INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

indiana jones and the last crusade (1989) movie

Genre              |   Action Adventure

Classification   |   PG

Running time   |   127 minutes

Released         |   24 May 1989

cast

Harrison Ford ... Indiana Jones
Sean Connery ... Professor Henry Jones
Denholm Elliott ... Marcus Brody
Alison Doody ... Elsa
John Rhys-Davies ... Sallah
Julian Glover ... Walter Donovan
River Phoenix ... Young Indy
​Michael Byrne ... Vogel

director

Steven Spielberg

writer

Jeffrey Boam ... (screenplay)
 
George Lucas ... (story) and
Menno Meyjes ... (story)
 
George Lucas ... (characters) and
Philip Kaufman ... (characters)

cinematographer

​Douglas Slocombe ... director of photography

music

​John Williams

film editor

​Michael Kahn
George Lucas ... (uncredited)

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​ ​$474,310,887

Australia                 $​​​​​$11,621,611 ​

North America       $​​​​​​​​​197,171,806

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movie minutiae

​Sean Connery was always Steven Spielberg's first choice to play Indiana Jones' father, as an inside joke to say that James Bond is the father of Indiana Jones. If that had failed, Gregory Peck and Jon Pertwee were back-up choices for the role. Spielberg had always wanted to do a Bond movie, but did Indiana Jones as a James Bond-type character. In keeping with the James Bond theme, the movie has many Bond movie co-stars: John Rhys-Davies, Alison Doody, Julian Glover, Stefan Kalipha, Pat Roach, Eugene Lipinski, Michael Byrne, and Vernon Dobtcheff.

After having a great working relationship with Steven Spielberg on GREMLINS (1984), Spielberg produced the next two movies Chris Columbus scripted, THE GOONIES (1985), based on an idea Spielberg had, and YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES (1985), which was Columbus' idea, which, altogether, was two years working on three movies. Spielberg then wanted Columbus to script this movie, a big step for him as a writer. He accepted, and went to meet Spielberg and George Lucas, two men by whom he was very intimidated, even though he had worked with Spielberg three times, and they were two of his cinematic heroes. Columbus acted as Spielberg and Lucas' secretary on this movie for five days, taking down all of their ideas. Lucas dictated the screenplay to Columbus, making him fearful of changing any of it, and it went against what Columbus had learned at film school. To him, the script seemed lifeless, and without energy, and there was nothing of Columbus in it. Columbus assumed Spielberg hired him for that last reason, and when Columbus turned in the script, he was fired from the movie for all of the above flaws in the screenplay. It was a defining moment in Columbus' career, to never again ignore his base instincts on a movie, or to be intimidated by the people, with whom he worked.

​Menno Meyjes submitted a script that depicted Indiana searching for his father in Montségur, where he met a nun named Chantal. Indiana travelled to Venice, took the Orient Express to Istanbul, and continued by train to Petra, Jordan, where he met Salalah and reunited with his father. Together, they found the Grail. At the climax, a Nazi villain touched the Grail and exploded. When Henry touched it, he ascended a stairway to Heaven. Chantal chose to stay on Earth, because of her love for Indiana. In a revised draft dated two months later, Indiana found his father in Krak des Chevaliers, the Nazi leader was a woman named Greta von Grimm, and Indiana battled a demon at the Grail site, which he defeated with a dagger inscribed with "God is King". The prologue in both drafts had Indiana in Mexico battling for possession of Montezuma's death mask, with a man who owned gorillas as pets.

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related movies

INDIANA JONES
AND
THE KINGDOM OF
THE CRYSTAL SKULL
​ (12008)

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) MOVIE IMAGES

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INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) STORY SYNOPSIS

​The intrepid explorer Indiana Jones sets out to rescue his father, a medievalist who has vanished while searching for the Holy Grail. Following clues in the old man's notebook, Indy arrives in Venice, where he enlists the help of a beautiful academic, but they are not the only ones who are on the trail, and some sinister old enemies soon come out of the woodwork.

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 26 September 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

1989 was a seminal year for Hollywood. This was the year that gave birth to the era of the Northern Hemisphere Summer Blockbuster season. For the first time in cinema history, Hollywood studios launched a franchise-inspired assault upon movie-goers that was unprecedented. There were some great successes: GHOSTBUSTERS 2 and LETHAL WEAPON 2. There were some epic failures: STAR TREK V. An absolute phenomenon: Tim Burton's BATMAN. Of the carry-over franchise entries, one film stood head and shoulders above the rest: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE.

Five years had passed since TEMPLE OF DOOM had been released. The creative triumvirate of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford decided it was time to dust off the Fedora and give everyone's favourite archaeologist something of a send-off where he quite literally rode off into the sunset. Steven Spielberg has been reportedly less-than-happy with THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and was determined for a third adventure to mark a return to the high-spirited adventure that had resonated through RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. A number of concepts were considered for the third (and presumably final) installment for Indy, but George Lucas and Spielberg were not convinced of each other’s respective ideas. It was not until the idea of combining a quest for The Holy Grail with a simultaneous search for Indy’s father that the story started to take shape. Four separate writers were used on the project, but it was Jeffrey Boam’s screenplay that formed the basis of Spielberg’s film.

Coming on board in front of the camera for the third film was Sean Connery, as Indiana Jones’s father Dr. Henry Jones. The addition of Connery came of the back of his career renaissance after winning the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1987 Brian De Palma film THE UNTOUCHABLES. Also coming on board the film was River Phoenix, who played a young Indiana Jones in the film's extended prologue that shed light on how he came to have his trademark hat and whip. Returning from the first film were John Rhys-Davies as Sallah and Denholm Elliott as Marcus. Others to join the cast included Alison Doody as the beautiful, but treacherous Elsa Schenider, veteran English character actor Julian Glover as businessman and philanthropist Walter Donovan and Michael Byrne as Vogel, the Nazi in charge of the Grail Quest.

The film starts with a lengthy prologue that sees a young Indiana come across a group of mercenaries who have uncovered a priceless statue for their employer. Young Indy has other ideas, believing that it should be placed in a museum for all to treasure. In a moment of madness, Indy manages to steal the item but the mercenaries are in hot pursuit. In the minutes that follow, the viewer learns how Indy got the scar on his chin, why he hates snakes and that his reward for putting up such a good fight was his vanquisher's Fedora! The man who gives him the hat looks almost identical to Indy's older Harrison Ford version of himself and tells the young adventurer that even though he didn't win on the day, it doesn't mean he has to like it! The story jumps forward to the Harrison Ford version of Indy on the deck of a boat in a mighty storm being beaten by thugs, but he still manages to reclaim the statue that was stolen by the mercenaries from him so many years before when he was just a kid.

The film proper gets underway when Indy takes the statue to Marcus for it to be added to latter’s Museum collection. Shortly after Indy is coerced into a meeting with wealthy businessman Walter Donovan (Julian Glover), who informs him that he had engaged his Indy’s Father to help him with his quest to uncover the location of The Holy Grail; the cup that Jesus Christ supposedly drank from as The Last Supper. Donovan tells Jones that his Father was last seen in Venice, Italy, but it seems he has disappeared. Indy goes to his father’s home in the hope that he has returned from his expedition but discovers the place has been ransacked. Indy realises that a package he received earlier is his father’s Grail Diary and he would only have sent it to his son if he was in real trouble. Panicked by this turn of events, Indy and Marcus decide to mount a rescue mission and head to Venice in search of Henry.

Upon their arrival in Venice, Indy and Marcus are greeted by Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), an Austrian who has been working with Henry. She is unable to account for his disappearance, but is able to take Indy and Marcus to the library where Henry was last seen. Jeffrey Boam’s screenplay employs a fair amount of contrivance at this point, but the trio’s arrival at the library allows Indy to put his father’s Grail Diary to good use and discover that ‘X’ really does mark the spot. The film’s second big set-piece kicks off with Indy and Elsa almost meeting their maker under the streets of Venice and then taking to the waterways of the city to escape a group of Fez-wearing, Machine Gun toting religious zealots. Their pursuers turn out to be members from the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society whose job it is to protect the secrets of The Holy Grail. Learning that Indy only wants find his father, their leader, Kazim (Kevork Malikyan), tells him that Jones Sr. is being held in Castle Brunwald on the border between Austria and Germany.

