UNO Movie review.1 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Mr UNO                                                   Review date:10/8/2011

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indy hits it third time lucky in the Last Crusade!

Format: DVD/VHS

Year: 1989

Movie Studio/s: Paramount/Lucasfilm

When I think of my favorite films, several do come to my mind. The entire Toy Story films, The Prince of Egypt, Spirited Away and several more that are in my top 10. But there has always been one that has been my most favorite ever. And that’s the Last Crusade, the third (and nearly was the last) Indiana Jones film of the franchise.   

Now Indy was literally ‘between a rock and a hard place’!

Now I know this is debatable as loads say that Raiders was the best because of lots of reasons (usually involving that fat rock!) It’s just sure Raiders had that, Temple of Doom had a mine cart but what Crusade has is Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, a awesome intro, brilliant bi-plane scene, un-forgettable side car scene and a nice but not forceful Christian message wrapped-up in there too. Sounds great eh?

Indy was beginning to feel the pain of having his dad around!

In this Indy adventure, Indiana (Harrison Ford) along with some of his old/new pals are looking for the fabled Holy Grail which legends say was crafted by Jesus, when he was a carpenter. Anyone who takes a sip of water from this legendry cup will earn eternal life (or just get healed up for a while until you die).

Not surprisingly this attracts Indy’s attention and so he goes after it for fortune and glory! (And a fat pay check!) But later on in his journey he finds he’s not the only one after it as some naughty Nazis have caught ear of it too and are planning to get their paws on it, so they can win the war! (And properly to rule the world too, I mean you know these evil villain-type groups!)

Also throw into the mix is Indy’s dad Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery, former 007 Bond fans!) who was looking for the Grail too but has now gotten himself kidnapped by the Nazis, so they can use his diary to locate the treasure. Tough times hey Indy?           

Old Steven Spielberg took up the director’s chair again, while George Lucas was both the main producer and writer of the story and both of these guys were able to do a more than great job yet again (with thanks to a billion other guy/girls in their various departments. Obviously seeing that Temple of Doom wasn’t that great (If I hear Wille Scott’s scream once more it will be too soon!!) they decided to try and improve with this one, a sort of apology if you will. Moving away from the dark themes of the second film, ‘Berg and Lucas decided to make it a more light tone while injecting in the father+son relationship between Indy and his Dad.      

Indy: “Dad! I’m telling you for the last time, Last Crusade was better than Temple of Doom!!”

Herny Jones Sr:”But shon! The shcreaming lady whas sho funny!!”

Indy: “Why do I bother...”

The cast that featured in Indy 3 were a mixture of new members but also several who first appeared in Raiders as well. Starting off with the hero Indy yet again played by good old Harrison Ford who proves to be heroic as he was in the last two movies but also shows his unseen embarrassed side when playing against Sean which makes Indy a great third 

rather two dimensional character.

Indy+Henry Sr learnt the hard way of why you shouldn't leave the oven on!

I’ve probably mentioned him already but what the hey! Henry Jones Sr played by Sean (007) Connery is introduced into the series and boy is he good! Sean is able to play the character with such hilarity he makes him immediately a loveable character with his grumpiness and up and down relationship with his famous son. The members of the cast that had returned that I said about earlier were two characters from Raiders. They were Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott RIP) , once the dean and curator of Marshall College and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) an Egyptian excavator who helped Indy find the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders. The chaps who returned in this not only provided nostlaga but also fitted very well into the storyline too and were great laughs, with Marcus’s cluelessness and Sallah’s OTT warm-hearted nature to help Indy and his friends.         

And now it’s time for...

RIPPER ROO MOMENTS!!!

(As well as Did you know? Fact and top 10 moments in the movie!) Warning spoilers!

As this is one of my favourite movies of all time, I am going to note down two Ripper Roo moments:

1.    A Close Sean!

There is a bit of a werid camera zoom in the scene when after Indy swings into the room where his father is and gets hit by Herny Jones Sr accidently, either the camera or Sean zooms into veiw filling the whole frame! Talk about getting close and personal, (prehaps too much!)

2.    A Room 2 Zoom!

While the camera work for the film was brilliant for the whole movie, there’s only a little problem. Sometimes when the camera’s focused on one character, it seems that the cameraman zoomed into the character’s face too much! Not that we saw the inside of someone’s nose but it was just a little too zoomed in!

Did you know?

A load of scripts were drawn up for this third film before they chose the final one. The other scripts that were rejected would have featured either a haunted mansion, Monkey Kings, killer chess and Indy riding a rhino on top of a tank!!

Indy: “If you actually pay the conductor for the bus fare, I wouldn’t have to give you a ride every time!”

Henry Jones Sr: Have you sheen the prhice of bhus tickhets these days?!

My Top 10 moments in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

1.    Side-car Shenanigans: It had to be this part of the movie of course! The awesome side-car/motorbike chase with Indy and his Dad being chased by some Nazi soldiers from Brunwald Castle. Made car chases look old in ’89!

