
So, here’s an interesting story. I did not know much about Sean Connery and his iconic portrayal of James Bond until I saw him as Professor Henry Jones Sr in The Last Crusade. Funny enough, I only knew of him from Saturday Night Live’s Celebrity Jeopardy and mistakenly thought Darrell Hammond as the real Sean Connery.
I would later find out that Sean Connery was the original James Bond and is considered to be the best portrayal (Yeah, I know other people like Pierce Brosnan, but Sean Connery is my absolute favorite). Watching Last Crusade, every time I heard Connery’s pronunciation of the letter “S” in his dialogue (he always pronounced it as “Sh-,” and it started happening near the middle and end of his film career.), I would think of Darrel Hammond’s portrayal. Now knowing that James Bond was one of the inspirations for Indiana Jones, it all becomes clear having Sean Connery play Indy’s father.
The film takes place in 1938 and sees Indy recovering an artifact that he first discovered/lost as a child (played by the late River Phoenix), when he is contacted and told by businessman, Walter Donovan, that he has found part of a tablet that reveals the location of The Holy Grail and that his father has been trying to find the other part of the grail tablet but is currently missing. After discovering that his father mailed him his diary (contains every clue to the grail that he discovered), Indiana, along with Brody, travels to the last known location of his father in Venice, Italy and meets up with Henry’s partner, Dr. Elsa Schneider, to pick up the expedition and try to find out where to find his father. After a series of escalating encounters, Indy finds his father and unfortunately discovers that some of his allies are actually enemies working with the Nazi party to try and recover The Holy Grail for evil purposes of Global Conquest. It’s a race against time as both Indy and his father battle the Nazis to recover The Holy Grail before it is too late. Right off the bat, this sounds like a repeat of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it some ways it is but it has the advantages of some of the best character development you’ll ever see in film, it has one of the best father-son duos, and the production/direction stakes are higher than ever in this third film.



Walter Donovan is, in my opinion, a good villain, and Julian Glover does a really good job. I like that he was shown to be good at first and then revealed to be bad with a valid motive for recovering the Grail, not to mention he becomes truly evil when he shoots Henry and forces Indy to recover the grail. I also like that the Indy Girl, Elsa Schneider is also revealed to be working with Donovan, it’s something that I haven’t seen in other films, like with most of the Bond Girls in the 007 films. Just like Glover, Allison Doody did a great job as well with playing Schneider as a villain who is only looking for the Grail as prize and not for glory. John Williams’ score was excellent as he composed some of Indy’s best score pieces like The Keeper of the Grail, The Belly of the Steel Beast, Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra, and Indy’s Very First Adventure. If I had to pick some of my favorite scenes in the film, it would probably be the escape from Castle Brunwald, the escape from the German blimp, the grail challenges/grail chamber, and the finale. I’ll show one scene below and that is the escape from Castle Brunwald.
Do I have any problems? Not really. Last Crusade is the perfect example of a sequel that does what a sequel should do, at least in my opinion, and that is to build off the first film and give more character development to the main characters.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is an excellent sequel that finally gives Indiana Jones some much needed character development and is an even bigger thrill ride from start to finish. The Last Crusade is the better sequel than Temple of Doom as it removes some of that film’s problems such as its characters and dark elements and brings the tone back to the light-hearted adventure elements seen in Raiders. The decision to bring in Indy’s father was very beneficial as it helps develop Indy as a character and is the actual focus of the film rather than recovering The Holy Grail. It’s almost equal to Raiders of the Lost Ark and is one of my favorite sequels of all time. I consider this to be the last great film in the Indiana Jones franchise and the best character-developed film in the original trilogy. As for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on that garbage fourth film, really soon.
This one was one of my favorites combining two actors I really like.