Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

When I wrote about Raiders of the Lost Ark that it is the best adventure movie, I was in two minds because the proverbially second best is The Last Crusade. If I were to specify it in percentage terms it would look a bit like this: Raiders 100% and Last Crusade 99.9%. By a hair’s breadth. It probably lacks the element of surprise, or the darkness that surrounded the Ark of the Covenant. But what The Last Crusade lacks in darkness it makes up for in inventiveness, fun and Sean Connery (they say that Lucas was originally against having a former James Bond playing Indy’s father, but Spielberg insisted that this would be the joke :-). Marvelously handled father son theme is a great sideline to the story developing around the legend of Christ’s grail. If you want the whole family to enjoy, the last part of the trilogy is the perfect choice. By the way, the reason why a fourth Indy hasn’t been made yet is that Lucas subconsciously knows that it wouldn’t work these days. Plus what better ending to the legendary trilogy can you imagine than the heroes driving off into the setting sun. (05/12/2006)

The Last Crusade loses its breath a little after a brisk and all-explaining intro with River Phoenix, but then goes full speed until the very end. The third Indy outing appealed to me the most, thanks to the casting of Sean Connery and especially the great action-adventure energy of the whole film. This time, the line with the Nazis didn't bother me as much as it did in the first one, and compared to the previous installments, the theme tune was spared, whose overuse in both the first and the second one was quite a drag on my ears. Plus, the Holy Grail has a better vibe for me personally than the Ark of the Covenant (or magic stones). A weaker five stars! (01/07/2023)

Music has Mozart, painting has Da Vinci, football has Pelé, porn has Johnny Sins and film has Steven Spielberg. The Last Crusade is quite possibly the funniest, most balanced and most beautifully told big screen movie ever made in Hollywood. A thrilling ride through bombastic locations, peppered with smart wit, surprising action and such likeable clowns that James Cameron can go fuck himself. Dramatically better and more playful than the already amazing first part. A pleasure factory... 100% (29/04/2011)

January 1992, a long line in front of the Lucerna movie theater in Prague, a ten-year-old me holding an ice cream, my dad, and finally the first Indy movie I had the opportunity to see on the big screen and not on a shabby VHS tape. As a whole, the movie is weaker by a Sphinx’s hair’s breadth or by one step taken by a breastfed pre-toddler than Raiders in terms of action, story, and the sidelining of Indy's friends (and enemies), but I realized this only after the umpteenth viewing. But all these trivial "problems" are erased by the other Jones. And thus for the third time Junior is at the peak of his powers and fully equipped. Simply love at first sight for a movie that did the impossible and exceeded my immense expectations. Respect. (20/08/2006)

Lucas' and Spielberg's apology for the dark pulp flick Temple of Doom, which paradoxically with its "white savior" concept was most in line with the original idea of conceiving Indiana Jones as the cliffhanger adventure short familiar in the 20s and 30s. As vocal as there were voices that adding another dimension to the central character by pinning his impractical father on him would rob Indiana of some of the mystery that surrounds him, on the contrary, the move was helped in particular by a noticeably aged original cast, the new wrinkles and tired eyes simply added a human dimension to the adventurers, not to mention the fact that after the second installment you quite welcome the fact that the sidekick is not a loose young girl lusting after Jones's sweaty, sweaty body between screams. Otherwise, again, the dozens of different sub-quests, the world locations we get to see, the tangibility and light-heartedness of the action, the beautiful framing, and the relentless torture of the crew in their quest to film the never-before-seen, it's still such a beautiful and forgotten cinematic discipline that I'm defining a special way of sitting on the couch that's just for this trilogy. The fourth installment never existed, you may even remember seeing it, but no, it was just a bad dream. This way it’s just fine. (02/06/2019)