"X marks the spot"

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2011)

A good franchise has to tread a fine balance. On the one hand it must adapt as it goes along; audiences don't like to simply have the same movie rehashed every couple of years. But then again, you can't mess too much with a winning formula, and each successive picture must contain all the basic elements that made the original a hit. This third instalment of 1980s neo-swashbuckling Indiana Jones series builds on its household-name character, giving him a backstory and a family. It's a move which opens up several new possibilities without taking the franchise in too unfamiliar a direction.
Last Crusade is the most dramatic and human of the trilogy, giving us a story arc (no Raiders-related pun intended) regarding Indy's reconciliation with his estranged father. Following on from the thing about giving the rock back to the village at the end of Temple of Doom, there is very much a sense of what's important and what's not, except here it's family and friendship that are the stakes. Not only is Jones, Sr. included as a major character, Marcus Brody and Sallah are reprised from the first movie, now playing more significant parts in the action. And Indy is betrayed by some of his new companions, making the older ties seem all the more significant. The screenplay was written by the bizarre combination of Jeffrey Boam and Tom Stoppard (although the two didn't work together, Stoppard doing a rewrite of Boam's earlier drafts). It's a testament to the skill of those two renowned writers that they can include all these ideas, make them work, and not detract at all from this being in body a rip-roaring action adventure. And of course its raison d'etre is still to be an action movie, but beginning and ending as it does with the relationship between the Joneses it gives the intervening adventure so much more meaning.
Spielberg's style as a director has not changed exceptionally; he still likes to show key moments indirectly, focusing on close-ups of hands and props, but here it's used to add a layer of delicacy, showing us things in a tentative manner. For example, when Donovan tells Indy that his father has gone missing, Indy is holding his hat in the foreground. The hat dips slightly, giving us the merest hint of an emotional reaction from our stalwart hero. In the same scene there's an interesting juxtaposition, as Donovan tells Indy about the life-giving powers of the grail over a close-up of him pouring out champagne. In contrast, the action sequences are shot with simplicity and clarity, in nice straightforward mid-shots – quite unlike the confused mess of close-ups you get in today's action movies. As always the escapades have a lot of comedy to them, and Spielberg's no-frills approach to them is not unlike that of the great slapstick directors.
The scope of Last Crusade introduces several crucial new figures to the Indiana Jones universe, and Spielberg has chosen his supporting actors wisely. The first who deserves a mention is River Phoenix, perhaps the most impressive youth actor since James Dean, and like Dean he sadly didn't live far into adulthood. Phoenix doesn't get to do much deep acting here, but what is neat is how he imitates Harrison Ford's stance and manners, giving us a very believable depiction of the young Indy. Then there's Sean Connery playing Indy's dad. Connery was cast in a nod towards his James Bond days, but the part is very different to the debonair persona of Bond and the many other heroes Connery played. Still, he proves himself to be very apt at playing the bumbling old professor. And yet there is an occasional forcefulness to his performance which, as with Phoenix, makes him appear a plausible member of the Jones household. Last Crusade also gives us a nice opportunity to see the delightful Denholm Elliot and John Rhys Davies in larger roles. Ford himself appears to have more fun with the part than ever before, the character now clearly fitting him like a glove. I love the scene in which puts on a bad Scots accent, presumably a tongue-in-cheek reference to Connery's unshakeable brogue. Then, again we also get to see Alexei Sayle playing Arabic with a hint of Liverpudlian.
Last Crusade is not quite the best of the Indy movies. I find the business with the Grail and eternal life to be a bit less engaging than the Arc of the Covenant or the Sivalinga stones, as well as prone to plot holes. However, the theme of family loyalty and forgiveness is the real point of this story, which is perhaps why the Holy Grail angle is a little underdeveloped. In any case, the father-son dynamic more than makes up for any flaws in the plot, and makes this a fitting coda to a hugely enjoyable trilogy. I'm just glad Spielberg and co. decided to keep the Indy series as a purely 80s phenomenon, quitting while they were ahead and leaving us with just the three canonical classics. Oh, hang on, they did make another one didn't they? Oh dearie me