Club Obi Wan

Much has been said about the ToD hat(s), and many hate the taper of the crown. Others say that there are a few scenes where it looks good (like the bridge cutting scene). I agree.

I'm watching ToD right now and I noticed a common detail on the hats I like vs. the ones I don't, and it's NOT the amount of taper. On the ones I dislike, the ribbon doesn't taper with the crown - it's straight, leaving the side of the crown at the top. The ones I like follow the tapering contour, including the mine cart hat and much loved bridge hat.

I wonder, for those who like only some hats in ToD, if this might be a significant factor in the good vs. bad hat assessment. Anybody else?

Trying to get my head around it. Think you could post screen caps?

Got one! The worst of the tapers, too. See along the left side (your left), how the ribbon it straight, but the hat isn't? It's as if the ribbon was put on after the hat shrank, or that the ribbon failed to shrink to fit.

I think you are making the same mistake most do about this cockpit Temple hat. If you remember Willie grabs the hatband fans indy when trying to wake him up. He grabs the hat and puts it on. He doesn't fix the hat at all. The hat isn't tapered. It's crunched up in the back and that's why the hat appears to be tapered and the ribbon isn't touching the felt in that photo.

I can buy that. But I noticed this same issue in numerous other shots, and no sign of being crunched, as you say.
In any event, that picture demonstrates what I'm trying to describe, even if this specific shot has a sensible explanation for it. Unfortunatley, every other screen cap and photo I found shows the really nice ToD hats!

As often as I've watched the movie, on screens great and small, this is he first time I noticed the ribbon thing outside of the cockpit. And I was watching it on a laptop! Under a yellow bug light!

I've actually seen the issue on cheap hats in real life. My guess, in those cases, is that the ribbons weren't the right material or blend. Some look that way new!

I think the temple hat gets a bad rap because of this scene.


If you see that effect on a brand new hat, then someone didn't put the ribbon on correct. Now the Indy ribbon is tricky thing as when it gets wet it expands a bit but when it dries it will tighten up. Tricky ribbon to work with.

In the past, it's been suggested that particular hat as shown in the photos was the Stetson product placement hat. I've always wondered if that was so as well, as has been already started about the ribbon being 'odd', but the felt looks extremely thick to be a HJ. It almost looks like a wool felt, which Stetson was making at the time.

If you compare it from the start of the scene with Indy wearing the HJ, the switch to the view of the gas gage, him looking left then right as the engines quit (wearing this thick felted and perfectly flat brim fedora), then him climbing out of his seat yelling for shorty to 'get their stuff', the hat changes back to the beat up HJ.

It was a kind of jolting even in the first viewing of TofD for me back in 1984 before I even heard of that product placement as I WAS looking closely at his gear at the time. That hat change was just too glaring. It looked like he went from a highly distressed hat, to a brand NEW hat, back to the highly distressed hat again, and all in close up!

Regard! Michaelson

Looking back, I too was shocked! Firstly, that the hat did not look like it did in 'Raider's', etc. As, the movie progressed, I remember becoming more comfortable with the hat, overall, but not fully. Then there was 'Crusade ' and I really fell in love with the hat! Strange as it was in certain scenes (minus towards the end, where the brim diminished too much on the sides), but overall really a great looking hat and truthfully one that made more sense then the over-embellished 'Raiders' hat which in many ways looks like, in 'real life terms' one designed only for the purpose of being a 'hero hat' or in really terse terms -- 'cartoonish'! Now, before anyone is ready to sandblast my face for these statements, let me say this. All I am attempting to point out is that with 'TOD', then 'Crusade' and onward to 'Kingdom' we start to see a fedora which was truly more of a 'common place' style of hat for the times and more of a 'real world' hat.

Now with this said: ! W>

ps: ....and yes, I do (still) love the 'Raider's hat' too. I own a wonderful ABL from John, but the other hats -- well, probably more accurate for our hero, in reality. W>

WConly wrote:Looking back, I too was shocked! Firstly, that the hat did not look like it did in 'Raider's', etc. As, the movie progressed, I remember becoming more comfortable with the hat, overall, but not fully. Then there was 'Crusade ' and I really fell in love with the hat! Strange as it was in certain scenes (minus towards the end, where the brim diminished too much on the sides), but overall really a great looking hat and truthfully one that made more sense then the over-embellished 'Raiders' hat which in many ways looks like, in 'real life terms' one designed only for the purpose of being a 'hero hat' or in really terse terms -- 'cartoonish'! Now, before anyone is ready to sandblast my face for these statements, let me say this. All I am attempting to point out is that with 'TOD', then 'Crusade' and onward to 'Kingdom' we start to see a fedora which was truly more of a 'common place' style of hat for the times and more of a 'real world' hat.

Now with this said: ! W>

ps: ....and yes, I do (still) love the 'Raider's hat' too. I own a wonderful ABL from John, but the other hats -- well, probably more accurate for our hero, in reality. W>

Couldn't agree more! The ToD hat after the plane crash looks much better and something I could consider wearing. I too love the Raiders hat and own an AB one but I think a Last Crusade fedora is also very representative of Indiana Jones, and makes for a very nice hat to use nowadays, while the raiders has more exaggerated features.

My Todd's is starting to look like a Temple now.