Winds of Change takes the episode, Paris, May 1919 and glues on an extended version of the bookend of Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father (which some refer to as Princeton, May 1919), to create a movie-length feature which is, hands down, the least adventurous outing for our hero in the series to date.
The first part is, essentially, the story behind the Treaty of Versailles – the peace treaty signed in June 1919, formally ending the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. Indy, in yet another how-does-he-do-it change of jobs, is now an interpreter during the proceedings. Of course, as Indy wouldn’t make a credible participant in the treaty, most of this episode just unfolds, like you’re reading an encyclopedia entry about it, and our hero basically stands to one side, watching it happen.
To try and add some interest, the writers throw in another T. E. Lawrence plotline; this time he has Gertrude Bell along for the ride (like Lawrence, she advocated for independent Arab states in the Middle East following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire), with Indy having multiple dinners with them, to flesh-out some backstory to what Prince Faisal will be doing at the peace conference.
During these dinners, Indy is approached by a waiter who wants to speak with him, but is rebuffed. He gets another chance to talk with Indy, and requests that Indy tries to get him some representation at the conference. Long story short, this is Nguyễn Sinh Cung – the future Hồ Chí Minh – advocating for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina. For viewers who only know ‘Uncle Ho’ for his role during the Vietnam war, many decades later, it might come as some surprise that he was in Paris at the time of the conference, and indeed in several Western countries at this time.
Again, this isn’t a very successful episode in terms of Indy being given anything exciting, or even interesting, to do. Historically, of course, the conference is treated well. It looks good visually, and doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to highlighting what the likes of US President Woodrow Wilson, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George were all trying to get out of proceedings. This is highlighted by Arnold Toynbee, a British historian who is shoehorned into the Lawrence/Bell dinner scenes. Toynbee warns, multiple times, that smashing Germany in the terms of the treaty will only cause issues in decades to come. Portentous words.
With the conference wrapped up, Indy heads for home and begins a romance on the ship with an upper-class New York City girl, Amy Wharton. At this point, the writers just start throwing anything and everything at the screen, hoping some of it will stick. In no particular order; Indy starts travelling back and forth from Princeton to see Amy; Indy gets a job with the Princeton physicist Robert Goddard and learns about rockets; Indy’s ‘great mate’ (even though we’ve never seen him before), Paul Robeson turns up and we get some super-uncomfortable – but historically accurate – racist scenes; Indy meets Nancy from Spring Break Adventure again; and the big one – Indy is reunited with his father after so long.
I’ve seen a number of outlets describe this as the big, must-see, climactic encounter resulting in Indy being estranged from his father for two decades (with them reuniting in The Last Crusade), and I guess that’s true. But only from a certain point of view, as another famous Lucasfilm character might say.
In a nutshell, Indy is home with his father and they have multiple conversations (often after Indy being late for dinner), with Indy typically being deferential to his father like he’s 10 years old again. It’s an interesting aspect of his character to ponder, given he’s been out of home for years, travelled the world solo, fought in a war, killed more men than I can count, bedded beautiful women, and so on. But when he’s with his father, he’s knocked back to being a schoolboy. Last Crusade echoes this to some degree.
There is a hum-dinger of an argument at one stage, however, it doesn’t end with Indy leaving the home, never to return. There’s actually further scenes, including his father finally acknowledging Anna Jones’ death, hugging Indy, and telling him that he’s glad he’s come home safe from the war. It’s only when Indy indicates he’s going to go to study in Chicago, rather than Princeton (an offer his father had made to him by letter, if I recall, during Demons of Deception), that the relationship turns frosty again. So the whole estrangement thing is based on a reasonably unimportant difference of opinion (Jones Sr. regards the “study anywhere” offer as being outdated), versus the actual massive argument they had, earlier on.
The best way I can summarise the second half of the story is, soap opera-ish. The romance with Amy that goes nowhere… the Paul Robeson segments for drama… Indy walking through Princeton and seeing all the old sights (and Nancy)… and finally, the scenes with his father. It feels very much like bridging material which, I suppose as an extended bookend to Travels with Father, it is. Although self-indulgent, if Princeton, May 1919 was tacked onto a more interesting episode than Paris, May 1919, we could have still had a potentially good movie and it might have even pulled off a decent score. As it stands, however, Indy doesn’t have anything to do in the Paris episode, except watch history unfold. While that’s interesting to a history buff to some degree, this is still a television show, with a hero we want to see having big adventures, and it just doesn’t hit the mark at all. I can’t go beyond 7/10 for this.