Belloq (Paul Freeman)

Character Analysis

According to the novelization, his first name is René, but we never hear it in the movie. He's just Belloq, snooty Frenchman extraordinaire and serious pain in Indiana Jones's side. We first see him outsmarting Indy in the jungle: letting Dr. Jones run the risk, then casually plucking the idol out of his hands at blowgun point. So right away, we know that he's a giant jerk who's happy to rob, cheat, and steal to get what he wants. He's pretty pleased with himself.

We also infer that he's been doing this to Indy for some time. "Again we see there is nothing you can possess that I cannot take away," he tells Indy in the jungle, which suggests both that he has no problem doing this and that he's very, very good at it. That continues during the quest for the Ark, as he swoops in on Indy twice (once in the desert, once on the high seas with a sub in tow) and takes it away from him.

Dirty pool, old man.

Enemy or Rival?

But while he takes a distressing amount of joy from making Indy miserable, he also has a strange respect for Dr. Jones. "Where else shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level?" he says with a grin at one point, and he's not kidding. He feels that he and Indy are kindred spirits, and by extension that Indy isn't as squeaky clean as he'd like to think:

"I am a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me: to push you out of the light!"

He's the dark half of Indy's soul, and in some ways that cuts both ways. Just as Indy isn't entirely good (tomb-raider, Worst. Boyfriend. Ever.), so Belloq isn't entirely evil. He's not willing to torture Marion, for instance, and he doesn't consider himself a friend of the Nazis. "In this particular time and place, and for my work, they are necessary evils, not my friends," he tells Marion.

In that sense, he represents a thinly veiled dig at Vichy France, the puppet government set up by the Nazis after their invasion in World War II. The Vichy government was ostensibly independent, but actually acted as a puppet for the Nazis.

A Bad Guy Despite a Cool Accent

Regardless, it makes the two of them closer to each other than the two governments they're working for. And that makes us wonder: What about them is different? What makes Belloq a bad guy and Indy a good guy? You can point to a lot of things, but it probably boils down to motive. Though his methods are fairly sticky-fingered, Indy at least wants to see the things he nabs in a museum, where everyone can study them and learn from their stories.

Belloq, on the other hand, just wants a prize. He's eager to get there first and get a lot of money for it, and who cares what happens to it afterwards? Heck, he's willing to turn a sacred Jewish artifact over to Adolf Hitler. This is not a guy with humanity's greater good in mind.

That ultimately proves to be Belloq's downfall. Indy can be humble when he needs to be (God likes humble) and he ultimately thinks about other people before himself. He sees the Ark as "a find of incredible historical significance" that everyone in the world should see. Belloq, on the other hand, sees it as an object: an incredibly powerful object, but still something he can use and abuse as he wishes. "It's a transmitter!" he tells Indy. "It's a radio for speaking to God! And it's within my reach!" Indy sees the centerpiece of an ancient and honorable culture; Belloq sees something on sale at Best Buy.

And for God, that's a serious no-no. According to the Bible, opening the Ark took absolute devotion and reverence, as well as following some very specific rules. Belloq chucks out the "devotion" part and just concentrates on the steps to open the Ark. He doesn't love God, he doesn't display respect for God's wishes or commands. He's not even Jewish. He just wants to use the Ark to talk to God. So he follows the instructions like he's building a bookshelf from IKEA and assumes that's enough to get him in touch with the Big Man Upstairs.

Unfortunately for him, God is not a Scandinavian furniture store, and "talking" to him means having the flesh ripped from your bones. Important safety tip, which our sinister French bad guy learns too late. Indy doesn't risk the wrath of God just for his own greedy purposes, and that's the first and still the best distinction between the two of them.