to hear you arent feeling so great - you should defenitly go see a doctor!

agent5 · Post by **agent5** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 11:14 am

I wear mine until I feel hot. Seems too simple to me.

RonC · Post by **RonC** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 11:34 am

I've spent a couple of hours in jungles from time to time..it is NOT a place to go lightly dressed...unless one happens to hark from there! Seriously, I wore long sleeves, buttoned down, long pants, had a scarf around my neck....and was wearing a hat (no, I WISH it had been a fedora like Indy's!...actually it was a broad-brimmed boonie hat). The comments about the insects are absolutely correct...almost everything that crawls or flies in the tropics will bite and/or sting you

...not to mention the effects of things like black palm. And remember, not all "jungles" are incredibly hot places....there are some tropical forests at rather high altitudes....including some in Peru!

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 1:21 pm

agent5 Posted:

I wear mine until I feel hot. Seems too simple to me.

Hey woah...what? umm...I don't understand...

Crazy 'LOGIC' or whatever you call it...sheesh...

Gater · Post by **Gater** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 4:12 pm

On the other head of the coin, what about cold? I've worn my Predistressed cow in Ottawa blizzards, and -20's Celsius. Only problem was that the jacket is too tight for a sweater, or sweatshirt (MotB aside!) but it held up well. I have the satin liner, so a cotton liner might even be warmer. As for heat, I can only wear it out til around mid-to-high teens celsius, but I'm sure the lighter lamb would last into the low-20's. I have to agree with the bugs theory, tho. Wading thru Peruvuan jungles is a good way to be 'squitter food!

Henry Jones Sr. · Post by **Henry Jones Sr.** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 4:39 pm

Indiana Texas-girl wrote:I wouldn't doubt it. I was out cracking whips last weekend and saw the biggest mosquitoes ever! They were as wide as a quarter. I could see their face! The head reminded me of the Aliens monster (Sigourney WEaver movie).etc)

WOW, ITG!

Now I knew that the mosquito was the state bird of Minnesota (the state, not the Gearhead!), and for years I've heard about Texas-sized things, but I didn't know they grew those big in Texas, too!

Seriously, ITG, you should not mess around with any symptoms like that. Better to get it professionally checked out and treated. Get thyself to a physician, you whippersnapper!

Take care of yourself.

Regards,

Henry Jones, Sr.

Fedora · Post by **Fedora** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 4:39 pm

I always thought the jacket to be too hot in a humid jungle, but at the same time this memory from my childhood comes to mind. Nowadays, around here in the South, no one wears long sleeved shirts. It seems ludicrous to even consider it. But.....when I was a kid, growing up on a farm, my Dad, Uncles, and Grandpa all wore long sleeve shirts in the summertime. The old folks knew how harmful the sun was, and all sported farmer tans. Tan face and neck, with the white ring topping off the head, right above the eyes. Like I said, no one does that anymore, and you might be sent off to the nut house if you walked around dressed like the old ones did. Of course I think skin cancer is a booming business now with the doctors.

I think if I were going to any environment, and had to rough it, I would want some protective clothing just in case. Course, I may have been carrying that leather jacket instead of wearing it.

Fedora

Indiana Cojones · Post by **Indiana Cojones** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 7:41 pm

Indiana Texas-girl wrote:I wouldn't doubt it. I was out cracking whips last weekend and saw the biggest mosquitoes ever! They were as wide as a quarter. I could see their face! The head reminded me of the Aliens monster (Sigourney WEaver movie). Then a few days later a spot below my elbow swells up and I'm getting a cold with slight nausea...I am now wondering if I might have the West Nile Virus...my symptoms match up pretty close:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnil ... mptoms.htm

Or maybe I'm just paranoid, but I do have a cold and possible light fever. I hope it's paranoia. Any doctors out there?-(real ones, not Dr. Henry Jones etc)

Actually, that sounds like a Crane fly, which look very similar but get quite large (and are found in the Southwest): http://www.arbovirus.health.nsw.gov.au/ ... ipulid.jpg

As for West Nile, don't get too freaked out. 80% of people who contract WNV never even know they're sick. It's only a small percentage of people that develop serious complications, and those are generally children, the elderly, or anything with a compromised immune system.

Here in Colorado, we've had over 1,400 diagnosed cases of West Nile, and 26 deaths. Since 80% of people never know they're sick, that means we've had about 7,000 cases in Colorado, with only 26 deaths.

Unless you really start to feel sick, save your money and skip the doctor.

schwammy · Post by **schwammy** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 7:52 pm

Fedora's got an excellent point - if you look at any photo taken before about 1965, the men are usually wearing a long-sleeve shirt and tie, and often a jacket as well, regardless of weather. It was the uniform.

