Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989) Retrospective / Review

you believe the grill actually exists the search for the cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us but if you want facts Indy I've none to give you my age I'm prepared to take a few things on faith we're about to complete a great quest but began almost 2,000 years ago the Holy Grail dr. Jones the chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper the cup that caught his blood at the crucifixion and was entrusted to Joseph of Arimathea the earth religion I've heard this bedtime story before this is the manuscript in which the friar chronicled the Knights story it doesn't reveal a location of the Grail I'm afraid but the knight promised the two markers that have been left behind would this tablet is one of those markers it proves the Knights story is true our project leader has vanished along with all his research I want you to pick up the trail where he left off find the man and you will find the Grail why don't you try my father we already have your father is the man who has disappeared you have your father's eyes at my mother's ears Jenya don't call me that please after the German Army's on our tail and you want me to go to Berlin into the Lions Den equation for the Grail there's no naki about you it's race against evil if it is captured by the Nazis the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth Germany has declared war on the Jones laws [Music] trying to kill I know see all the time where's my father they have them in the belly of that steel feast [Music] Henry George Jr like Indiana renamed the dog Indiana rod named after the dog [Music] on 24th of May 1989 Indiana Jones returns at a big screen in the Last Crusade arriving first in the USA it made its way across to the UK in June and throughout the rest of the year worldwide with Raiders of the Lost Ark costing just under twenty million dollars The Last Crusade clocked in at nearly 50 million with Indiana Jones already proving a huge success twice with audiences the at the time final entry in the series followed suit and made 474 million dollars worldwide the film was met with rave reviews from critics and fans alike despite comparisons being made to Raiders of the Lost Ark with returning characters and similar plot beats 1989 was a year of sequels and new franchises Tim Burton's Batman pretty much dominated the box office although Batman was the most popular film in the USA that year worldwide The Last Crusade took the crown was the most successful film earning 16 million dollars more at the box office factor in Batman's heavy sales in merchandise though and it was the most profitable property of that year it seemed after the failed toy range based on Raiders toy manufacturers gave up on optioning merchandise on the film series there were of course whips hats and jackets available so you could dress up like Indy but toys were very much a thing of the past for this franchise luckily plenty of video games were available based on the Last Crusade which will be discussed later for the last Crusades video release which came with diet coke promotions director Steven Spielberg had campaigned to get his film released in widescreen on VHS as he hated how he's filmed her pan and scan to fit the TV aspect ratio this was also highlighted by Siskel and Ebert in 1990 but paramount would not budge as many people didn't like having black borders at the top and bottom of the picture so Steven had to settle for having his film available in widescreen on laserdisc which was always the preferred format to watch movies as originally intended 1980 Falls the Temple of Doom despite being popular at the box office wasn't the film many had wanted his stark nature and change of tone have resulted in some lukewarm reviews Lucas and Spielberg really wanted to rectify that and return to the spirits of Raiders and for Indies final adventure they wanted to go out with a bang Lucas had initially suggested the idea of having the third movie be set in a haunted mansion encountering a ghost who reveals a Fountain of Youth in Afric spielberg wasn't keen on this i did because it bore similarities to his 1982 film poltergeist lucas went ahead anyway and completed an eight-page treatment titled indiana jones and the monkey king the story saw indiana encountering a ghost in scotland before finding the Fountain of Youth in Africa and going up against tribal cannibals Spielberg had produced a number of successful films throughout the 80s on brought on Chris Columbus had written gremlins The Goonies and young Sherlock Holmes he would expand on George's treatment introduce a bunch of new characters to torn Indiana on his quest and bring back the Nazis for him to battle Columbus further refined his script while the production team started scouting for locations in Africa but everything was halted due to Spielberg and Lucas having reservations because of its possible negative depiction of African natives and because they felt the script was too unrealistic it was moving into the realms of fantasy and further away from granted reality of the character Spielberg suggested the idea of introducing Indiana Jones father Henry Jones senior as the main focus of the plot but Lucas was dubious believing the Fountain of Youth should be the main direction Spielberg convinced him in the end that the father-son relationship would serve as a great metaphorical backdrop to Indiana's search for the artifact