Club Obi Wan

While Mr. Lucas was creating our favorite archaeologist, he gave him the Fed, the Jacket, and the......bullwhip.

Have any of you ever wondered why Lucas thought of giving a 1930's archaoelogist a bullwhip? I mean, the Fed and Jacket are reasonable for the time, but where did Lucas come up with givin' Dr. Jones a whip?

To most these days, after seeing the films and knowing who Indy is, giving an archaeologist or an adevnture/explorer a whip is common. Io mean, whenever a cartoon comes along where there is an explorer, your bound to find he/she is carrying a whip in some way some how.

I just thought it was an interesting topic to bring up. Your thoughts?

I think it was an homage to Zorro, who used to carry a bullwhip as well.
Also, a mace would have been way too heavy
'Blues

Good question. My thoughts...well George's big influence was watching those serials every Saturday in the theatres. You know those old Republic Pictures movie serials. You had Zorro, Lash LaRue and several other western genre serials that involved using the whip. George patterned IJ after a Saturday matinee serial with fast action, stunts and useful props that supported a fast action hero. He outfitted IJ with a whip due to it's utilitarian nature - it was used not only to whip, but to climb, jump over obstacles, etc.

Oh I see! I've never seen the old serials he based Indy on.
So I guess Adventurers and whips were already kinda happening....hmmmm

Still goes to show how much I gotta learn!

Well, I recall mention that the costume was based on this concept sketch (taken from Theraider.net without written consent)




The whip is part of the sketch, taken from, as mentioned, Zorro-esque serials.

From what I understand , a few of the old serial heros used bullwhips.Lash LaRue and Zorro to name two of them. In the book ROTLA, it mentions where as a child, Indy went to the circus and was fascinated by the lion tamer and his whip.

A bigger version of Gater's pic: http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/ ... /mo_02.jpg

He's got a cigarette there! Whoa Not what I'm used to.

Regards,
Strider

Just as a practical weapon, the bullwhip is a highly underrated device. If you've ever had to fight against one of these things, you know that just about the only strategy is "stay the righteous h*** away from it." It only takes one hit to realize why.

I knew a fella who used to deliver pizzas in some of the rougher areas of his hometown before he joined the Army. He used to pack a ten foot whip under the car seat in order to break up any pack of kids that were thinking about giving him a hard time. He used to smile his strange little smile when he'd think back to some "gangstas" having to tell mommy that they just got beaten up by Indiana Jones.

I'm sure Little Caesar's would've had issues about this sort of employee behavior, but I'm pretty sure he kept his old routes up to the day he shipped out for basic.

Not sure if any of our whip-weilders here have ever heard of this or tried it (and here's hoping that it didn't have to be in actual self-preservation); seems that even if someone was sneaky enough to get past the outer guard, the grip can be reversed, and the butt of the whip makes a mean impromptu gusari-like weapon. I guess the butt can smack someone a good one.

LBCOT

Operator Jake wrote:If you've ever had to fight against one of these things, you know that just about the only strategy is "stay the righteous h*** away from it."

Or...





Kind regards,
Indy

P.S. See this thread for further discussion... http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1994

Wow. Just checked out that link you posted.

Glad I missed that topic. I'm just gonna leave that one alone.


LBCOT

I'm not about to get back into that debate with the folks on this board. But at the time your unique insight would have been very welcome, Jake.

Didn't mean to kill this topic... just wanted to give credit for the image I stole...

Kind regards,
Indy

My take on the whip thing is Lucas was using the whip to invoke the swash buckling era of the serial movie hero. Raiders got me into cracking so it worked.

Thanks
Bill Walton

In my mind, Junior picked up that whip on the circus train.
That's where he got the scar on his chin... not really, but supposedly why they put that in LC when Junior hit himself in the chin with the crack of the whip. He also got the hat from LC. The guy that gave him the fed had a similar jacket to the wested... so it seems Junior mimiced the archaelogist in many ways.
He picks up the idea for the whip, the cross of Coronado, hat and idea for the jacket all in the same day.