2.    “Come cry and fly with me!”: The other fantastic scene in the movie is when Indy and Henry Sr have to get off the blimp and fly away on a bi-plane, while being gunned down by Nazi bi-planes. Remember this part: Indy: (sees bi-planes) “Dad, you’re going to have to use the machine gun. Get it ready! (Henry sorts out gun) Indy: (sees enemy plane) 11o’clock! Dad, 11o’clock!” Henry Sr: (randomly looks at watch) what happens at 11o’clock?!” LOL!! Also: (Henry accidentally shoots the tail of their plane) Indy: (hears gun shots) “Dad, are we hit? Henry Sr: (lying through his teeth) “More or less. Son, I’m sorry. They got us.” LOL! Sure they did.J   

3.    The Birds and the Bi-planes: Who knew birds could be so helpful and destructive? Yet another awesome scene where as a Nazi plane is zooming in to attack Indy and Henry Sr, Henry then decides to suddenly scare the birds on the beach with his umbrella, which startles the pilot and makes him crash into the beach rock! And afterwards Henry Sr just walks along with his brolly up, smug face while Indy just gives him a surprised and knowing look. Priceless!   

Henry Sr: “You don’t think the plane would be sthupid enough to follow ush in the tunnel, will it?”

Indy: “Of course not Dad!” Famous last words.

4.    Tunnel Burn: Not only is this another classic scene but it shows how dedicated to the death the Nazis were! I mean you would have to be quite mad to try and follow a car down a tight tunnel that obviously an aircraft can’t fit down in. But that didn’t stop one of the Nazi planes trying to chase down Indy and his Dad. In the end though he saw he had made a boo-boo as after he flies into the tunnel, the wings on his plane break off but he continues down the tunnel, sliding past Indy and Henry Sr, shocked but then meeting a explosive end outside in the open.

5.   


The Indy Express: Yet another brilliant scene in the film, as well as a fantastic part to the opening of the film, young Indy runs away from a gang of robbers in a cave who dug up the Cross of Coronado, planning to keep it for themselves but are stopped when Indy steals it from them. To escape from them Indy first rides off in his horse but then decides to hitch a ride on a circus train to get far from the robbers as possible.

Young Indy faces train pain! Look I was bored ok?

6.    Tanks a lot: These fantastic scenes just keep on coming! After meeting up with Sallah, the Jones decide to free Marcus from the Nazis as they move in to the grail’s whereabouts. This in turns means a fab chase sequence with horses, tanks, big cliffs and “goose-stepping morons like yourself should try READING books instead of BURNING them!”

7.    Tricky Traps: After his father gets shot by deadly Donovan, Indy heads into the Holy Grail temple to retrieve said item to save his dad! Hardly a walk in the park thanks to slicers, lethal letters and an invisible bridge! Or is it?

8.    Ticket trouble: “No ticket!” Says it all!

“And I’ll throw out you too if you keep going on about the food service!”

9.    Marcus Mayhem: When Indy is captured at Brunwald Castle, the Nazis demand that they tell him where Marcus is (as he has a map that shows the way to the grail). Indy is confident that they’ll never find Marcus in Turkey. “He’ll blend in; you’ll never see him again”. In Turkey, Marcus badly confused “Does anyone speak English or ancient Greek?” Ah Marcus. R.I.P Nice cameo in Indy 4 by the way.

10.                       Grail Grump: There are some things in life that in the end we have to let go. Case in point, Indy trying to grab the Grail in the pit, with his dad holding on. Indy: “Dad! I’ve almost got it!” Henry Sr: “Indy no!” Indy: “I can just reach...”  Henry Sr: “Indiana...Let it go.” In the end we have to make do with what we’ve got. (Except if it’s Spyo: A Hero’s Tail, now that something you ought to throw out of the window! Yes it’s THAT bad!!)    

Scoring Time!!!! Oh Yeah!!

Thrills: 5/5 The action hardly slows down in this film and there’s thrills around every corner!

Direction: 4/5 You can never really get a bad direction from Mr Berg can you? Well except for the close-ups! Boy, are they cheesy!

Cast: 4/5 Harrison Ford amazes even more than in the last film, Sean shines as a fan favourite, Denholm and John make a welcome return and Julian Glover is wonderfuly sinister and nasty as Walter Donovan. Alison Doody as Elsa wasn’t bad but she wasn’t very inspiring, during the film.

Laughs: 5/5 Great Hilarity and madness in every scene!

Length: 5/5 Not only a nice veriaity of locations from around the globe but also the story connects well into each area.

My Score: 10/10 Brilliant!!

A magificent example of the wonder of cinema, a wonderful cast, the pinpoint of Spielberg and Luca’s career and a great Christian message shining through. It would have been a perfect ending to the series but of course Berg and Lucas had other ideas. Whatever you say of Indy 4, it’s a testament to the awesomeness of this film as well as Raiders! And thankfully doesn’t have a lady that keeps screaming every 5 seconds!   

^2nd Opinion+Other’s Opinions

Even though the review is over I just wanted to see what other people thought of the film I’ve reviewed:

2^nd Opinion: From a imdb website user lewiskendell, www.imdb.com: “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is my least favorite of the original three Indiana Jones movies. It's not bad by any means; it's still a better historical adventure than The DaVinci Code or any other recent entry in the genre. But it's lacking a bit of the bit of the old Indy magic that made the first two movies so fun.” Was rated six stars.

Other’s Opinions:

“The Last Crusade is another good film in the Indiana Jones film series. It was quite good that they got Harrison Ford and Sean Connery into the film together. I liked how favourites like Marcus and Sallah came back. My favourite joke was:

Indy: ‘Sallah!!! I said NO camels!!!! That’s five camels!!!! Can’t you count!!!!!’ From one of my friends Steve Watson.

Just one more thing...

Indy: “I wonder if Pixar will make a Toy Story 4?”

(Herny Sr slaps Indy)

Henry Sr: “That’s blhasphemy!”

Film Copyright: Paramount/Lucasfilm 1989-2011, 2012