Point/counterpoint
illustration by Alex Martin
Raiders of The Lost Hope
HARRISON FORD IS the classic Hollywood action hero. Among other roles, he’s played a president that fought terrorists (hand-to-hand), a CIA agent, and a wrongfully accused fugitive. But two roles emerge above the rest as the most badass: Indiana Jones and Han Solo. Now, the Fulcrum pits these two classic characters against each other in a death match to finally decide which is the superior Ford character.
Point: Han Solo—some people call him the space cowboy
Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Han Solo is the best work of his career. While Ford was great as Indiana Jones, the character fails to stand up to Solo. Han is scruffy looking (although he will say otherwise), sarcastic, and kind of an asshole. However, at the same time, he’s very heroic. Many of those on the Indy side like to bring up the “who shot first” debate as a negative: in the original Star Wars, Han shoots a bounty hunter, Greedo, just to avoid a slightly dangerous situation and then says sarcastically to the bartender, “Sorry about the mess.” In the remastered 1990s version, Greedo shoots at Han and misses, provoking Han to shoot him. This makes Han look completely oblivious to any danger, and therefore not the experienced space smuggler he claims to be. This is not the Han Solo I grew up with. Han shot, and will always shoot, first. I pose a question to all those Indy fans out there: Is Indy a manly, wisecracking hero/archeologist who spends his time fighting Nazis and looking for the Holy Grail with Sean Connery? Or is he a 70-year-old retiree who half-heartedly fights communists and looks for silly looking skulls with Shia LaBeouf? He’s obviously the former. Thus, we can strike remakes and post-trilogy sequels from the record.
Another example of Han’s mettle is when he shoots Darth Vader. Han stands up and takes aim at arguably the most awesome villain in the history of film. That’s worthy of the title of badass. There are also many other highlights on Han’s record, like flying directly through an asteroid field, or successfully defeating an entire Imperial army with a small band of Ewoks. That’s right, an army of storm troopers with laser guns, body armour, flying motorcycles, and giant walking tanks—versus Han Solo, his pistol, and a bunch of three-foot-tall teddy bears fighting with weapons that predate the bronze age. Indy has never faced such grueling odds.
Han is also not above self-sacrifice, like at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. He is about to be frozen in a chemical that has a good chance of killing him, but he doesn’t cry or beg for mercy. He accepts his fate. He doesn’t even get mushy when Leia tells him she loves him. He simply says, “I know,” and resigns himself to what Vader has in store for him. Han handles his own impending death like a champ while Indy wets himself over a water snake.
In closing, while Indy is an excellent character, he cannot compete with Han. Han’s character is so great because he captures and rekindles the childhood dreams of adventure, freedom, heroism, and romance that every adult wishes they still had. And as a bonus, he manages to do it with spaceships, robots, and a bevy of one-liners. He is, without a doubt, the greatest character Harrison Ford has ever brought to life.
—Mike McCabe
Counterpoint: Why Indy? Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory
Indiana Jones is the quintessential Harrison Ford character, trumping Han Solo on several fronts. First of all, there is no debate about whether Indy shot first. He doesn’t have to. If you think too hard about shooting Indy, he’ll whip the gun right out of your hand and then make you feel foolish about it with a snappy one-liner or steely glare that would make the Marlboro man go in for gender testing. Indy is a manly man’s man, an archetypal modern hero. He’s cool under pressure, smooth with the ladies, and shows off his chest hair with reckless abandon. Finally, Indiana is perhaps the best role model for kids, or he was for me anyway. He’s a Nazi-fighting, treasure-hunting, wise-cracking, no-guff-taking, womanizing archeologist.
The first time I saw Indy was probably the same way most people saw him, three minutes into Raiders of the Lost Ark. We find our hero trekking though the deadly Amazon jungle while his guides run away in fear. I’m not even sure why he’s bringing these guides with him. One of them attempts to betray him and shoot Indy in the back, but he whips the gun out of the guide’s hand in an instant—no firearms needed for Dr. Jones.
Indy is not only cool under pressure, he’s an ice box in the desert sun. He takes on the Third Reich with only a plump man in a fez as a sidekick—a far cry from carting around a Wookie and a few Jedi, or hiding in your storage compartments when the Empire comes knocking. Indy is a pillar of masculinity, facing his problems head-on with wanton disregard for his personal well-being. When Indy’s in a no-win situation, stranded on a fraying rope bridge over crocodile-infested waters, he’s never out of options. Where option A is crossing the bridge to a horde of scimitar-wielding cultists, and option B is going back across the rickety rope bridge to an equally nasty lot of falchion-wielding cultists, Indy boldly teaches us to make up our own options and become masters of our own destiny and create option C, which stands for “Cut the bridge and take everyone down with you.” I’d like to see Han try that. He barely showed up to blow up the Death Star, but still grabs all the credit for saving Luke with his one minute of work.
But in spite of all of Indy’s adventuring skill, the best thing about him is that under that rugged exterior there lies a heart of gold. Not a heart of pilfered Aztec gold, but the kind that wins Nobel Peace Prizes—at the end of the day it’s all about saving the village of poor slave children, not the treasure. For Indy, the adventure is its own reward—all the women, fabulous idols, and professorships at fictional colleges are of little to no interest. He walks out of lectures. He ditches ladies in deepest, coldest Siberia. And he always puts the fabulous idols back where they belong. And why? Because he knows, like all independent, self-confident men of action do, that the only thing worth idolizing is himself—Indiana Jones. That’s why he’s my role model, and the best Ford character of all time.
—Evan Abrams
The Sidekicks of Doom Strike Back!
The debate over greatest sidekick ended when Holmes met Watson, but as Indy and Han fight for the title of Ford’s best role, their respective sidekicks vie for the position of choice cohort.
Point:
Indy’s dad (Sean Connery) in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
We’ve all wished Sean Connery could be our dad. He may not be seven feet tall and able to dismember enemies, but he can accurately identify the authenticity of artifacts and defeat Nazis with the power of dry wit alone. Professor Henry Jones—at Indy’s right side, in his sidecar—was just as often a thorn in his son’s side as he was fighting alongside him. But despite the father–son scuffles he’s still Indy’s dad, and when your dad is also James Bond, you know you’ve got the best sidekick ever.
—Amanda Shendruk
Counter-point:
Chewbacca in the Star Wars trilogy
I’ll admit it straight-up: Sean Connery is definitely cooler than Chewbacca. That doesn’t make him a better sidekick, though—after all, do you really want him to be out-suaving the hero, especially one played by Harrison Ford? I don’t think so. Chewie was loud, belligerent, probably pungent, incredibly strong, and the right guy to have on your side in a fight, but there’s no way in hell he could steal the girl you’re chatting up in a bar later on. He’s handy in a tight spot, and makes Han look good—what more could you want in a sidekick?
—David McClelland
