Excerpt from Assignment #1

As depicted in my previous post, I decided to review Timeline. First, some narrated stills from the film:

(Marek ["hairy-chested"], Kate, and Chris crowd around a computer in the lab to verify the Professor's handwriting. Ugh, Chris, get your hand off of Kate!)

(Fighting for the take-over of LaRoque in the dead of night! PEW PEW PEW!)

(Right before Francois is killed for being French...but look, [supposedly-accurate] chainmail! I was surprised that no one tried to give Kate a hard time in this scene.)

And now, the excerpt:

The first thing I focused on in my analysis of the film was its portrayal of archaeologists. Of course, being born from Hollywood, I expected Timeline to associate some kind of popular culture theme with its archaeologist characters. What caught me off guard was the number of themes it employed; several different kinds of “celluloid archaeologists” co-exist in this film.

First in line, you have your “hairy-chinned” (literally) academic, Edward Johnston. In fact, for a good portion of the film, his full name is dropped in favor of the title, “the Professor”. Edward Johnston fits into his spectacle-toting archaeologist-as-a-scholar niche well. It was difficult not to see parallels between his character and that of “the Professor” from The Last Crusade (1989). Like Henry Jones, Edward Johnston lets his passion for the past take over his life to the point where his misplaced attention destroys his marriage and fractures the relationship he has with his son. In the case of Timeline, this kink in the father-son dynamic is less pronounced, but the resentment still exists, as made clear by Chris Johnston's distaste for his father's line of work - “You know what the past is to me? The past is why my parents split up. The past is what I've been force-fed since I was little.”

Next in line you have the Professor's handsome, or should I say handsome and beautiful, young assistants - the “hairy-chested” (literally) Scotsman, Andre Marek, and Chris' only reason for tagging along with his dad, love interest number one, Kate Ericson. Marek and Kate's passion for the past and the artifacts they find is intense, if not, at times, nauseating. “It's the past that's where it's at, you know,” says Marek in response to Chris' scathing criticism, “People then, they cared about each other. Men had honor, you know?” With statements like these, Marek clearly falls within the popular archaeologist-as-a-romantic category. At the same time, however, he spouts a stereotypical archaeologist-as-a-detective perspective. When the “romantic warrior crap” has no effect on Chris' scathing criticism of the field, Marek shows the boss' son an incredibly unusual artifact in the hopes that it will peak his interest, which it does (and why wouldn't it?). “I'm intrigued, all right?” Chris admits, to which Marek replies, “We're all intrigued by this. That's why we're all here.” That being said, one aspect of the film that I do congratulate is its inclusion of a character with which the non-archaeologists in the audience can empathize; despite my distaste for Chris' quixotic behavior, I too was only mildly interested in the archaeological goings-on at the French site until Marek revealed his mysterious find. Kate's character also adheres to popular culture's image of the archaeologist. Like the Professor, her work takes precedence over her relationships. “You and Kate are from different worlds,” Professor Johnston tells his love-struck son, “Trust me, if it's between archeology and you, you'll lose.” While the majority of Marek's passion for archaeology seems to stem from his romantic, idealized vision of 14th century France, Kate's passion for the job can be linked to the excitement of discovery. When she is the first to be lowered down into what remains of a 14th century monastery chamber, her excitement overwhelms her - “No way. This is too much. Oh, my God. Look at the condition of this thing!” She is indeed the embodiment of the archaeologist-making-profound-revelations; somewhat of an archaeology “fan girl”. At the same time, I found it refreshing to see an empowered and intelligent example of a female “celluloid archaeologist” [3].

So let's tally up what we have so far - the “hairy-chinned” archaeologist-as-a-scholar, the “hairy-chested” archaeologist-as-an-adventurer, the archaeologist-as-a-romantic, the archaeologist-as-a-detective, and the archaeologist-making-profound-revelations. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that the Professor and his assistants are seen enjoying some beers at the beginning of the film. One thing's for sure - Timeline certainly has its bases covered in terms of popular archaeologist themes. At least the film seems to avoid the highly-inaccurate archaeologist-who-knows-more-than-the-natives stereotype. In fact, as the 21st century group struggles to assimilate to 14th century French and English culture, it becomes clear that, despite the archaeologists' knowledge of and love for the past, it is the natives who have the upper hand.