Still in the mood for old favourites last night, I watched 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Although it is among my favourite films, it's my least favourite of the first three Indiana Jones films. For one thing, it's trying too hard to placate fans who didn't like Temple of Doom by aping Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's also strangely sloppy.
There are a lot of shot continuity problems, particularly in the tank chase scene which seems to be trying to outdo the great truck chase scene from the first film. There's the bit where Indy gets the strap of his gasmask bag caught on a gun--something it would seem impossible to do on accident since the strap is under his coat--and then he gets out of it just as impossibly over a cut. He loses his hat so many times in the fight, too, only for it to reappear on his head in the next shot. I found myself fantasising about alternate timelines emerging from each of these shots and elderly Indiana, years later, telling Mutt about how he used to have this really nice hat until a Nazi punched him on top of a tank one day.
It occurs to me Raiders of the Lost Ark is the only Indiana Jones movie not to have a father/son plot. Maybe the upcoming James Mangold movie will change that. I don't have high hopes for that movie. Mangold has produced a few good films and a lot of turkeys, nothing on the level of Last Crusade, let alone Raiders or Temple of Doom. Temple of Doom remains my favourite just in terms of tone and subject matter, though I recognise Raiders as probably better objectively.
I do love Sean Connery as Henry Jones Sr. He's nerdy yet virile. He's like Gary Cooper's character in Ball of Fire all grown up. I've criticised the film before, though, about how his dialogue switches between insightful and dopey. There's no excuse for that "11 o'clock!" dialogue on the plane. But then there are great lines like "It tells me that goose-stepping morons like you should try reading books instead of burning them!" It's pretty sad how frequently that line comes to mind nowadays.
I kind of feel like Elsa is short-changed. She's actually the most nuanced female character in any of the Indiana Jones films. She's with the Nazis but she cries at the book burning. She betrays Donavan but it's implied she deserves her fate when her avarice gets the better of her in her last moments. She's like an update of Belloq, a dark reflection of Indiana. I guess there just wasn't room in the movie for it but her role could have been bigger and more satisfying. Still, overall, good movie.
Twitter Sonnet #1457
The dark was parsed with rapid yellow lines.
Reflected silk recorded late appeared.
With nothing writ we blanked the passing signs.
The normal board presents the written weird.
A whistle ponders stone to make a horse.
Successful dresses wait in tiny shops.
Discarded flowers halt the river's course.
The record zings whenever static hops.
In desert valleys shadows fight for souls.
The music's faint from shattered diner horns.
The rusted spoon still rings in empty bowls.
Of heavy rain a new report f'warns.
Tenacious hats would keep the doctor's road.
A lot of bolts would hold the tractor's load.
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