Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Watched Last Crusade today, such a fun film and at the time a fitting end to the trilogy. But... out of all of them it’s possibly aged the worst due to the effects on the zeppelin and the fighter dog fight.

 

Having effects that look slightly old-fashioned seems extremely apropos for this series. Plus, I wouldn't have wanted Spielberg to start making "special editions" with updated special effects.

 

I didn’t actually say anything that you mentioned there. I just said those particular scenes have aged the worst. It reminds me of the effects in jedi with the blue screen work on the skiff on tatooine. They stick out like a sore thumb even in comparison to other films in the trilogy that are older.

 

Exactly... you did say that. Which means this is something you noticed. And you thought it was important enough to comment on.

There's nothing wrong with doing just that, naturally.

I watch dozens of classic movies a year with effects that have aged far, far worse - it doesn't bother me and I practically don't even notice.

You personally may not be suggesting the effects in Spielberg's movie should be updated, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who would think about it. Maybe not on these forums, but out there.

Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing anyone, least of all you, for noticing and commenting on this - and to be fair, many people take it a lot further than that, getting ticked off whenever CGI effects in new movies don't look 100% perfect, as if perfect photorealism should always be the goal.

I wish I could understand this way of looking at the movies.

I'm of the opinion that special effects are just a tool to tell a story and that what matters is the story, not the effects. Yes, occasionally they can be so bad they almost take you out of the story. But to put more emphasis on the look of the effects than on the story being told seems to me to defeat the very purpose of storytelling in the first place.

Again, this isn't a personal criticism, others do take this a lot further. I'm just thinking out loud here, and obviously I don't expect things will get any better, with CGI and other types of effects getting more sophisticated each year, I'm sure future audiences will become even more picky about making sure everything looks absolutely right.

 

I think I’m going round in circles, I said they’d aged the worst, not that they were old fashioned or needed replacing. My whole point being that 8 years after the original and you may be given to think the effects would be getting better as time progressed, for those particular scenes it didnt.

I remember this film getting some criticism at the time for being similar to the first, for me I don’t mind that at all.

 

“What’s this one?”
“Ark of the Covenant”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure”

 

I saw it in theaters and I remember thinking it seemed kind of stale and a rehash of Raiders until Connery shows up. The movie really takes off when Connery shows up and becomes a buddy picture, and a funny one at that.

 

I remember watching the movie once in college, in an empty room in the computer center. Almost immediately when Sean Connery showed up, I had to get up and shut the door because I was laughing too hard.

For people who're mostly action stars, Ford and Connery make a great comedic duo.

 

Don't get me wrong I love TLC. But Connery totally makes it. Him and Ford are like a classic comedy team.

 

I liked Connery in the role, but I would have been interested to see Gregory Peck as well (he was second choice for the part). I guess while there'd have been no chance of Peck appearing in 5, Connery still could, however remote that chance is.

Also, Laurence Olivier was almost the Grail Knight, but he was too sick (he died the year the film came out). Robert Eddison was good in his role though.

 

The Last Crusade is the Indiana Jones movie I like the most.

To put it more precisely, The Last Crusade is the only Indiana Jones movie I like.

 

The funniest scenes are in the motorbike and side car. Henry Sr calmly setting his pocket watch and looking at the younger Jones with complete disdain. Very funny.

I also love

“Genius of the restoration...”
“...aid our own resuscitation”

 

Their scenes together on the blimp were great too. "You left just when you were getting interesting!"

 

I also love it when they are on the cliff later and Indy is looking at the tank through the binoculars, and Henry Snr says

“What do you think you’re doing? Get down!”

Connery’s delivery is very funny.

 

@StarYogi, that was not a blimp. That was a zeppelin. An airship. A dirigible. Not a blimp. We lighter-than-air aficionados get amazingly annoyed at such improper nomenclature.

*calmly resets pocket watch and looks at the errant post with complete disdain*

 

Aye aye Sergeant! Won't happen again sir!

 

was it a led zepplin?

 

It led the Joneses to freedom from Germany.

 

This shall not stand, sir.

 

he chose poorly lol

 

Another one of my favorites is the scene at the castle where Vogel is pretending to take Elsa hostage, and shouts "I will kill her!" Sean Connery's delivery of "heh! Go ahead!" is just priceless, especially in comparison to how freaked out Indy is.

Actually, that's pretty much their dynamic through all of the action scenes. Indy, presumably because he's done this before and knows how dangerous it can get, is taking it all deadly seriously and Henry... not so much. Indy spends a lot of the movie like an anxious parent frantically trying to keep not only himself but his distractable and unaware child alive, which is of course hilarious given what their actual relationship is. And Henry, who's never done this before but has been reading about it all his life, really is like the child tagging along with the action hero that you might see in a more conventional movie. He's clearly out of place, but he's having the adventure of a lifetime, and he keeps showing the hidden depths (like knowing who the spy is, or getting them out of a jam several times) that actually impress the "adult" in the room while also justifying having him along as more than just comic relief.

Like, the whole "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne!" scene? You can totally picture that in a different action movie, as the moment where the child sidekick unexpectedly saves the day, and then reveals that he learned how to do it in a video game, or got the idea from a TV show, that would never have occurred to the more "grounded" grown-up hero. Only it's Henry Jones Sr, so instead of a video game, his nerd corner is medieval literature/history/mythology.

 

A lot of pre-digital special effects didn't really change a whole lot from the early days of cinema. It may also look worse due to the home video transfer than it did when projected theatrically.

 

Indy’s shocked face when Henry slaps him when on the motorbike

“That’sh for blashphemy”

Brilliant

 

Returning to this thread in honor of Sean Connery after he passed away. He was the number one reason I could never agree with the people who rank this movie as one of the lowest. He's easily the best sidekick in the series, the banter between them is fantastic (for people who are pretty conventional action hero stars, Sean Connery and Harrison Ford had great comedic timing, and great chemistry between the two of them), and the character was a delight. You can totally look at Henry Jones Sr. and understand why Indy would have worked so hard to get away from him and out from under his shadow, while at the same time seeing how he still inherited a lot from his father.

(One of my favorite moments is in Grunwald Castle when the action pauses so he can fill in his dad on the status of the Grail quest and what they've uncovered so far. It's two huge nerds taking a moment to geek out over something amazing and to appreciate each other's work).

As a sidenote, the VHS tapes I had as a kid featured interviews with Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford. When it came to the third movie, I remember Spielberg saying that they hired Sean Connery to play Indy's father because they needed an actor who could credibly intimidate Harrison Ford. Which kind of says it all.

He'll be missed, even if he'd been retired for a long time. RIP, Henry Jones Sr.