Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989) – Encore Review

“Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s Philosophy class is right down the hall. So forget any ideas you’ve got about lost cities, exotic travel, and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and “X” never, ever marks the spot. ” – Indiana Jones

Number of Times Seen – Way too many to count (A few times in the theater, cable, video, DVD, 14 Apr 2000, 24 Apr 2014 and 20 May 2018)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – Indiana Jones goes on a quest to find the lost Grail while seeking to find his father who went missing during the same journey.

My Take on it – This has been among my favorite films ever since I saw it numerous times in the theater when it came out in the summer of 1989.

It is a great edition to the Indiana Jones saga and so many of us movie lovers would have been content had they stopped the stories after this film.

Harrison Ford and Sean Connery have amazing chemistry together in this film and that helps keep things so much fun along the way.

The bickering and banter between them is constant the entire time and helps make it so enjoyable to watch them onscreen together.

John Williams once again provides the musical score for this film and he amazingly takes the original Indiana Jones theme and expands on it to give us a very unique score with its own voice.

The biggest issue with this film is that the villains all feel too much like cardboard cutouts and aren’t menacing in the least.

This actually helps keep the film “lighter” than the previous two films and doesn’t hurt the overall storyline which is all about a father-son relationship.

The choice to return to a familiar artifact was a wise one because they no longer needed to try and explain what kind of treasure the heroes are seeking like in the past film.

Bottom Line – Amazing film that is a great edition to the whole Indiana Jones saga. Ford and Connery have unbelievable chemistry in this film and it makes the film so much fun to watch largely due to their constant banter and bickering. The music by Williams is superb because it takes the original Indiana Jones score and adds to it so much. The villains are pretty much cardboard bad guys but that doesn’t effect the film too much because it helps keep things much “lighter” than the previous films. The return to a familiar artifact also helps keep things light since there is no real nee dto try and understand what the bad guys are after.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia –  There was a fan theory that Indiana’s adventures are merely a series of dreams that Han Solo is having while frozen in carbonite. Several examples can be produced to lend some credence to this. In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), a carving of C-3PO and R2-D2 can be seen behind Indiana in the well of souls, and when Indiana faces the swordsman in the town, he “shoots first”. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), the name of the club in Shanghai is “Club Obi-Wan”. In this movie, the characters of Donovan and Hitler are portrayed by two actors who have also played Imperial Officers in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Also, there are several sounds throughout the movies that sound like the Millennium Falcon’s engines, and even sounds from the carbonite freezing chamber. All this could be occurring in Solo’s mind, as a way of his subconscious trying to wake him up, or making sure he remembers people and things from his life. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)

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