Back to perfection

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2009)

Spielberg was well inspired again and anew after the badly thought second episode and he brought his Indiana Jones back to the Nazi time and context. It's clear and some of the scenes, including the meeting with Adolf Hitler himself are sickeningly obnoxious and hilariously crystal clear: Hitler is evil, he burns books, he kills people, he enjoys it and he is surrounded by the scum of humanity. But Spielberg goes one iota further and introduces his version of the American Nazi and this one is worse than Adolf Hitler himself, he has no historical ambition or vision just plain personal and self centered egotistic interest. He is a Nazi out of pure opportunism and that is even worse evil than Nazism itself. But Spielberg gets to another dimension too by introducing Indiana Jones's father and Sean Connery does quite a credible father of that crazy adventurer, or should I say adventuring archaeology professor. But one improvement is never enough for our Spielberg and this time the main woman is an evil traitor, a Nazi that prefers dying to letting the prey of her hunt go, even when it is obviously too late and out of reach. And that prey is the Holy Grail, mind you. This time the myth is a good western myth, Christian what's more. And this myth needs a delicate treatment but has immense possibilities for us and these possibilities are used right to the end. So we discover the underground catacombs of Venice and their rats, a good old chase on a train transporting a circus and all its animals, a sacred temple in Jordan and all kinds of religious symbols and traps, and the winners are those who believe in and respect these symbols, and that has to be Indiana Jones and his father. Too bad for all the others: the treasure hunter who takes the most beautiful and golden chalice and dies on the spot after drinking from it, the greedy woman who disappears in the depth of the earth, and all the other bad guys and bad boys. Some scene are superb like the crazy German tank in the desert. Every detail is hilarious and suspenseful and even a second viewing, or probably even more, is as effective as the first one. Very well inspired indeed this time, this famous Spielberg, but since he made Dr Jones Senior drink the water of eternal life in the Holy Grail itself, he is doomed to go on and on with that legend. The fourth episode has already been produced and Harrison Ford has just announced a few days ago he was ready to get into the adventure of a fifth episode, now he has been provided with a son in this fourth episode: he has to guide the new Junior into the next stage of the quest.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID