Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Raiders Of The Last Crusade. Indiana Jones teams up with his father to try and locate the Holy Grail. Something that the Nazis are again particularly interested in themselves. We didn't know it at the time, but every Indiana Jones fan on the planet presumed that The Last Crusade was to be the final film to feature the intrepid archaeologist. As it turned out, another film would surface in 2008, but casting that aside (as many would like to do), Last Crusade should, and is, judged as the trilogy closer it was meant to be. In 1988 Steven Spielberg was deep into bringing Rain Man to fruition, all thoughts of Indiana Jones had gone by the wayside with the harshly judged part two, Temple Of Doom. In stepped George Lucas to politely remind Spielberg that they had an agreement to make another Indiana Jones picture, Spielberg no doubt obliged and humble, passed on his Rain Man work to Barry Levinson who promptly bagged himself an Oscar for the film. It can be guessed that Spielberg was probably grouchy around this period, but he needn't have worried, because The Last Crusade provided a much needed hit for not only himself (post Empire Of The Sun), but also Lucas (Willow) and Harrison Ford (Frantic). I mention the run up to this picture because it explains a lot on why the film is pretty much a retread of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, something that some detractors find unforgivable. Yet Last Crusade is still an immensely enjoyable adventure picture, with Spielberg proving that he was still capable of a popcorn bonanza. Using the Raiders formula and moving away from the dark flourishes of Temple Of Doom, Last Crusade is actually the simplest film of the three, but still it manages, courtesy of a sparkling casting decision, to become the most entertaining of the original trilogy. Is it better than Raiders? Of course not, but it positively rips along with sparky dialogue and an agenda of cliffhanging suspense like the adventure films of yore. In comes Sean Connery as Dr Jones Senior, and its the picture's trump card, because the magnificent interplay and obvious rapport with Ford (cool as a cucumber) is there for all to see. It's this what drives the film on through the more mundane and picture filler sequences, showcasing two top wily professionals with care and consideration to their craft. The casting of Alison Doody as the main female is a poor one, and one only has to look at her subsequent career post Crusade to see she wasn't up to the task here. Bonus comes in the form of the River Phoenix prologue, Phoenix as the young Indiana paves the way for the jaunty path that Crusade takes, whilst simultaneously giving us a nice little back story from which to launch the adventure. Made for $48 million, the film went on to gross $474,171,806 Worldwide, now that's a lot of people who evidently were happy with Raiders Of The Lost Ark 2! And I gleefully count myself amongst that number. 9/10

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" adopts a change of pace probably because the filmmakers have obviously deemed "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984) much too dark (and perhaps completely unpalatable in some quarters) for most audiences who thrilled at the exciting derring-do of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). This current outing is much more audience friendly and it gets the delicate balance just right to create a heady mix of thrills and spills which results in a breathless whirlwind adventure during its action packed two hours. Steven Spielberg is certainly on tremendous form as he skillfully pieces together superbly executed action scene after action scene. He also makes extensive use of a tank in much the same way as he did the boat "Orca" in the blockbusting "Jaws" (1975) and he effortlessly finds a seemingly inexhaustible array of fresh camera angles to capture every second of the unfolding and fast moving action.

Good watch, could watch again, and can recommend. While Harrison Ford does a great job as Indiana Jones, it is always good to see Sean Connery get involved, even if he is very passive in the action. Then there is an unfortunate amount of flashback, but it is better than doing an "Indian Jones: Origin" movie to explain how he attained his stylish attire and phobia of snakes. This has a quality female companion, an entertaining side character, but we're back to Nazi's again for villains. It almost is just a highlight of the ridiculous lengths that Nazi's went to look for weird resources: the occult ("Hellboy"), artifacts, and investigations into alien contact. This is a return to quality though, it takes up the more serious atmosphere of the first movie and with that concentrates on a dramatically good action adventure movie. This is my favorite of the franchise.