Spielberg wanted to develop easily ideas and bought on the writer of his 1985 film the color purple instead of the Fountain of Youth the quest became the hunt for the Holy Grail Spielberg was a bit wired with the idea of the Holy Grail as he didn't want people to think of Monty Python he depicted Indiana searching for his father in the South of France where he meets a nun and a relationship develops Indiana travels to Venice takes Orient Express to Istanbul and continues by train to Petra where he meets Salah AM unites with his father then together they find the Grail a lot of this material would end up in the final draft in some form or another the ending in this script was a lot different what was finally in the movie at the climax are Nazi villain touches the Grail and explodes when Henry chapters it he ascends a stairway to heaven the ending was dropped and later changed to a battle with a demon at the Grail site where he defeats it with a dagger inscribed with God is King a prologue was introduced to the movie where we are shown Indy at a younger age Spielberg suggested making Indiana a boy scout as both he and Harrison Ford were former Scouts this sequence was set up a number of moments that demonstrate how he became the man we know today Spielberg felt that the script needed further revisions and suggested Innerspace writer Jeffrey bow Jeffrey spent two weeks reworking a story with Lucas which yielded a treatment that is largely the final film Jeffrey told George that Indiana should find his father in the middle of the story as the previous films ended with Indiana obtaining the objects I didn't want to follow a similar pattern Jeffery felt it would be best for them to lose the Grail and let the father-and-son relationship be the main point it was a search for Indies own identity and coming to accept his father than being a quest for the Grail which is the direction Steven Spielberg really wanted to go for the cast we have many returning characters of course house on Ford is back as Indiana Jones he was very happy with the direction of the story he loved the idea of introducing Indies father because it allowed him to explore another side to Indiana's personality Lake River Phoenix was cast as indeed in his teenage years Phoenix had played the son of Ford's character in the Mosquito Coast Ford recommended Phoenix for the part he said that of the young actors working at the time Phoenix looked the most like him when he was around that age also Phoenix does a really good job of capturing Ford's mannerisms owned to the positive reaction to the movies prologue George Lucas was inspired to develop the young Indiana Jones chronicles TV show which lost it for three seasons running from 1992 to 93 Sean Connery was cast as Indies father Professor Henry Jones a professor of medieval literature who cared more about looking for the Grail than raising his own son Spielberg had always had Connery in mind when he suggested introducing Indiana's father Spielberg had been a fan of Connery's work as James Bond and felt that he was the perfect choice a Spielberg always wanted to direct a James Bond film and the Indiana Jones movies were his window into that and having James Bond played in his father was ideal Connery initially turned the role down as he's only 12 years older than Ford but he was eventually persuaded Connery as a student of history began to reshape the character and revisions were made to the script to address his concerns he improvised a line she talks in her sleep which was left in because it made everyone laugh on set Irish actor Allison Doody plays doctor Elsa Schneider on Austrian art professor who is in league with the Nazis but has her own desires on the Grail she manages to seduce the Joneses in her attempts to gain more information on the Grails location Doody started her career in modeling and got a first screen role in a view to a kill before she appeared in the Last Crusade she also starred along pierce brosnan in caffeine well goes on in this town is none of your business as long as I'm living here it is maybe [Applause] denim Elliott returns as dr. Marcus Brody Elliott returned dr. Spielberg sought to recapture the tone of Raiders following the character's absence in Temple of Doom also John rhys-davies is Bacchus Salah Julian Glover was cast as Walter Donovan an American businessman who sends the Joneses on their quest for the Holy Grail Donovan secretly works for the Nazis and desires immortality I'm sure Star Wars fans will recognize him from the Empire Strikes Back where he played general veers kavik Malakian plays Kazim the leader of the Brotherhood of the cruciform sword an organization that protects the Holy Grail malakian had impressed below that with his performance in Midnight Express and last but not least we have the late Robert Edison as the gray or Knight the guardian of the ground who drank from the cup of Christ during the Crusades and is immortal as long as he stays within the temple Edison was 80 years old at the time and majority of his career was spent on stage he had worked in TV but had smaller roles in film he was nervous but excited about taking the role and often questioned his performance between tanks but he had nothing to worry about despite his small role he left a lasting impression principal photography began on May 16th 1988 and the shooting lasted for 163 days with the increased budget the number of shooting locations also grew making use of Spain Venice Germany Jordan Utah