"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989) - Movie Review

“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” is funnier, sensible and heartier than the failed second venture of “doom”. It has the classical James Bond, Sean Connery coming up with a surprising wit, humour and a much needed naked naive ness to counteract the virile son of his, Indiana Jones played again with much faithfulness by Harrison Ford. With adventures matching near to the ingenuity of its origin, it is a smart and deals Indy as a kid missing his father.

With a short but thrilling train full of circus animals and prop materials opens the young Indy (River Phoenix) crusading his sworn sincerity in protecting the artifacts which some of the wealthy money seekers trying to loot. The history of his terrible fear for snakes and the whip which saved him from being eaten from a lion takes us closer to this adventure hero. Back to the present for Indy movies, which is 1938 one year after the “Ark of Covenant” was dug out; Indy gets back what he lost as a young boy.

Now is the time to grip your chairs as we crawl through rats, ride along a motor bike, fly a zeppelin and in a midway jump on a plane, chased and shot by a plane while riding a car, hunted by a giant bomb spitting tank, gallop over a horse and escape near death booby traps along with Indy. And I forgot the boat scene saving his woman, Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody). The action scenes are not long rather leaves us begging for more only to be fed a bunch more. We breathe up only to end the credits with gasping horses taking towards the sunset.

The film rather being a quest for the search of Holy Grail becomes a buddy action comedy with Connery and Ford plainly reacting to each other’s natural dialogues. Connery gives a round about turn of Bond in Dr. Henry Jones and he twists the wit and sarcasm from a condescending Bond to an over enthusiastic and childish father of Indy. He has lost his son’s approval and attention due to obsession with burying himself in cryptically coded clues, pictures and everything towards the faith of finding the Grail. He is a medieval literature professor and his expression of his son pulling off near death escapes astonishes him. Yet he collects himself up with a quirky comment to complete it. That is the trump card in their chemistry.

The locations are vast and the set designs take its shiny brown colour from the desert sands which washed the screens in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. The funny thing about Indy is that he has witnessed the super natural forces in the previous two films and yet he still cannot comprehend the fact of its existence when some one tells a fable of old stories. His teaching of follow the facts is not abided since he cannot disobey his ego. In the little breathing time for conversation among father and son, Ford and Connery are in their roles not taking the pass on the reasoning of plain entertainment. The thing is many do not realize that those tiny scenes and itty bitty information between them comprises the reactive instincts among each other and appreciate the humour better.

It is a successful film both as the faithful trail follower of its franchise and advancing its characters and contents. And this time around, Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) gets a better light on this clan of zealous grown up kids. They have most of their life given to this madness of finding the buried, hidden and stolen antiquities. But the madness is the only escape out from the mediocre regular life. The measure of their existence is in this sport of grabbing the materials left behind by the ancient histories and stories from the religious books and fables.

Having completed the trilogy, the fourth one can be an easy guess on its unbelievable feat of adventures. But a fan has to understand that the mere adventures and extravagant stunt alone does not make this franchise pick up and whip the bag of crisp film making. Many should remember that second installment too had the magnificent sets and non-stop action but it crawled in its content.

A character closely attached to Indy who knows more than we do is the key to a better film. In “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, since we were not much aware of this hero, it was a great fun to see the adventure alone and in this film, Sean Connery holds the character key of Indy. Second had none (I do not consider the sidekick Shorty) and the good news is that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull” has Shia LaBeouf who in my opinion can be a good sidekick and mainly is the return of the original lady of Indy, Marion played by Karen Allen. I just have to wait and see whether it works coming Thursday (May 22nd 2008).