In this episode Indy first visits Vienna, where he is attending the Spanish Riding School. Besides the geographical and a few historical faults (I am from Vienna), it is a nice story. Indy falls in Love the first time in his life. Romantic and sweet. One of the funnier parts is the dinner, where Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and Albert Hofmann (he discovered LSD) dine with the Jones family and discuss matters of "Love" with young Henry. It is deep and corny at the same time. But the three psychologists are not only played well (Freud the constant Bigtalk explaining his sexual-repression-thing and unease's the women; Jung, who fights with Freud and is more analytical abstract then Freud; and last but not least, the quiet and calm Hofmann, who, when speaking, punctuates), but also make this part really interesting.
The second part, which is a little bit off the time-line (as someone commented before) plays in Florence and the family Jones meets the opera composer Puccini. Indy sees his first opera and is really drawn into it. From this moment on in, the whole film turns into a Puccini opera. Not only the music, but also the story, the cuts, the whole makeup of the second part of this episodes seems to be itself a Puccini opera. I always had the impression, that it is, because this is how Indy remembers the story. After all, all stories seem to be the things old Indiana (as it's a running gag in the later Episodes, where Indy always tells stories to random people) remembers. Actually the whole Series has this flair and I always believed, that the reason why "old Indy" does not show up in the episodes of the very young Indy is, because he does not remember these stories as consciously as he does with the ones he is a little bit older in. If you like opreas, take a look at this one. If not, watch it anyway and try to see the hidden parts.
While opera is not for everyone and the story puts Indy in the position of second cast and removed the adventure elements, I think, that for a series, this episode is rather deep. Maybe too deep for what the general audience might want to see when they watch Indiana Jones. For me it adds real heart and shows the amount of subliminal and fine conceptions went into this series, as it happens with a lot of films George Lucas works on.
The second part, which is a little bit off the time-line (as someone commented before) plays in Florence and the family Jones meets the opera composer Puccini. Indy sees his first opera and is really drawn into it. From this moment on in, the whole film turns into a Puccini opera. Not only the music, but also the story, the cuts, the whole makeup of the second part of this episodes seems to be itself a Puccini opera. I always had the impression, that it is, because this is how Indy remembers the story. After all, all stories seem to be the things old Indiana (as it's a running gag in the later Episodes, where Indy always tells stories to random people) remembers. Actually the whole Series has this flair and I always believed, that the reason why "old Indy" does not show up in the episodes of the very young Indy is, because he does not remember these stories as consciously as he does with the ones he is a little bit older in. If you like opreas, take a look at this one. If not, watch it anyway and try to see the hidden parts.
While opera is not for everyone and the story puts Indy in the position of second cast and removed the adventure elements, I think, that for a series, this episode is rather deep. Maybe too deep for what the general audience might want to see when they watch Indiana Jones. For me it adds real heart and shows the amount of subliminal and fine conceptions went into this series, as it happens with a lot of films George Lucas works on.