California Texas Colorado and England where most of the interior locations were created at Elstree Studios around this time Spielberg was shocked to learn that cannon films was planning to sell the studio cannon was bleeding money and needed to cut their losses Asuna had been operating at a loss for a while Stephen felt it was going to be a major blow to the UK film industry if the studio was lost to redevelopment a large chunk of the studio was later sold and the lots were torn down and replaced with a Tesco supermarket when Spielberg and editor Michael Kahn started working on a rough cut the film in late 1988 I thought the movie suffered from a lack of action so they included a motorcycle chase during post-production miss Skywalker Ranch to finish off the movie Spielberg needed something extra to say goodbye to the series so they went and shot Indiana Henry Salah and Brody riding off into the sunset in Texas in early 9 in 89 [Music] the film is set two years after the events of Raiders India's returned from another adventure and is swamped with school papers to grade he can't handle the stress and escapes from his office he is approached by a group of men who work for Walter Donovan water is a collector of ancient artifacts and has an obsession with finding the Holy Grail very much like Indies father Indy suggests he contact his father but water informs him he has gone missing he was already on the case looking for it for Donovan using an incomplete inscription as his guide Indy heads to his father's home and finds it trashed as if someone was searching for something he then remembers that he received a parcel which turns out to be his father's Grail diary mailed from Venice realizing that he would not have sent the diary unless he was in trouble Indian Marcus traveled to Venice where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague dr. elder Snyder beneath the library where Henry was last seen Indian Elsa discover the tomb of the First Crusade Knight which also contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used revealing the location of the Grail they flee when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the cruciform sword a secret society that protects the location of the Grail to avoid it falling into the wrong hands about chase ensues with Indy captain Kazim in details chasm that his goal is own to find his father that he has no interest in finding the Grail cousin tells him that Henry is being held in castle bran walled marcus later reveals a map drawn by Henry of the route to the Grail which begins in Alexandretta Marcus heads out to rendezvous with our old friend Salah and Indian Elsa head to the castle our castle bran walled Indy locates his father but learns that Elsa and Donovan are actually working with the Nazis meanwhile Marcus is captured while waiting for Salah the Joneses managed to escape from the castle Henry tells Indy that to reach the Grail one must face three traps and his dog contains two clues to guide him through the challenges safely but they must head to Germany to retrieve the diary as he doesn't remember the clues they record the diary from Elsa had a book-burning rally in Berlin and then need to escape Germany to finally complete the quest for the Grail [Music] 1989 was a busy year for george lucas's of visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic working on many movies with large amounts of effects needed such as Back to the Future Part 2 the abyss Leviathan Ghostbusters 2 and of course the Last Crusade as with all the indie films Last Crusade made use of matte paintings miniatures blue screen optical work and even early digital compositing the visual effects of the indie series to me were little inconsistent and didn't showcase Island's finest work the movies had great isolated moments on map paintings and miniatures but a blue screen work was always very wobbly the year this came out I LEM did incredible work on back to Future Part 2 and Ghostbusters 2 which both pushed the old-school methods of visual effects to the limit without computer-generated materials to tidy up the visuals the Last Crusade though didn't have much in terms of large-scale visual effects the beauty of the Indiana Jones films is the approach to doing lots of the action in camera the whole plane sequence with Indiana's father escaping the Nazis always looked bad even when I saw as a kid seeing in HD didn't do him any favors it has the typical issue the loss of color when combining the elements Spielberg is doing a lot of ambitious shots that blue screen can't really make look realistic I'm surprised they didn't do any front projection work with it just to get rid of the black matte lines the shots of the Zeppelin from a distance look really good and the optical work stands up well but you have this hilarious shot of the general shaking his fists in anger at Indy as a Zeppelin flies away the whole shot seems flat and just doesn't work for me but then you could argue the fact that there's a b-movie by design to homage the action serials of the past and that the effects were never realistic and had very few visual effects to begin with but I'm sure i lemmed in going with that intention of making it look bad but it's just their inherent problem with their over reliance on blue screen to achieve everything now there are some very effective shots in this movie that really demonstrated the creativity of the folks at ILM stop-motion animation was used for the shot the German fighters