- Title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- IMDB: link
Harrison Ford returns as Indiana Jones, though he’s not the first one we see in the role in this third installment of the franchise.
The movie starts with a young Indy (River Phoenix) taking on grave robbers near his home. This short glimpse into his past gives us clues to his fear of snakes, his love of archeology, and where he picked up that trademark hat and whip. This sequence would also be the catalyst for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series.
Following this opening we jump to the present where Indy is told his father (Sean Connery) has disappeared while searching for the location of the Holy Grail. With the help of his father’s assistant (Alison Doddy), Indy travels to Venice to continue the search and find his father.
The search reunites the Jones famly for the first time in years and puts them up against Nazi’s, a secret cult desperate to keep the resting place of the Grail secret, and mysteries and clues which must be solved.
In many ways this third installment is the most fun adventure of all the Indiana Jones films. The addition of Connery and the dynamic between the two works well, and Doddy’s gives us a femme fatale character not present in the first two films. There’s also plenty of mystery, myth, history, and good ol’ fashioned adventure to be had as well.
I can not bring myself to argue that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a better film than Raiders, however it is wildly entertaining and does an excellent job of recapturing some of the magic lost duringTemple of Doom. It marks a fitting end to the series, though now with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it is no longer Indy’s “last crusade.”