As regards Raiders, Harrison Ford has a reputation for being particular about costuming and about logic within the script. I believe he was storyboarded to be wearing the jacket in the Cario scenes. I expect that the 130-degree temperatures caused him to make an executive decision to lose the jacket. Why he wore it in Last Crusade is beyond me. Why he wore a necktie in Last Crusade is beyond me. Last Crusade is beyond me, period.

It's an interesting question about the jungle vs. the desert however. I know the danger of heat exhaustion is greater in humidity than in dry air, as humidity prevents perspiration from evaporating as quickly, causing the body to overheat.

The Peruvian jungle scenes, which of course were shot in Hawaii, are the first scenes of the film, so I suppose they wanted to establish what the character looked like and what he wore. I used to live in Hawaii, and it's almost always warm there, but certainly nothing like the Tunisian desert would be. And it's not that humid, what with the trade winds. I recall reading that there were lots of mosquitos where they were filming, so the bug theory seems sensible. From a purely fictional point of view, since it was supposed to be the Peruvian jungle, maybe Indy was concerned about snakes. Fortunately, snakes aren't native to the Hawaiian islands, although we used to get the occasional brown tree snake hiding in the landing gear of Air Force planes coming over from Guam.

Indiana Texas-girl · Post by **Indiana Texas-girl** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 11:21 pm

Actually, that sounds like a Crane fly, which look very similar but get quite large

Nope, it had a bigger head and it stung me where I killed one. That spot actually swole up pretty big about 2 days later. If my symptoms get worse, I'll go to the doctor. I have too much going on at work next week to squeeze a doctor's visit in. Being a teacher, it's really tough to just up and leave work when you have a classroom full of kids and meetings after they leave. So I try to avoid doctor visits at all costs because it's more of a hassle and creates more stress trying to find the time to go. But yeah, if I were dying, I'd make the time. If it turns out serious, I'll let you all know.

Peacock's Eye · Post by **Peacock's Eye** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 9:45 am

Beyond heat and humidity, it rains a heck of a lot in tropical jungles and rainforests. It might not be a good place to wear a leather jacket. In fact, many people who frequent these places recommend wearing synthetic clothing, because it dries fairly quickly.

schwammy · Post by **schwammy** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 12:16 pm

Peacock's Eye wrote:Beyond heat and humidity, it rains a heck of a lot in tropical jungles and rainforests. It might not be a good place to wear a leather jacket. In fact, many people who frequent these places recommend wearing synthetic clothing, because it dries fairly quickly.

Good point. I guess synthetic material wasn't really available until the end of World War II though. Bakelite, invented before 1920, was the first completely synthetic substance, but it wasn't until the wartime shortages that, for example, rayon was marketed as a replacement for silk.

According to my Gibson & Barnes catalog, they discontinued leather jackets after WWII in favor of sythetics. I love that they've brought them back, though.

The_Edge · Post by **The_Edge** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 2:05 pm

Fedora wrote:I always thought the jacket to be too hot in a humid jungle, but at the same time this memory from my childhood comes to mind. Nowadays, around here in the South, no one wears long sleeved shirts. It seems lucicrous to even consider it. But.....when I was a kid, growing up on a farm, my Dad, Uncles, and Grandpa all wore long sleeve shirts in the summertime. The old folks knew how harmful the sun was, and all sported farmer tans. Tan face and neck, with the white ring topping off the head, right above the eyes. Like I said, no one does that anymore, and you might be sent off to the nut house if you walked around dressed like the old ones did. Of course I think skin cancer is a booming business now with the doctors. I think if I were going to any environment, and had to rough it, I would want some protective clothing just in case. Course, I may have been carrying that leather jacket instead of wearing it. Fedora

I'm one of those crazy people, Fedora. When the sun is beating down I'm usually covered up. It drives my wife crazy because she is a short pants and tank top gal. It will be in the high eighties and I'll have pants, boots, button shirt with rolled sleaves and hat on while everyone else is in shorts and sandles. I rarely wear shorts and a tank top unless I'm at home or for the rare occasion during vacation. I just don't care for them. I feel unprepared wearing shorts and I hate shoes that expose my toes. (Childhood toe stubbing incident on the Atlantic City boardwalk!!)

Anyway, when I see old photos or movies where folks in the 19th and early 20th century are toiling in the heat they are covered very well. I take my cue from them since they had a lot more common sense than most people today.

JPdesign · Post by **JPdesign** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 4:02 pm

It's easier to wear a jacket, rather than carry it, if you want it with you but may need to do something athletic(like peru). But if you don't need it and have a place to leave it(Like Salha's home) why not leave it there and not worry about keeping up with it. Indy was relaxing, not working in the streets of Cairo. He wasn't planning on doing anything, just hanging out for a little while, then those pesky bad guys had other ideas.

Mulceber · Post by **Mulceber** » Wed Sep 17, 2003 5:04 pm

In the jungle, although it's humid, you have alot of shade. But in the Cairo street fight, There was no shade, and the jacket would **** up the sunlight. -IJ