The Castle Brunwald sequence turns the film’s plot on its head, as allies are revealed to be enemies and that Indy is going to have go it alone to get him and his father out of their predicament alive. The introduction of Sean Connery in the sequence helps to bring a lightness to proceedings, as the veteran actor doesn’t take things too seriously and plays his scenes in keeping with the film’s spirit of adventure. There are a couple of moments where he and Ford have to go a little bit heavier, but their experience and skill find the right balance  in these without labouring the point. Again, however, Boam’s screenplay employs a higher-than-necessary level of coincidence in scenes that do not add a great deal of value to the overall story. Indy’s meeting with Adolf Hitler is one such example and is quite redundant to the plot. It exists as a cheap joke within a sequence that is important in transitioning the film to its Final Act, as the Jones’s adventure is nothing without Henry’s Grail Diary.

It is interesting to note that THE LAST CRUSADE is the last time that Steven Spielberg presented the Nazis in a less-than-serious manner. Four years later with SCHINDLER’S LIST, he transforms his moustache-twirling pantomime depiction of the Nazis from RAIDERS and LAST CRUSADE and presents their ideology and their followers with much greater seriousness. He continued this theme indirectly with 1998’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, where he presents the most graphic account of a World War II battle ever recreated and one that only happened because of Adolf Hitler’s determination to subjugate Europe and engage in mass genocide to promote his Ayrian agenda.

The performances in THE LAST CRUSADE fall into two categories. Serious and ridiculous. Harrison Ford, Julian Glover, Michael Byrne (as the Nazi Vogel), Alison Doody and Kevork Malikyan all work to deliver their characters seriously with genuine emotion. However, their collective efforts are undone by Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott and John Rhys-Davies, who all bite down hard on a metaphorical Ham & Cheese sandwich which, at times, completely removes the viewer from the film, as their by-play fails to acknowledge the seriousness of the events in which they find themselves. Of the “serious” performances, Alison Doody’s Elsa fails to impress, as her natural Irish accent never quites masters the Austrian twang she needs to sell her character convincingly and, despite her natural beauty, she fails to get by on looks alone. The varying quality of the ensemble of performances is surprising, as Spielberg has delivered very few films that are as tonally broad as THE LAST CRUSADE.

Behind-the-scenes, Spielberg and Lucas assembled their usual team of collaborators, most of whom had worked with either one or another for over a decade at that time. Englishman Doug Slocombe, despite being 76 years of age, returned for one final adventure as Spielberg’s Director of Photography. Elliot Scott and Stephen Scott returned as Production Designer and Art Director; roles they filled on INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. John Williams provided a third iteration of his iconic score, while Michael Khan worked with an uncredited George Lucas to give Spielberg his final cut of the film. THE LAST CRUSADE marked Khan’s seventh feature film collaboration with Spielberg and (to this day), he has worked on twenty-five of Spielberg’s feature films!

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE recaptures some of the adventure that made RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK such an enjoyable experience. The darker themes that sat TEMPLE OF DOOM apart are not present in the third film, as the characters (even the bad guys) are presented as far more humble in their efforts to discover the cup that Jesus Christ drank from at The Last Supper. THE LAST CRUSADE is certainly a more spirited adventure thanks to the Boys Club ensemble that forms between Indy, Henry, Marcus and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) in the last third of the film. THE LAST CRUSADE went on to achieve global box office success, generating $474 million in ticket sales and earning the number one spot worldwide for the year. The film’s final scene was widely regarded as a sign-off for the series, but this was not to be. 19 years later, in May 2008, Spielberg, Lucas & Ford brought Indiana Jones back for another adventure with THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, but that’s another review...

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) USEFUL LINKS

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Wikipedia
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) - IMDb
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) - Rotten Tomatoes

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