Dan Kaman- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2005)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the third chapter in the Indiana Jones phenomenon. Staring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, this movie never stops with action. The opening scene of Indiana as a boy stumbling on bad guys finding a long lost travel sets the tone of the movie and at what kind of pace the movie will be in. The setting for most of the movie was in Portuguese and Venice in the early 1910's. The setting plays an important role in the story line because this is the kind of terrain that Indiana works best with, the sand, mountains and somewhat plains of Eastern Europe. In scene of looking back to when Indiana was a child, it shows where he gets the famous whip and hat. Spielberg did a great job of going back in time to show the viewer how Indiana acquired his two signatures. The movie is set in third person point of view as Indiana attempts to find the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is the cup in which Jesus Christ drank from during his last supper. It is said that he who drinks from this cup should have eternal youth. In this third movie, we meet Indiana's father, played by Sean Connery, Professor Henry Jones. Connery plays the father very well and he seems like a realistic character due in part in his way to never warn Indiana about danger, but he is seen as a older pal who lacks three dimensions because children are unable to see their parents in that difficulty. The theme of the movie obviously is how Indiana and his father communicate and react to each other and how Indiana is trying to live up to his father. Connery, it looks like, has a lot of fun with his role, and it is obvious to see that he pans well with Ford as his father.
Spielberg put some nice touches on the film's technical elements in this movie. He has definitely proved himself as an elite film maker after this movie. He uses the caves scenes to his advantage by using darkness and shadows to make the viewer feel like they are there with Indiana and that something could happen at any moment. When Indiana is on the ship heading over, you can really feel like you are on the boat with him due to the lightning, waves and mist being all around him, you feel like something could actually happen to you. The music during the action scenes put you on the edge of your seat each time you hear it, and the suspenseful music at the beginning of the movie set the tone for the suspense that would follow in the movie. This was present throughout the movie in different ways to show the drama and excitement of the scenes. The way that Spielberg used silhouettes in the cave scenes was brilliant. The rack-focus technique was used during the whip scene in the beginning of the movie when Indiana is in the train car with the lion. The shadows to show the bad guys was a great way to use lighting as a way to use camera techniques to his advantage and add a certain suspense to who the characters were. Overall, this movie is a must see and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a action movie, with slight comedy relief.