Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1989 (Harrison Ford) Paramount Pictures/Lucasfilm
“I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers!”
1989 was the year of the franchise, whether it was one of the 35-plus sequels produced that year, or the launch of new franchises such as Batman, Major League, and Look Who’s Talking. It was also the year that saw the release of Ghostbusters II, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Lethal Weapon 2, Back to the Future, Part II, and this film, the third entry into the Indiana Jones saga, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade*. It was the perfect storm of sequels.
I wonder if the Last in the title hinted at a possible conclusion, a natural end to the Indiana Jones movies. It was the last movie in the series for a very long time, as it seemed Harrison Ford had done enough with the character, and the casting of Sean Connery as his father seemed the culmination of everything he could explore. Alas, it was not to be. Money is a helluva drug! We could, at the very least, be assured (with the input of Spielberg and Lucas) the sequels would be of a certain requisite quality, and that the franchise would not be put into the wrong hands.
This go-round, we have a more personal story. The previous movies put Indy safely in a narrative periphery where he could act as a hero, but in the third movie, his father is involved so we’re treated to a flashback sequence. As a young Boy Scout, Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) horseback rides with his troop when he comes across fortune hunters who have stolen a golden crucifix belonging to de Coronado. He thinks he’s doing the right thing when he takes it from them, but as it turns out, they were returning it to its rightful owner.
Even as we jumped forward twenty-six years later, Indy still thinks it belongs in a museum and he’s willing to capsize a boat and kill its crew to get it. What the … ? This doesn’t sound like Indy at all! Or does it? I mean, it’s not a terribly heroic thing to do, and he seems to have no compunction about trading lives for a trinket, and then donating said trinket to a museum. Later, he discovers his father, Henry, was searching for the Holy Grail when he suddenly disappeared. Indy goes to Venice, meets up with beautiful archaeologist Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) and gets double-crossed by Schneider who is working for entrepreneur Walter Donovan (Julian Glover), a Nazi collaborator.
Last Crusade strikes a better balance between action, story, and drama than Temple of Doom. This is still an in-camera type of movie with real explosions and decent traveling mattes. There’s also some eye-catching motion-control work as well. Visually, we’re back to the earth-tone sand palette of Raiders, eschewing the bold reds of Temple of Doom. Bringing back Denholm Elliot and John Rhys-Davies while making the Nazis the bad guys again, Last Crusade is a return to the form of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
*There was also Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives, Fletch Lives, The Fly II, Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, The Karate Kid, Part III, Howling V: The Rebirth, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, The Return of Swamp Thing, and much, much more!