wings breaking off as it crashes through the tunnel the tunnel was a 210 feet model that occupied 14 of AI limbs parking spaces for two months it was built in eight-foot sections and each section could be opened up to film through when Indy and his father drive alongside the plane it's all done in camera his seamlessly blends with a miniature that careers down the tunnel passes them an event explodes the hidden bridge is an inspired idea when you see it in the film it's like a magic eye trick it seems invisible and as the camera turns it reveals to bridge this was achieved before being filmed in front of a blue screen for the scene which was completed by a model of the bridge filmed against a matte painting for the death of Donovan as he drinks from the wrong cup Spielberg wanted him to grow old all in one shot that his life is taken away very quickly a shot of Donovan's death was created over three months by digitally compositing the footage with help from the morphing software developed the year before on willow to show the transitions three puppets of Donovan were created in separate stages of decay shooting them with time-lapse photography a fourth puppet was used for the final decaying form of Donovan Skelton being hung on wires like a marionette this whole sequence really impressed me as a kid and for a pg-rated movie it's pretty gruesome Last Crusade was a nice way to end this series at the time it combines old methods of visual effects throughout but throws in a new technique that would come to dominate the visual effects of the 90s [Music] John Williams returned to compose the score to the Last Crusade this will be Spielberg and Williams night's collaboration the score as usual with Williams is full of counter and charm it isn't the same music recycled from the previous films he brings on new themes to the Nazis Indies father and the Grail because of the added humor there is a light touch to the score and musical cues that add a bit of playfulness to the music it really complements the moments between India and his dad and then trying to deal with a difficult situation they are put in the film was less action orientated than the others southern music has a change of direction the film opens with this wonderful playful theme for the young Indiana the music does a superb job of reacting to the action beats with Indy avoiding all the obstacles in his way as he escapes from the grave robbers the music itself is a little like the Battle of Endor from Return the Jedi and even moments of hook that Williams composed two years later the Raiders theme which is essentially Indiana's main March doesn't really pop up that much in the film and only really kicks in for the final shot as he rides off into the sunset while the end credits roll but there are a couple of moments when Williams brings in the theme for when Indy does what he does best and it's always glorious when you hear it I've reviewed a number of films now that was caused by John Williams and it's difficult to find more to say about him he is the master and has given us so much wonderful music over the years a film score is so important to a movie and without Williams genius indiana jones star wars superman harry potter Jurassic Park and et to name but a few just wouldn't be the same a soundtrack arrived on CD and LP in 1989 with raffia now was worth of music it certainly wasn't a complete release it was later reissued in Japan with an extra minute or two but still not all of the music John had composed in 2008 Concord Records published a box set with the music to all four indie films which I had discussed in my rages review Last Crusade scored total about 76 minutes so an extra 20 minutes of music was made available this box set has been out of print for a long time and fetches high prices on the second-hand market but thankfully the music to all the films is now available on toons with little merchandise based on the film we thankfully have some video games The Last Crusade game arrived in two flavors the first one was published by us gold it turned up on every platform available all the 8-bit microcomputers Amiga Atari ST NES which was handled by Ubisoft Game Boy Game Gear Master System and Sega Megadrive consisting of five levels the first two have The Adventures of Indy as a teenager trying to escape from the grave robbers surprisingly the spite of indie has him looking like his older self throughout these stages apart from the Amiga a notorious T versions they go to the effort of having him in this Scout outfit there will fall has a change of location on some of the computers with Indy fighting Nazis on the blimp or in the castle where he locates his father it then jump straight to the resting place of the Grail between levels there are cutscenes to help tell the story and the graphics vary in detail depending on the power of the hardware the game didn't receive favorable reviews at the time but sold well due to the obvious popularity of Indiana Jones especially on the ZX Spectrum I played this as a kid on the Commodore 64 and Mega Drive and found both versions frustrating to play the game itself can be completed in say 15 minutes or so but the difficulty is amped up to artificially extend the game The Master System version is really tough one hit from someone and you're dead even if they just walk into you Indy's whip works like a gun so you can't use it all the time you have to essentially pick up ammo to be able to use it yeah that makes perfect sense