Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery
The original Star Wars trilogy has had more of an influence on my life than any other films. The Indiana Jones trilogy is a close second. Like Star Wars, I can neither remember the first time I saw the films, nor remember how many times I've seen them. These classic adventure movies are some of the most entertaining works of pulp art ever made (and are my favorite works of Spielberg). I bought a poster of this film at the Flatstock fair at the Pitchfork Music Festival. I discovered that Kaylen had not seen this Jones film, so we had to remedy that ASAP.
This movie may as well be called Raiders of the Lost Ark 2. While the Temple of Doom gave Jones a different set of villains and a different style of quest, Last Crusade is a rehash of everything that made the first movie great. We have Nazis, Christian lore, and John Rhys-Davies. This film is especially great for me because it talks a lot about the Crusades. This is a modern quest for the Holy Grail.
This movie is probably the campiest film in the trilogy (like Star Wars, I pretend any new perversions are non-existent). This is mostly due to the iconic performance from Sean Connery as Dr. Henry Jones Sr. His chemistry with Ford is what makes this movie better than Temple of Doom.
Movies like this are not made anymore. Today, this sort of popcorn adventure tends to come off as stupid and overly cheesy. The only thing that has come close is the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I love the way these films mix shaky history with fantasy and action. Indiana Jones may be the best hero in film history. I hope George Lucas doesn't try to screw these movies up with any more CG infested sequels.
Lesson learned: Jehovah is spelled with an "I" in Latin.
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