Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliot, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, and River Phoenix

Written by: Jeffrey Boam and Tom Stoppard (uncredited) based on a story by: George Lucas and Menno Meyjes

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

After watching the trilogy again, I came up with a very basic overview of the flims.  Raiders is the best overall picture.  Temple of Doom is the film made up of almost all memorable moments instead of being a fluent film.  Where would that leave The Last Crusade?  To me, it’s a great combination of the two and as blasphmetic as it seems, the most re-watchable thus far of the Indiana Jones saga.

It is finally in the third film that we get to know more about our favorite archaeologist adventurer.  The first film introduced him but didn’t get into his history much besides telling us who is mentor was or that he broke Marion Ravenwood’s heart.  The second film, was too action oriented and we learned absolutely nothing about his past, save that he traveled around with a sidekick for a bit.

The third film makes up for that in spades.  In fact we begin with an adventure of a young Indy.  The boy scout Indy, played by River Phoenix on what was his first big adventure, trying to rescue an artifact, the Cross of Coronado,  from money-grubbing treasure hunters to place in a museum where the piece belonged.   River Phoenix does a great job of being young Indy, even if he looks little like his older version, his swagger is there, as well as his attitude in the face of danger.  It shows in one adventure how the scar on Indy’s chin gets there when he uses his first whip, gives you a background on his fear of snakes, and even shows how Indy gets his trademark fedora.  All in all it comes out of the gates running in a fun adventure.  We also half meet Indy’s father giving us a backstory that will come into play later on in the film.  I say half, because we never see him, we only hear Sean Connery’s iconic voice.

If they were trying to save that as a surprise, well that was one idea destined to fail from the get go.  But it didn’t matter.  The transition to older Indy is perfect and gives you that feel good moment it was intended to.  Years later, Indy is on a boat tracking the same man and the same Cross.  Indy is more successful this time and is able to donate the Cross to Marcus Brody’s museum.

That is one way that this Indy already hearkens back to the first better than the second.  Absent from the second film, Marcus Brody gives Indy a likable friend and compatriot.  An appearance by John Rhys-Davies’ Sallah has a similar effect.  One only truly misses Marion.

Ok, a small part of me wondered what Short Round was up to.

The next big adventure is set up when wealthy Walter Donovan comes to Indy discussing the search for the Holy Grail, which would give everlasting life.  His best man turned up missing on the search, and he wants Indy to take over.  Indy is hesitant as this is the very obsession that came between he and his father.  He tells Donovan that he has the wrong Jones.  Donovan then informs Indy that it is his father who has gone missing.

After discovering his father’s house ransacked, Indy remembers a package he received but hadn’t opened.  It is his fathers’ Grail diary, a collection of all his research.

What follows is the precursor to the Dan Brown books, as Indy has to follow clues to markers to more clues on the pathway to the most important finding ever.

He goes to Italy, where his father was last seen and meets with Dr. Elsa Schneider who was working with him at the time.  Elsa, played by Alison Doody, is a much better love interest than Willie was, although nowhere near Marion.

Of course the plot needed a new woman though, leaving Marion out in the cold.

Indy uses the diary and his intellect to discover the tomb of the Knights of The Crusade who were believed to have found and moved the Grail.  The Knight’s shield was the second marker and could be used to discover where the Grail was taken.

Unfortunately before they can discover more, agents from the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword attempt to kill them by setting fire to the oil slickened water that has permeated the tomb.  The Brotherhood has been protecting the secret of the Grail for centuries. In many ways, this Brotherhood and it’s leader Kazim was the inspiration for the use of the Medjai in The Mummy.

Convincing Kazim that he is after his father, not the Grail, Indy learns where his father is being held.

Off to the rescue goes Indy and Elsa.  It is in a castle on the Austrian-German border that we first are fully introduced to Sean Connery as Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.  Indy does his trademark stylish entrance by crashing through the window to Connery’s disbelieving, “Junior!”  What follows is a very humorous back and forth as the Nazis burst in and take them prisoner again due to the betrayal of Elsa and Walter Donovan who had staged everything in order to get Indy to learn the secrets for them.