you are also on a tight time limit so you also have to locate power-ups to extend the time ultimately it's just another generic platformer and a pretty lazy attempt at translating the movie in 1991 tighter got hold of the license and released their version for the NES they thought scenes between levels are very detailed and the programmers mix up the gameplay to include a few puzzles that provide some variety to the game and even choose what levels to tackle it also comes with a great soundtrack there are puzzles to complete driving segments and traditional platforming action the final levels has you working your way across the floor to avoid traps as you spell out the name of God with the welcome changes to the game and variety of gameplay it sadly is way too short but far superior to the Ubisoft release still if I paid like fifty pound for this back in the day I would have been furious now the best game based on The Last Crusade is to point a click adventure game for the PC Macintosh FM towns Amiga and Atari ST developed by Lucasfilm games this version follows the movie's plot closely as you solve puzzles and speak to people for clues as you work your way through the locations to complete the journey to find your father and the Grail you have to make sure you ask the right questions though otherwise you'll fail your mission or just get stuck the game got rave reviews back in the day with most magazines scoring it just over 90% Portugal co-venture games aren't for everyone as it requires reading lots of text and it isn't something you can pick up and play for short bursts I love this game as a kid but never got to play for an extended period of time my friend had it freeze Atari ST and we only played it for a short while as we couldn't figure out how to go and see also Donovan so my friend got frustrated and wanted to play something else I only had a Commodore 64 at the time so I have no chance of playing it myself as I mentioned in my review of Raiders of the Lost Ark there was a game for the Super Nintendo in 1994 titled Indiana Jones greatest adventures that combined all three movies into one game the game has six stages dedicated to the Last Crusade with one level where you control the plane as you escape from the Nazis with some nifty mode 7 graphics playing very much like super Star Wars trilogy it has great graphics and is easy to pick up and play but can be very difficult so bear that in mind if you intend to seek it out now before I discuss my final thoughts on the last who say let's have a quick look at the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which I will review in more detail in the future now I never imagined I'd see a fourth movie there was of course talked about it for years and even scripts were started but never greenlit and Spielberg was very much hesitant about doing the fourth he felt that the trilogy had ended perfectly as I think most other people did I'm sure many of us would happily see a new film but would still agree that the Last Crusade is really where it ended Harrison Ford really wanted to bring Indy back he encouraged George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to come back to the series so 19 years after the Last Crusade we got another entry in the series when they released a teaser trailer for the film everyone got so excited it was a brilliant trailer and once you hear the opening notes to the Raiders theme and you see the shadow of Indy produce hat on the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end that's a joy of having a great theme tune once it was released however it left many disappointed it wasn't as bad as say The Phantom Menace which had a bigger negative reaction but in default was just underwhelming and ultimately forgettable there are some nice moments in it I like the majority of the first and second act but when he gets the jungle I really tune out and lose interest the idea of being a nod to 50s B movies was definitely the right way to go but it wound up being a watered down version of what we loved about the character the violence was especially cut down a bit too much CGI was added and dealing with interdimensional aliens I felt was a bit misguided so many great stories have been spun out the film's with video games and books what George Lucas came up with was just uninspired the production values are very good however with fantastic production design and simmer photography Crystal Skull cost in the region of 185 million dollars so they ought to be the first one cost just under 20 million I think the huge salaries take up most of that cost for the actors producers and director I think I imagine everyone involved knew this was going to be a huge hit no matter its qualities you get that feeling that everyone involved is just going through the motions and kind of phoning it in apart from House and Ford who seems very invested in playing the character again I personally think they left it way too late to return to Indiana Jones Houston was in his mid 60's he was in great shape for his age but a bit long in the tooth to be doing all his action scenes and for it to be believable if this happened in the mid nineties it would have been perfect I'm sure many hardcore fans who have waited for nearly two decades to see Indiana again on the big screen were left heartbroken now there is talk of a fifth movie that has been written at the moment and his plan for a release in 2020 I think now making this to apologize for the last one I don't