Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade: The Action Comedy Movie

After the horror film, Spielberg and Lucas decided to return to the adventure format when they made Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Once again, Jones is racing against the Nazis to find an ancient artifact, and travels across multiple continents in the process. He also reteams with Sallah and Marcus Brody, and has a scene in his classroom. However, unlike Raiders, there are definite comedic aspects of the film, as opposed to a few jokes here and there to lighten the mood. Both Brody and Sallah have their characters tweaked to make them funnier; Brody especially turns into comic relief when he is changed from a respectable museum curator into a bumbling man who "once got lost in his own museum". But most important is the addition of Prof. Henry Jones, Sr., Indiana's irritable father. The rocky relationship between the Jones boys could have been used for dramatic purposes, but is played mainly for comedy.

The title has, until now, held a double meaning. As the last film in the trilogy, it was the last (filmed) crusade of Indiana Jones, but the story tells of the search for the Holy Grail, which was involved in the crusades. The man who hires Jones tells him that this quest will fulfill the ones that began 10 centuries ago in medieval Europe. At first, Indy is reluctant to take the job, until he learns that his father, who has dedicated his life to researching Grail lore, has disappeared while performing the same mission. For this adventure, Jones is paired with Dr. Elsa Schneider, a German historian who proves to be a significant break from the mold of past Indy girls. Let's just say that unlike Marion and Willie, she's not exactly what she initially seems.

Even though this movie is the most comical of the three Jones movies, it is still an Indiana Jones movie, and is full of action and adventure. Fortunately, the comedy never tries to be over the top (although it comes close a couple times with Brody), and usually stems from characterization as opposed to jokes for the sake of jokes. And the action sequences are still great. The opening sequence of this movie is a fun look at how Indy came to be who he is today (I like how the young Indy makes a fellow boy scout feel silly about being afraid of snakes, only to develop his fear not 20 minutes later). And of course, there is the scene of grotesque horror.

An interesting thought has just occurred to me (SEMI SPOILER ALERT); the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the story of an older Indiana Jones (it takes place in the 50s, and Soviets have replaced Nazis) trying to continue his extraordinary adventures despite his age. However, this would seem to go against a VERY IMPORTANT plot point from this movie! I am not going to say it, but it's kind of obvious if you think about it.

The Indiana Jones series was more of an anthology than a trilogy telling one large story. They were all about the incredible exploits of a seemingly average archaeologist, but each had little to do with the others. Last Crusade could be seen both as a fitting ending to the series as well as the gateway to a new beginning of Jones' life. With less than a week until the fourth one opens (nearly 20 years after this one), I am wondering how Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will take the established story and build on it.

Up next: Some television one-shots...

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom: The Dark Horror Film

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom takes place a year before Raiders, and it has a much darker tone than its predecessor. The story starts in China, but almost immediately takes Indy to India, where he spends the rest of the film (this is the first indicator that Temple is different from Raiders and Last Crusade; a central location replaces the globe-trotting adventure). In India, Jones and his travel companions (a young Chinese boy named Short Round and an American songstress named Willie) discover a village devoid of crops, water, and even children. The village elder tells Indy that an ancient and sadistic cult has stolen a magic stone that provided good luck and kidnapped all the children. Jones and company travel to an ancient palace that was once home to the cult, where they discover that the cult has reformed and is using the children as a work force to find the rest of the magic stones.

There are scary scenes in each film (some are scarier to different people; for example, the scene in the snake pit in Lost Ark gets to some people, while the bug scene in Temple affects others), but I think that most fans would argue that this movie has the most disturbing images in the series. Most notable is the scene where Mola Ram, the cult leader, rips a man's beating heart of his chest and throws the still-living man into a fire pit. George Lucas claims that his then-turbulent personal life was a definite influence on the darkness of this film, which is the official horror film of the trilogy. In fact, this film was responsible for the PG-13 rating. After a few other recent films that straddled the line between PG and R, Steven Spielberg asked the MPAA to create a new rating for movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which had enough violence/sex/profanity (violence in this case) to be too traumatic for kids, but not worthy of an R-rating, which hurts box office receipts (in theory) by disallowing teenagers from seeing the film without a parent (in theory).

