In anticipation of the May 22nd release of the fourth Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, all three "original trilogy" movies are being rereleased on DVD, sold both as a set and individually for the first time. I'm here today to talk for a bit about my favorite installment in the trilogy: Indiana Jones and Last Crusade.
Last Crusade plays the broadest of all the Indiana Jones movies to date — it contains the most moments played deliberately for laughs and cheers as even Steven Spielberg himself points out in one of the DVD's bonus features — but it works because of how seamlessly the comedy and action are interwoven together. With all the joking around and silliness, there's not a single "groaner" moment in the entire movie (sadly I expect that same cannot be said of Crystal Skull as the trailer alone already sports two such moments).
Sean Connery (playing Indy's father, in case you've never seen the movie and/or live under a rock) provides a masterful comedic performance in particular and is largely the reason why many of the broadest scenes work. Watching him run along a beach with his umbrella, it's almost easy to forget the guy played the original James Bond.
Last Crusade opens with a peek back at a very fateful day for a young Indiana Jones. In the matter of a few minutes, the boy scout uses a whip for the first time, develops his deathly fear of snakes, and receives his trademark fedora while setting a precedent for the kind of frantic adventure that would embroil him all his life. The rest of the film deals with a grown-up Indy searching for his lost father who was in fact searching for the one and only Holy Grail when he went missing. But, if you're reading this then you should already know all about the movie and are merely trying to decide if you should pony up to buy this Special Edition DVD.
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