think Houston was particularly happy with the end results of Kingdom in the Crystal Skull and apparently George Lucas is not involved so hopefully things may work out for the better we just have to remember to not get our hopes up too much October my ears why were you when the film was released in the summer of 1989 I was nearly 6 years old and do recall seeing advertisements for the film I remember the video games on store shelves in shops such as WH Smiths - but I wasn't aware of who Indiana Jones was that year it was all about Batman and I was far too young to even sing that at the cinema which deeply annoyed me but it wasn't long till I finally got to see dr. Jones in action during this time Temple of Doom was being repeated on TV and I thought it was awesome my opinions on this movie have changed over time by seeing him for the first time as a child I became a fan like everyone else it wasn't till a year later that I got to see the Last Crusade even when it came out on VHS you had to be quick to rent it as it will be off the shelves every weekend even at a young age I saw the qualities of the Lost crusade the story humour action and adventure all worked for me I wound up watching this movie the most my local rental store didn't have Raiders to rent as it was an older film it was difficult sometimes in the VHS days if I film hadn't been re-released on the format you'd have to go hunt down an old copy when you're surviving on pocket-money you're not going to put down 15 pounds for a brand new tape you would rather wait for it to be on TV so you could record it like a cheapskate now I have gone on record and said this is my favorite film of the series I think objectively Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably the best of the series but subjectively the Last Crusade just tips over for being the best for me it's combination of humor and fleshing out India as a character just made it for a more enjoyable experience Raiders and Temple of Doom gave us just enough information on him as a person for us to be informed of his desires and what he's out to achieve we all know he is a good person and above all a teacher who wants to learn and educate others Indy is not out for personal gain in terms of wealth but for knowledge which makes him an honorable person a nurse in the respect of the audience is also what makes him so endearing but the Last Crusade went one step further and we got to see a different side to him the opening prologue shows us that he is already following in the footsteps of his father but willing to go one step further in his efforts to preserve treasures of the past it's great to see India too young age but the whole sequence is a bit on the nose with its desire to show all the trades Indy picks up like using the whip and how he got the hat the Lukie adopts after being inspired by the grave robber we do find out why in as a scar on his chin just like Harrison in real life which is a nice bit of continuity the sequence ends with an example of India and his father's difficult relationship Indiana has been a very solitary person he doesn't hold down relationships and is very much a one-man operation there isn't any indication that he is depressed or feeling lonely and I still think he likes to baggage of a regular life in the last crusade there's an obvious friction between him and his father he opens up to him when he says they have never had a normal relationship and hardly ever spoke but in his father's defense he said he wanted to teach Indiana self-reliance when Indiana is given the opportunity to speak freely with his dad he doesn't know what to say so in that instance they are very much alike they aren't good at showing their emotions and they seem to get on far better when discussing the whereabouts of the Grail one of the great moments is when Henry believes he has lost his son he finally opens up and says how much he cares for his son revealing if he had only a few more minutes to tell him how much he loved him the beauty of this scene is that there is a nice slice of humor thrown in as it knee pops up behind them to wonder what they are looking at Henry shows his true colors only for a brief moment then forgets everything and moves on with the mission with the running joke of Henry's diminutive Lea calling Indy jr. he finally shows his son the respect he craves when he's reaching for the Grail Henry just says Indiana to get his attention and tells him to let it go in this one moment Indiana desires to Grail for himself but has shown the way by his father who discovers what he values most above all and that's his son this is of course a nice allegory for our two main characters in his search for a cup that would bring him eternal life Henry Jones finds that real immortality has been there all along in his progeny in having to let the grow and therefore the power of immortality go Indy learns that he can't control everything and that bringing home the prize isn't what will make his father respect him the whole relationship and what has been building up to with this one scene makes the Last Crusade the strongest of the series with its characters and emotional core it really makes you care for Indy and his father you want them to repair their difficult relationship it's two stubborn men who struggled to speak their mind when it comes to their emotions and it's through the hunt for the Grail that they discover what's more important to them I thought the quest for the Holy Grail was a