Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – S. Spielberg

By request from Amon (nearly 10 years old). I feel as though I must have watched this once or twice since its release in 1989 but I didn’t really remember much at all.  For example, there is a prelude where River Phoenix stars as the young Indiana Jones with a few nods toward the origin of various trademarks (whip, hat, fear of snakes)! Then, when Harrison Ford shows up, we are quickly into the adventure story which involves rescuing his father (Sean Connery), a professor of medieval literature, and finding the holy grail (yes, the real one).  I never read/saw the Da Vinci Code but, in my imagination, that book probably reads like this movie: the heroes have to solve a bunch of mysteries related to old texts, hidden tombs, ancient curses and booby traps and the like.  The Nazis are once again (as in the first film) the main antagonists, threatening to get to the grail first.  Director Steven Spielberg is clearly having fun here (Indy comes face-to-face with Hitler in one scene, played for laughs) and the action-adventure scenes are enjoyable/thrilling/comic. Sure, there are a lot of echoes of the first film (we haven’t watched the second because it is supposed to be too gory for young kids) but this didn’t interfere with our viewing pleasure. Harrison Ford is still in peak form and Connery plays against type with good effect.  It can’t top the original (Amon says it is his fave of all-time) but #3 is better than what came later (I don’t have high hopes for Indy 5 but Amon can’t wait).