You know, it’s interesting being a cosplayer, prop collector, or even just a movie aficionado with an interest in what’s up there on the screen. You see things that you assume everyone else sees because, hey, aren’t we all looking at the same thing? And yet, certain occasions will reveal that other people really don’t look at things the same way at all. Take the recent Olympic Games closing ceremony.
Almost as soon as Tom Cruise came flying down, Christ-like, from the top of the stadium, people were commenting on his ‘Indiana Jones’ jacket. I blinked, and blinked again. His jacket wasn’t really anything like an Indy jacket. There were no front pockets, no action pleats in the back, stitching in all sorts of places where the Indy jacket has no stitching. It was basically a motorcycle jacket in brown leather.
Yet to the layperson, a waist-length leather jacket, in brown, being worn by someone doing a stunt… is an Indy jacket. And it goes to show, I think, that when fans get really anal about screen accuracy, it’s only for ourselves. You could wear a brown motorcycle jacket, like Cruise, and maybe a brown cowboy hat, and Joe Average on the street will declare you’re doing a fantastic Indiana Jones cosplay. Something to think about, next time you obsess over the details of a costume. If you think anyone is going to notice, or even care, aside from a fellow gearhead (and let’s face it, we’re few and far between), you’re way off.