great direction Tides the King Arthur legend through the Templar it is a story that everyone is familiar with it is also a story that is wrapped in mythology and rumor a Xindi himself early on dismisses these as bedtime stories he makes a distinction between searching for fact and searching for the truth fact his concrete and non-negotiable the basis of archaeology whilst truth is more about belief now even though the distinction may get little lost along the way it at least doesn't fall into the realm of conspiracy like in the fourth film where the factual existence of crystal skulls is bypassed for pure fantasy if you love the Indiana Jones movies for their action then you may be disappointed with the amount in the last whose side Spielberg was obviously aware of that and threw in an extra sequence at the last minute but it's still a bit light overall Indy doesn't really use his whip or his pistol that much it certainly doesn't reduce the level of violence like the kingdom of Crystal Skull however Indy still gets armed and shoots two bad guys it shifts to a more character-driven peace which in fact benefits it greatly if the main story of father and son was poorly written no amount of extra action would have saved it he's finding that balance to offer enough action would also provide us with an interesting story that we care about Steven Spielberg is an absolute pro when it comes to that he never puts the action first and forgets about the story as Spielberg was unhappy with the Temple of Doom he wanted to return to the spirit of Raiders and he may have gone a tad too far perhaps because the Last Crusade does draw quite a few comparisons to that film dealing with another religious artifact the enemies being the Nazis the return of Salah and a similar battle in the desert I don't find us to be a problem at all but it was something that was highlighted when it came out and it's pretty obvious heck return the Jedi repeats the ending of Star Wars and got away with it it is the traditional blueprint for sequels give them something familiar add something new but don't go too far or you lose your audience the Last Crusade is certainly a more polished movie when it comes to Raiders which has a more of a handmade feel to it Raiders is a tad more gritty and dirty which reflects its love for the old tools of the past Chris a does continue that method but it's more lavish locations and ambitious script really call for a larger budget and maybe to the hardcore fans some of the magic may have been lost it was rare for a third movie in a series to be as good as the first or even surpass it as Phil Berg said the wave crusade ends with having Indy ride off into the sunset was the curtain on the series and that decade it was now time to move on to other films and it was his way of maturing as a filmmaker Raiders was made when Spielberg was young and out to prove that he can make a movie with a tight budget and still get it released on time giving the studio's faith in his ability to deliver he's moving 1941 was a costly bomb at the box office an industry cast doubt over him and his credibility he proved them wrong and radius was a monster hit with critics and audiences the Last Crusade demonstrated his maturity but still retained a slice of his youth were his wonderfully executed action sequences and an abundant sense of fun temblor doom didn't really progressed a series as it was set before the events of Raiders so there wasn't this sense of moving forward the Last Crusade is a perfect follow-up to Raiders and we got more of an insight into Indiana Jones and his world it showed us that he felt unloved by his father and that the quest for the Grail was a burden on their relationship but despite those frictions whose mission wasn't to find an artifact this time but to save his father and ultimately their relationship there was more to Indiana Jones and just preserving history [Music] I never expected to see you again bad penny I always turn step back now dr. Schneider if dr. Jones some room he's going to recover the Grail force huh impossible what do you say Jones ready to go down in history the Grail is mine are going to get it for me we get to Alexandra we will face two charges first the breath of God only the penitent man will pass the Word of God only in the footsteps of God will he proceed the path of God only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth [Music] hateful [Music] you can't save him when you're dead the healing power of the Grail is the only thing that can save your father now it's time to ask yourself what you believe [Music] [Music] [Music] you get Indiana [Music] let it go [Music] if you enjoyed the video don't forget to Like and subscribe if you want to gain early access to my retrospective reviews episodes are fix it in post and commentary podcasts you can pledge to my patreon thank you [Music]

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 240,418

Rating: 4.9438806 out of 5

Keywords: last crusade retrospective review, indiana jones, harrison ford, steven spielberg, last crusade, george lucas, sean connery, movie review, holy grail, kingdom of the crystal skull, raiders of the lost ark, temple of doom, john williams, retrospective review, oliver harper, oliver harper retrospective, oliver harper commentary, ollie harper, podcast special

Id: qgATLXF34tQ

Length: 36min 6sec (2166 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 16 2018

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