They are tied up while Elsa takes the diary, but they quickly learn that Indy has torn pages out and given them to Marcus, who was already in Iskenderun, the city built from the ashes of Alexandretta, where the Grail is being kept.

The Nazis capture Marcus despite a humorous attempt at diversion by old friend Sallah.

Indy and his father escape the castle in usual bumbling Indy style, which is a fun ride as always and head to Berlin to get the diary which contains notes on the three challenges they’ll have to pass to obtain the grail.

After tracking down Elsa, who is coerced to hand the diary back to Indy, and a humorous moment with Adolf Hitler (how many times do you think you can say that?),  Indy and father heads out of Berlin on a zeppelin, where we see one of the more iconic scenes of the film when Indy, dressed as a porter knocks out the German general and throws him out the window before turning to the shocked passengers looking at him and saying, “No ticket.”

They are not long in the air before Indy notices the zeppelin is turning back to Germany.  The Joneses go to the plane at the bottom of the zeppelin and fly off but are hounded by two German planes.  Henry, trying his first hand at adventuring manages to screw up by shooting their own tale, and passing it off as if they were hit.  They crash land, but survive and escape when Henry uses his umbrella to stir up a flock of seagulls which strike the plane and cause it to crash.

Meeting up with Sallah, the Joneses attempt to free Brody and get involved in an army of tanks that are moving towards the Grail sanctuary.  During the battle Indy and the German General fight on a tank before it goes off a cliff.  Henry, Sallah, and Marcus look over the edge, sadly, while Indy crawls up near them and then walks behind them wondering what they’re looking down at.  After an emotional reunion, the Jones continue their adventure.

Making it to the Grail sanctuary, Donovan and the Nazis are having a hard time getting through the booby traps, but the Jones’ party is captured.  Donovan knows that Indy won’t get the Grail for him without incentive, so he shoots Henry in the stomach.  The Grail is the only thing that will save his father now.

Indy has to use his father’s notes to make it through the three challenges.  He does so and meets the still living Knight, the last of the three brothers.   The Knight at first attacks, but his age prevents him from actually swinging the sword, so he relinquishes to Indy.  Donovan and Elsa come in at this point, and the Knight tells them they must choose which cup, of the hundreds before them, is the true cup of Christ, for the true cup will grant eternal life, a false cup will bring death.

Elsa chooses one for Donovan who takes it and drinks quickly.  Right before their eyes he grows ancient before turning into a skeleton and blowing up, leading to the classic quip from the Knight, “He chose…poorly.”

Indy then chooses the most insignificant looking cup there is, claiming that it’s the cup of a carpenter.  He drinks from the well and is rewarded by the Knight’s smile.  The Knight warns them that they can not remove the Grail from the seal, and that that is the price of immortality.

Indy and Elsa return, to save Indy’s father, but once he is saved, Elsa gets greedy and starts taking the Grail, claiming that it’s hers and Indy’s now.  Indy warns her not to go past the seal, but she does setting off the cavern to begin collapsing.  The earth opens up and almost swallows the Grail.  Elsa goes for it, but can’t quite reach it down the chasm.  Indy tells her to grab on with both hands because she is slipping, but she won’t and she falls to her death.

Indy then falls over and is hanging on to his father’s arm.  Indy, too goes for the grail, until Henry, calling him Indiana for the first time, tells him to let it go.  His father, proving his love for his son over his lifelong obsession, gets through to Indy and Indy leaves the Grail behind.

The Jones party makes it out as the cavern collapses, and we learn finally that Indy’s real true name is Henry Jones, Jr.  Indiana is the dog’s name.  Sallah is greatly amused, and the pack ride off into the sunset.

Overall, the film is much more humorous than the first one’s action adventure, and the second one’s dark themes.  The humor is fitting though and really helps create some of Indy’s most iconic moments.

The score is again top notch from Williams, and helps set the tone of the film.  The only drawback in comparison to Raiders per se, is the fact that like Temple, the movie is more made up of solid moments which can overshadow the overall film.  The addition of the father-son storyline more than makes up for it though and why this film fits nicely between the two.

I still maintain that though not quite as solid as Raiders, it is the most re-watchable of the saga.

A