Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
In 1938, an art collector appeals to eminent archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones to embark on a search for the Holy Grail. Indy learns that a medieval historian has vanished while searching for it, and the missing man is his own father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr.. He sets out to rescue his father by following clues in the old man's notebook, which his father had mailed to him before he went missing. Indy arrives in Venice, where he enlists the help of a beautiful academic, Dr. Elsa Schneider, along with Marcus Brody and Sallah. Together they must stop the Nazis from recovering the power of eternal life and taking over the world!
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You can safely expect Jones' trademark twisted grin, hat, wisecracks and whip cracks, the pantomime villains, the ingeniously rigged catastrophes (including a plane that loses its wings in a tunnel but lands and keeps speeding down the road) and the tributes by cine-kid Spielberg to everything from "The Birds" to "She."
Fun fact: Lacey would return, uncredited, as Himmler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ).
An ingenious homage to 1930s adventure serials, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" hasn't aged at all in the 22 years since its release -- although one of the bonus features could put a scare into any fan, watching in horror at how it almost went so very wrong with Tom Selleck and Sean Young as Indy and Marion!
Although the third chapter in the Indiana Jones saga doesn't approach the highs of Raiders of the Lost Ark , it also avoids the lows of The Temple of Doom .
"Last Crusade" isn't as good as its own founding father, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," mostly because it isn't as fresh.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" this ain't, but "Crusade" towers like a knight over "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."
A creation of George Lucas, Jones was first introduced in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", a huge hit which was soon followed by a prequel, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", one of the wildest movies ever made.
Five years after the disappointing "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", a chastened Steven Spielberg completed the trilogy for a majestic final instalment that combined the finest elements of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with his pet theme of father-son relationships.
Unlike "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," which Spielberg seems to be apologizing for, "The Last Crusade" is lighter in tone, less horrific and more adventurous and humorous ? in other words, more deliberately like "Raiders."
It's pretty clear that by the time Steven Spielberg made "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," he was becoming a different kind of director from the younger man who made "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."
Fortunately in the newly released DVD box set that includes a worthwhile extras disk of background featurettes, it's sandwiched between the fabulous Raiders of the Lost Ark and the charming and fun Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.