Harrison Ford was moved to tears amid a rapturous standing ovation following the global world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The film just had its first-ever screening at the Cannes Film Festival, and everyone was clearly happy to see him back in action. If Ford’s overwhelmed reaction to their reaction is anything to go by, the feeling was mutual.
The actor, turning 81 in just under two months, was moved amid the seemingly positive response to the fifth and allegedly final “Indiana Jones” movie. Released by Walt Disney, Lucasfilm’s latest actioner comes courtesy of not Steven Spielberg but director James Mangold, who has some experience helming acclaimed “one last ride” franchise installments like Hugh Jackman’s “Logan.”
While “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” debuted at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, that was just days before its global Memorial Day weekend theatrical release. Disney won’t be releasing “Dial of Destiny” until the week of June 30th.
As previously reported by TheWrap, this was a banner day for the star of “Star Wars,” “Witness,” “The Fugitive,” “What Lies Beneath” and “42.” The pre-release gathering saw him being presented with an honorary Palme d’Or Thursday. As the most prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival, it was given just minutes before the first public screening.
Ford joined a list of honorary Palme recipients that includes Ingmar Bergman, Jane Fonda, Clint Eastwood, Agnes Varda, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Tom Cruise, the last of whom received his honorary Palme before the Cannes premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” last year.
“They say when you die, you see your life flash before your eyes. I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” Ford said during his acceptance speech in reaction to the sizzle reel of his cinematic career. “A great part of my life, not all of it.”
This was not Ford’s first trip to Cannes. Along with the previous “Indiana Jones” film, he showed up in 1985 for Peter Weir’s “Witness.” The crime thriller, about a cop hiding out among an Amish community to protect a young murder witness, would eventually earn rave reviews, $116 million worldwide on a $12 million budget and Ford’s thus-far only Academy Award nomination.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” features a 70-year-old Dr. Henry Jones Jr. on the verge of retirement only to get plucked into another adventure courtesy of his duplicitous goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). This time out, he’s facing off against a former-Nazi-turned NASA scientist in a race to get a mysterious gadget that may or may not possess time-warping powers. Antonio Banderas, Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Kretchmann and John Rhys-Davies also star.
Check out TheWrap’s Cannes magazine here and all of our Cannes 2023 coverage here.
