X marks the spot

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2019)

In IJTLC we're provided with a backstory of the famed archaeologist Indiana Jones. The film opens with a bunch of adolescent Boy Scouts horseback riding through the scorched rocky country of eastern Utah.
Two of boys decide on going cave-scouting (one of whom is young Mr Jones) and they happen upon a group of tomb raiders who dig up a golden cross purported to belong to the Spanish conquistador Coronado.
Young Indie steals the cross from the fumbling bunch and a spectacularly choreographed chase sequence ensues, involving a moving circus train full of jet-lagged animals.
Young Indie manages to escape the clutches of the bandits and takes refuge in his home where his father (played by Sean Connery) absentmindedly acknowledges his hectic arrival while remaining mostly absorbed by an ancient literature book.
This interlude gives us a perspective on Indie's integrity and morals present in his from an early age, particularly concerning artifacts and anything of historical significance.
The sheriff arrives and Indie hands over the cross only to realize a moment later that he'd been played. It must have been his first lesson of the workings of real life.
Years later we meet now a matured Indiana Jones rocking precariously on a ship at stormy sea somewhere off the coast of Portugal. He's been caught red-handed again by the same leader of tomb raiders, only this time he wouldn't be so easy on him as he orders his henchmen to throw Indie overboard.
After some impressive stunts, Indie manages to get away from the goons just in time so when a barrel of fuel is swept by the crashing waves hits some crates on the deck, the ship explodes and is swallowed by raving waters.
Indie has finally retrieved the cross and this times it's going to a museum because, well it belongs there...
After this escapade we find Indiana at his official work place at the Marcus University (or was it a museum?). He's giving a lecture to a roomful of dreamy-eyed students who seems to take every word he says at face value. The girls appear to be especially enthralled by him and his reputation.As he walks them through the essence of being an archaeologist Indie stresses the fact that in real life 'X never, never marks the spot'.
As Marcus Brody walks in, Indie wraps up the lecture and dismissed the class. Indie presents Marcus with the recovered cross.
As he sneaks out the windows of his office he's confronted by a group of well-groomed men who take him to Walter Donovan who tells him that his father, Jones Sr. had gone missing after searching for The Holy Grail, using an incomplete inscription from a stone tablet as his guide.
From here on out the action really takes speed. We're surprised-as well as Indie- to find that sometimes X does mark the spot.
The action takes us to various places across the world in a similar fashion to that of previous Indiana Jones movies.
Much can be said about the visual effects of the movie, but it would just as well suffice to say that they are stunning.
There's a good measure of funny lines and preposterous situations and cliffhangers, which only adds to the overall appeal of this adventure picture.
This installment revolves around the Holy Grail and the quest for it, a race of good against evil. At the height of WWll Adolf Hitler's minions are dispatched to locate the Holy Grail. This movie takes advantage of the widely-circulated high tales of Nazi occultism and their various secret paranormal projects, ranging from flying saucers to telekinesis.
Much of the film's appeal lies not in the plot but in its child-like charm. It's adventurous, it's daring, it's fast-paced, but most of all it's wonder-full.
If you were to scratch the surface of its convincingly plausible story-line, you'd disperse the magic of it all by finding it utterly laughable on the premise of how historically cliched and inaccurate it is. The mcguffin in this film, which is the Holy Grail, is simply that- a mcguffin. If you don't know what a mcguffin is, I suggest you look up Alfred Hitchcock's definition of it in the form of a little anecdote.