All you can want in a film (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (DVD))

Member Name: alocin

Product:	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (DVD)
Date:	09/06/03 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Action + Well thought out plot, Great humour, Great acting from great actors

Disadvantages: Some effects look a bit dated now

During this, my brief break from A Level revision, I thought I would write a review on the excellent film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Seeing it yesterday brought back my (not so distant) childhood as this was probably the first "action film" I was allowed to watch. In the great Indiana Jones tradition there is more laughter than gore so they are widely acclaimed as family films.

First the plot. The film begins with a flashback to 1912 where Indy (River Phoenix) is a young scout or something and he is searching for this bejewled cross. He finds it but it's new owners are not keen to place it in a museum like Indiana thinks it should be. Cue a chase through a circus train where he develops his fear of snakes seen in earlier films, and learns quickly how to handle a whip to save himself from a lion. In the end the villains get the cross then we cut back to the more usual time of 1938 where the adult Indy (Harrison Ford of course) is still trying to get it placed in a museum. After a battle on a boat somewhere in a raging storm he is successful in reclaiming the cross. Then we return to the university where Prof Jones is teaching a load of swooning female students. He's not there for long before he is dragged off into a new adventure.

Prof Jones senior (Sean Connery), Indy's father, has been kidnapped by Nazis who are anxious to try and find the Holy Grail. He is the expert on the subject and was close to finding where it was hidden. Indy flies to meet Elsa Schneider, the scientist his father was last with. After a nasty incident with a tunnel full of rats they find the next clue to the location of the Grail. They are then almost killed by villains with fezes - sworn to protect the Holy Grail. The search to find Indy's father leads them to Austria, where Indy is captured by the same Nazis. But wait - Elsa is working with them! You would have thought the strong German accent would have tipped them off, but no. Father a
nd son ("Junior" as his father insists on calling him) escape and take a ride on an airship. They leave the airship abruptly starting off a chase in some vintage planes. Off course they escape and make off on camels.

There is another fight complete with tanks and horses, where Indy is feared dead but he can't die as he seems to be invincible - and his name is in the title. The remaining Nazis and the Jones's reach the location of the Holy Grail at the same time. There Jones senior is shot - and the only way Indy can save him is to get through the three tests and find the Grail. He completes them with a leap of faith and reaches the chamber. There waits a knight from 700 years ago and a lot of cups. The Grail gives life but the others give death. The leading villainous Nazi guy picks a shiny cup and dies a very horrible death that gave me nightmares when I was little. Indy picks a simple wooden cup and saves his father. Evil Elsa who is still there tries to take the cup but makes the whole place collapse and the Grail is lost. The Jones's ride off happily into the sunset, having become much closer. The end. Until the next film. I don't think Harrison Ford will be doing all his stunts in the next one - he's starting to get on a bit!

Baring the first bit of the first film, with the giant rolling boulder in the temple, this film is the best Indian Jones. I think it was the first one I saw, so that affects my view of it but it is still very good. It combines action with humour and a decent story as well. It is all helped by some brilliant acting from Harrison Ford and Sean Connery - you would think they were father and son. The fact that their ages are not that different doesn't affect it at all. And the fact that one is clearly very Scottish and the other all-American. For "action" films to have some great comic moments is a rareity as well. James Bond, particulaly with Sean Connery, comes close but Indian Jo
nes films are funny throughout. The moment with Adolf Hitler, where Indy thinks he is caught but then Hitler gives him an autograph is priceless. As it the bit where he throws the Nazi out of the airship, explaining to other passengers that he did not have a ticket and then they all franticaly show him their tickets. He he he. Ah it doesn't take that much to make me happy but it's rare. And when Jones senior reveals that Indy named himself after the family dog! That is just great humour.

All in all Indiana Jones is a great series of films, and this the third installment, is the best. It has action, it has loads of great humour, it has a well thought out and interesting plot, it has great acting and the whole family can enjoy it. What more can you want in a film? (Well a bit of nudity doesn't go amiss, but this is a family film!)

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