Ford and Connery are outstanding together

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2000)

I remember when I saw the previews for this movie I was not encouraged: seeing Harrison Ford and Sean Connery as Father and Son bickering like a standup comedy duo in the midst of dangerous situations did not look like a very good idea to me - it seemed too "cute" for the normally gritty Indiana Jones series. Well, how wrong I was. Last Crusade is a GREAT movie! I go back and forth in my mind whether this or Raiders is the best of the series. I'd probably have to give Raiders the edge, just for the originality and the action sequences are slightly better, have more punch. But by even forcing me into a comparison, Last Crusade shows the kind of staying power it has. (Just to put my biases right on the table, I thought Temple of Doom was not only the weakest in the series but one of the worst movies ever made - it shares a place on the Lucas/Spielberg scrap heap along side such stinkers as 1941 and Howard the Duck.)
And what makes this film so great IS the relationship between Ford and Connery as father and son. Without that relationship at the center, then yes, this movie would have played too much like a slavish imitation of Raiders. It otherwise has all the same elements: Nazis, quest for Biblical artifact, Sallah and Brody, an Indy fight/chase on a moving vehicle (a truck in Raiders, a tank in Last Crusade), climactic pseudo-religious "power of God" sequence, etc. But the presence of Connery, and his interaction with Ford throughout, just changes the entire complexion of the movie. It becomes less about the action (though certainly not skimping on it) and more about Indy's attempts to please his father and build a relationship with him. This may seem, on the surface of it, too precious or "touchy-feely" a concept; all I can say is, you need to see the way Ford and Connery handle it. Each performs with subtlety and gruff good humor, not allowing their encounters to sink in dross or sentiment; but equally, not simply tossing them off or treating the whole thing like a joke. Each of them finds an absolutely perfect balance. Ford is especially touching in the way he shows us Indy's barely repressed hostility toward his father, yet at the same time the aching need he has to be validated in his father's eyes - all without once begging for audience sympathy, or losing the sly humor and sense of fun which made us all love Indiana Jones in the first place. In the end, and primarily through the talents of Ford and Connery, the film achieves a poignance which I never would have believed possible - or even advisable - for such a comic book styled action movie.
Unlike many others, I also enjoyed the romantic interest here, Dr. Elsa Schneider, played by Allison Doody. Though certainly not as memorable a character as Karen Allen's Marion in Raiders, she was worlds better than Kate Capshaw in TOD and was ten times as sexy as either one of them. Also, without giving anything away, I like the way the filmmakers worked her character into the story - she becomes a prime mover of the plot in a way that neither of the other two women were.