I got behind on these so I'm going to blitz them today an tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Happy Birthday Popgirl!
But today, I get into favorite genre movies, and for my favorite action flick, I went with the obvious choice.
When I wrote about Sabrina, I said that I'd always had a thing for Harrison Ford. Indy is the reason why. Also Han Solo, but mostly Indy. And Last Crusade is easily my favorite movie of the series. It wins for several reasons:
- Amazing flashback sequence to when Indy was a kid in Colorado, with a terrific performance from the late great River Phoenix as teenage Indy. The twenty minute long segment is one of the better origin stories on film (I've mentioned I love origin stories right?). It shows us how Indy got his whip, the reason for his fear of snakes, and the driving force behind his passion for archeology.
- Sean Connery's performance as Henry Jones Sr. It's really good. In fact the dynamic between Connery and Ford is so good that you even get past the ick factor of them sharing a love interest.
- While John Rhys Davies was great as Sallah in the first film, he steals the show here. Sallah is helpful in Raiders of The Lost Ark, he's key here. As is Marcus Brody. Nothing like two sidekicks to up a movie's cool factor.
- It has a villain worthy of Indy. In the other two movies, and then the fourth, which we shall not speak of now, the villains just aren't a match for Indiana Jones, in this one we have Walter Donavan, a rich antiquities collector. He's as smart and as studied as Indy, without any of the badassarey, but he's got ruthlessness on his side. He's the kind of villain you really like until you find out you hate him.
- Indy chooses life over immortality. Way deep.
- The closing lines are "Indy, you were named after the dog?" "I had a lot of good memories of that dog!"
It has it's shortcoming, Ilsa Schneider kinda sucks compared to Marion Ravenwood, and the false grail turning the bad guy to dust is no where as cool as Nazi face melting laser beams shooting out of The Ark of the Covenant. But it's still my favorite.
1 comment:
I agree with all of this entirely. Best movie ever.
In defense of Elsa, though: she doesn't suck, even compared to Marion. She's different, and of course Marion is my favorite (and not just because she isn't a Nazi), but she's a pretty badass Jones girl.
Face-melting is the best. That really is the only thing this movie lacks.
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