News of cinematographer Douglas Slocombe’s passing should inspire a fresh look at his work. In a career spanning four decades, Slocombe worked with some of the greatest directors of all time, including Norman Jewison, Roman Polanski and John Huston. He also, of course, made the first three Indiana Jones films with Spielberg, added an earthy warmth to the productions that Jaunsz Kaminski couldn’t quite replicate in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.



Speaking of working with Slocombe, Spielberg is quoted by Ain’t It Cool News as saying: “The reason I like working with Dougie is that he’s a glamour photographer. He can shoot any woman and put her on the cover of any magazine in the world. Yet when it comes to rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty and down into the nitty gritty of ancient tombs, he can create impressions of foreboding and mystery.

“I witnessed his skill one day when he was shooting little children, filthy and a dirty, digging for the lost Sankara Stone in this huge quarry cavern with very bizarre lighting. There were lights hidden under rocks shining up at their faces, lights out of the little holes in the walls just giving them enough face light to accentuate their pathos. The very next day he shot the love tease and lit Kate Capshaw as James Wong Howe might have lit Greta Garbo.

“That to me is skill. Skill and real creative talent means doing many things well, not just one. And Dougie has variety. He’s like the Laurence Olivier of cameramen because he’s able to put a different mask on when the scene requires a different style of lighting.”

Spielberg was talking of Slocombe’s work on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and it’s Temple that I want to focus on in this post. I have a number of issues with the film and consider it a significant step down from the superior Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. However, it’s a visual masterpiece, with Spielberg and Slocombe atoning for the screenplay’s flaws with stunning visual panache.

Look in particular at their use of the colours red and white. Like everything in Temple of Doom, these colours are hardly used subtly - indeed, you can’t fail to notice how liberally they’re splashed across the frame in many key scenes. But just because they’re obvious doesn’t mean they’re not implemented smartly and meaningfully. Watch for them in significant moments, notice how they’re used, and you’ll find that red denotes danger and evil, while white marks virtue.

Slocombe and Spielberg set out their stall early. The opening sequence begins with a flash of red - hellish smoke emanating from the mouth of a dragon at Club Obi Wan. Emerging from this cloud is Willie Scott, who wears a dress of gold and red sequins. Once she’s done giving her performance, she meets Indy, who’s dressed in a white tuxedo with a red carnation on the lapel. Spielberg and Slocombe are here gently introducing the colour coding and in doing so, building a sense of threat and tension.

As the film progresses and our heroes edge closer to Pankot Palace and the eponymous temple, red begins to dominate entirely. Skylines are laced with a bloody hue and the set decoration during the banquet sequence is filled with warm, imposing shades. With John Williams’ music getting grander with every passing second, the audience comes to appreciate a real sense of dread from sound and images alone. The Temple of Doom beckons…

Once inside, Spielberg and Slocombe conspire to ensure the colour coding can’t possibly be misinterpreted. Red utterly dominates, with little hope for any other colours (apart from maybe burnt orange, searing yellows and tar blacks) seeping into the palette. The visuals serve to create a horribly oppressive atmosphere (it’s difficult to watch these scenes and not feel like you need air) but also remind us of the battle between good and evil that rages at the film’s heart.

This is made particularly explicit when Indy falls under the Black Sleep of the Kali and turns on Willie and Short Round. Now, the beige-and-brown earth tones we’ve come to associate with Indy have gone, as he’s been stripped down to nothing but flesh illuminated by red. As he’s strapping Willie into the cage that will drop her down into a fiery pit, Indy pauses in front of the camera, his face lit entirely in hellish hues. Contrast this with later in the film when Indy (now turned back to the side of good) vows to free the slave children from their captors. With hope emerging and our hero back to his old self, white light floods the frame and illuminates the good Doctor.

As if to put a final cap on their colour coding, Slocombe and Spielberg add a final flourish during the mine car chase. Indy is faced with a fork in the track and has to make a choice: go down the left tunnel, where safety lies, or go down the right where danger lurks. Shorty begs him to go down the left tunnel, but Indy doesn’t hear him and makes a right. Somehow Shorty knew which path to take; as did any audience members who were switched on enough to notice the clever colouring. While the left shaft is lit white, the right one is red.

Safety and danger, good and evil, white and red. It’s an equation Spielberg and Slocombe executed perfectly in what remains one of the most visually dazzling of the former’s career.