"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" review!
- Matt Palmer
- Jun 10, 2025
- 4 min read
The Dietrich Theater will be having special showings of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” It has been a little while since I’ve seen any of the “Indiana Jones” movies. Actually, the last time I saw one of them I was checking out “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” for the Examiner.
In this adventure, 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.
The original “Indiana Jones” trilogy is always a joy to watch. After the darker “Temple of Doom,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” brought the fun back to the franchise. “The Last Crusade” could actually be a high point in the series and is both really fun and thrilling.
The entire movie flies by and there is never a dull moment in this adventure. Throughout the movie, there is a good variety of action and they managed to fit in horseback, train, car, airplanes, boats and motorcycles to the action - so a little bit of everything!
All of the action that we see in “Last Crusade” are truly iconic and there are times that some unexpected humor gets mixed in. There’s also a fun action sequence that takes place on a Zeppelin that shows Indy and his father using a variety of tactics to take down a few enemy fighters. And while re-watching this entry of the series, I thought that it was really cool seeing Indiana Jones fighting alongside the one and only James Bond (aka Connery).
There’s also quite a few humorous moments scattered throughout this movie, most of the humor occurs when Harrison Ford and Sean Connery share the screen together. The father-son dynamic between Indy and Henry Jones is one of the many great
highlights of the movie and the comedic timing between the two is simply incredible. In fact, with how their on-screen chemistry was in the movie, the casting of Sean Connery to appear alongside Ford could be some of the best casting ever!
“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” is a classic adventure that still holds up today and the movie does an awesome job blending the myth (Holy Grail), history, humor and action! The Dietrich Theater will be showing this film on June 14 (11 am), June 15 (1 pm and 7 pm) and June 18 (7 pm).
If you can't make it to the theater to see this classic adventure, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” is also streaming on Disney Plus and Paramount Plus.
Harrison Ford nominated River Phoenix to play him as a teenager, having worked with him before on his favorite of his many movies, The Mosquito Coast (1986). When describing how he prepared for playing the role, Phoenix explained that he didn't really base his portrayal on the Indiana Jones character, but on Harrison Ford. So he observed Ford out of character before acting his part.
Most of the uniforms worn by the Nazis in the Berlin book-burning scene are authentic World War II uniforms, not replicas. A cache of old uniforms was found in Germany and obtained by costume designer Anthony Powell to be used in this movie.
The four horses used in the final scenes outside of the temple were loaned to the movie personally by King Hussein of Jordan.
Steven Spielberg's favorite of the "Indiana Jones" film franchise.
When shooting in Venice, they were allowed to have complete control of the Grand Canal from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. for one day.
Due to his commitment to this movie, Steven Spielberg had to drop out of directing Big (1988) and Rain Man (1988).
Steven Spielberg is on record as saying he made this movie for two reasons: 1) to fulfill a three-movie obligation he had made with George Lucas, and, 2) to atone for the criticism that he received for the previous installment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
When George Lucas met with Steven Spielberg to discuss a third Indiana Jones movie, he wanted to have it set in a haunted mansion. Spielberg had just finished Poltergeist (1982) and decided that he wanted to do something different. Lucas then came up with the idea of the Holy Grail, and Spielberg added the idea of a father and son substory.
Sir 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, Christopher Plummer 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.
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