Indy look a

[bashfulbrother]

The development of Jones' wardrobe across the first two films, Raiders and Temple (the latter technically a prequel rather than a sequel, being set a year earlier than the former), is interesting, as what was initially mere costume had become iconic by the time they cane to make the second. In Raiders, it seems the brown hat is worn in the field, while the grey is the city hat. It was, however, (rather inevitably) the adventuring gear that caught the public's imagination, and so by Temple the brown hat was iconic to the point that it was the only one we see him wearing for the rest of the trilogy. I'm sure there was an intentional symbolism of the brown hat representing adventure and freedom when he is so quick to don it before he jumps out the window in Crusade. Oh.... and there was also the snatching it from under the dropping stone door in Temple... In Crystal Skull, I notice that the grey hat appears when he is headed away to a new post in Europe, something which is presented almost as a 'quiet retirement' for him. Then Mutt appears, the grey hat is lost, the adventure is back on and out comes the brown again....which we also see in the closing wedding scene he is not ready to give up just yet. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it does all seem quite deliberate to me.

Give that man a cheroot.
They make it quite clear that the brown fedora is an essential ingredient to the action.
Ford himself said, "We always have to have an intregral reason for me to lose the hat.
And if we do then we have to get it back on asap."

The grey hats are his "dress" hats and the brown hats are his "adventure" hats.
And so if you want to have an up brim on the hat it works in either color or style.

 

[Sam Craig]

The Indy nuts will argue that the brown hat Mutt is holding at the end of the last movie is ... in a fictional sense ... the precise same hat that Jones is given by "Fedora" as a kid, which would have been before World War I. It is never lost, never torn, never worn, cleans from Cairo to the dress hat you see at the end of the movie.

I have never understood why it is so disagreeable to them for Jones to have simply had a place to buy hats ... either brown or grey.

That just won't work, according to the Indy-heads

Sam

 

[djd]

As something of an Indy nut myself I find that idea completely daft. Unfortunately the idea comes from various sub-par officially licenced Indy novelisations - canon according to George Lucas.... So don't blame us nuts

 

[Edward]

I always believed the brown Raiders hat was lost in the sub base; to say he went back for the hat later seems to me to be ret-conning after the success of that film made it an icon. Assuming I'm right, then there must have been at least two brown hats. At least. Otherwise... Bond only had one dj, and Joey Ramone one pair of Chucks....

 

[Not-Bogart13]

I'm an Indy nut, and also a practical man. However, as a movie lover, I am not bothered by the idea of Indy's brown hat being the same from start to finish. To me, it's not about what we all know to be impossible. It's about cinema magic, stroy-telling wonder. It's Indy's lucky hat, his Excaliber, his whatever. If you can't just "buy into" the hat thing, you might as well throw away the entire film series, which is brimming with unrealistic nonsense.

Edward - you are not the first to think the hat was lost (there or elsewhere), but Indy's brown hat has never been anywhere that he couldn't get it back from. He left most of his stuff on the ship in Raiders (it never went to the sub base)... a ship captained by a friend of a friend. I wouldn't be surprised if that very ship is the one that rescued Indy and Marion from the island. If not, Indy knew how and where to find the ship and it's captain. Not much of a stretch within a cinematic universe, really.

The way I see it, who cares about canon OR realism. It's fun to think that he's had that same hat all his life.

 

[jlee562]

Yeah, what Not-Bogart said. A little suspension of disbelief is required for the Indy series.

 

[mercuryfelt76]

I agree. I love Indy and my obsession with hats was a part of it. But you do have to suspend the over-analytical mind set especially the scene in Last Crusade when his bag strap got magically hooked over the tank gun, trapping him hanging from it... and then the tank turns and he's ok and the strap is no longer hooked. But what a feel good film. And if the hat isn't exactly the same in each scene even though it was supposed to be in the script, so what? It's art.

My personal favourite hat is the Raven Bar hat in Nepal - it's so Indy but smart like a fedora should be. The brim does snap up at the back... and it's turned more than any other hat so the sides swoop up so nicely too. I really don't think the Cairo hat strictly goes up either but more flat and beaten soft.