Of the three films, this one is my least favorite, but I still enjoy it; I think that this mentality is shared by most Indiana Jones fans (I could be wrong, but most people I talk to about these films list this as their least favorite). There are some aspects that get a little tiresome, mainly Shorty and Willie. Shorty starts off funny as the strange kid sidekick (it looks like Indy will have another young sidekick in the upcoming film, which makes me a little nervous), then becomes grating. By the end, he is not that bad (and has one of the best lines in the movie). Willie is the exact opposite of Marion; she is a high-maintenance girlie girl who screams and recoils after breaking a fingernail (meanwhile, Indy and Shorty are about to be killed by a booby trap, and the nail was broken attempting to activate the failsafe lever). In one sense, it is interesting to see how a non-adventurer would react to Indy's exploits, but her constant screaming becomes an annoyance.

The movie is famous not only for its somewhat annoying supporting characters, but also has some very memorable and oft-referenced (I'm looking at you, Family Guy) sequences. The aforementioned scene with the cult leader often precedes the movie; when new viewers come into the Jones series, there are two scenes that inspire fear before the first minute has even passed. One is the snake pit scene, and the other is the heart-ripping scene. I myself avoided these films for years because of those two sequences. Then of course, there is the famous mine car chase, which is an incredible sequence through the bowels of the temple.

Up next: The comedy...

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Old School Adventure Flick

Fresh off the success of The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas decided to resurrect another variety of 1930s serials; teaming up with Steven Spielberg, Lucas wrote a story about an adventurous archaeologist in the 1930s who searches for ancient relics and battles Nazis. It sounds a little silly, but ended up being incredible. Raiders of the Lost Ark uses some tried and true cliches and outrageous plot devices (I have a hard time believing the burn on that one Nazi's hand was accurate enough for what they eventually did with it), and yet everything came together. The entire opening sequence has ALMOST nothing to do with the rest (OK, so it sets up Indy as an adventurer and introduces Belloq), and yet it is one of the most famous and parodied cinema sequences in the past 25 years.

Harrison Ford, who was almost not cast in the role of Indiana Jones, is perfect as the completely human hero. Jones is an ordinary man who takes on extraordinary adventures; he knows how to handle himself in a fight, and is certainly more intelligent than the average person, but he is not invincible, nor is he infallible. Jones makes mistakes and loses fights, but he always finds a way to survive. Sometimes, he even needs to resort to some slightly dishonorable methods to stay in the fight (allow me to bring attention to the scene with the big guy with the scimitar).

All three of the Indiana Jones films are adventure films, but Raiders is considered to be the one with the purest sense of adventure. The characters of Sallah and Brody are intelligent characters who add to the proceedings (as opposed to being mainly comic relief; sorry Last Crusade, I still love you, but it's true), while Marion Ravenwood is the best foil for Indy. She is just as brave and adventurous as Indy, and can handle herself in a fight. But she is also a real woman, just as Jones is a real man, with flaws and shortcomings. One of which is her ability to hold a grudge.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a nearly perfect action adventure. It helped define the genre, and unlike many of the imitators, has brains behind the fights and explosions. The story is compelling and exciting. That's not saying that the action sequences aren't great, because they certainly are. From the opening sequence in South America to the truck scene, Indy constantly finds himself way over his head and often escapes with plenty of bruises. What I find most interesting is that the ending completely defies the action-adventure genre (which is extremely strange, since this movie is pretty much responsible for defining said genre) because Indy does NOT save the day. In fact, Indy and Marion don't really do much of anything during the climax except try desperately to avoid being included in it.

All three of the Indiana Jones films are great, and Raiders serves as the perfect entry point into Jones' world. The story is a classic globe-trotting adventure tale, and it introduces not only one of cinema's most iconic characters (it is hard to think of whips and fedoras without thinking of Jones) as well as one of the most recognizable theme orchestrations.

Up next: The dark horror film...