Indiana Jones-Last Crusade (1989)

"...nearly as good [as Raiders of the Lost Ark], matching its audience's wildest hopes.  Caryn James, The New York Times
"...a beautiful machine, thought out and revved up to the last detail, with no other purpose but to delight - and it delights.  Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"The relaxed and confident Crusade is the first Jones outing to benefit from actual characterizations.  Mike Clark, USA Today
"...thundering thrills, spiritual inspiration and perfectly timed humor.  Rob Blackwelder, SplicedWire
"The Harrison Ford-Sean Connery father-and-son team gives Last Crusade unexpected emotional depth...  Variety

Editor's Note Steven Spielberg's third action-packed entry in the Indiana Jones trilogy evokes the cliffhanger Saturday matinee serials of yesteryear. It's 1938 and Indy (Harrison Ford) receives word that his archaeologist dad, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery), has disappeared while on a quest for the Holy Grail. Indy embarks on a search for both his dad and the much-coveted artifact. THE LAST CRUSADE has a unique twist to the series' traditional opening-sequence cliffhanger. Actor River Phoenix plays an adolescent Indy who, while on a field trip with his Boy Scout troop, finds adventure on a circus train. Spielberg wanted to make the film about a father-and-son relationship, and Connery was his first choice to play Indy's dad. The selection was perfect, considering Spielberg and producer George Lucas first came up with the idea of the series as a rival to the James Bond movies in which Connery had starred. Before shooting THE LAST CRUSADE, Spielberg was planning on directing RAIN MAN with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise but gave up the project to fulfill his contractual obligation with Lucas to make a third Indiana Jones movie.

	Alison Doody
	Denholm Elliott
	Harrison Ford
	John Rhys-Davies
	Julian Glover
	Michael Byrne
	River Phoenix
	Sean Connery
	Douglas Slocombe - Cinematographer
	Elliot Scott - Production Designer
	George Lucas - Editor
	George Lucas - Executive Producer
	George Lucas - Based On Story By
	Jeffrey Boam - Screenplay
	John Williams - Original Music By
	Menno Meyjes - Based On Story By
	Michael Kahn - Editor
	Robert Watts - Producer
	Stephen Scott - Art Director
	Steven Spielberg - Director

When Indy's archaeologist dad, Prof. Henry Jones, embarks on a quest for the Holy Grail, he is kidnapped by the Nazis, who also desire the priceless chalice. Naturally, Indy comes to the rescue, joining his father in the search for the Grail. The audience is in for a wild ride "keeping up with the Joneses" as the two men battle enemies, trade insults, encounter rats, evade traps, become involved with the same woman, and meet Hitler. The film is a loose retelling of the Parsifal myth. Rolling Stone
"...The wildest and wittiest Indy of them all....Ford and Connery make a sensational team; their relationship charges the film..." 06/15/1989 p.31

New York Times
"...In its own way THE LAST CRUSADE is nearly as good [as RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK], matching its audience's wildest hopes....Boisterous adventure..." 05/24/1989 p.C15

Los Angeles Times
"...Harrison Ford is still in top form..." 05/24/1989 p.C1

The Washington Post 8 of 10
You want Adventure? Thrills? How about Rats?...In "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," director Steven Spielberg capitalizes on these and other basic human needs. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" this ain't, but "Crusade" towers like a knight over "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"...If you go to "Crusade," though, you're not looking for surprises. 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." Story coauthors George Lucas and Menno Meyjes and scriptwriter Jeffrey Boam make this one eternal chase-crusade -- by circus train (featuring River Phoenix as young Indiana), motorboat, motorbike, zeppelin, warplane, horse, camel and tank. They also slip in a naughty close encounter with ice queen Alison Doody, who, it turns out, has a thing for fathers and fatherlands...But rest assured: In Spielberg-Lucas lore, every good boy deserves favor and every bad girl gets her comeuppance. In the end, the father-son team undertakes a triumphant final test, including a Peter Pannish leap of faith and a Christlike ascension -- you know, Spielberg Heaven. - Desson Howe

Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
The opening sequence of this third Indiana Jones movie is the only one that seems truly original - or perhaps I should say, it recycles images from 1940s pulps and serials that Spielberg has not borrowed before. The rest of the movie will not come as a surprise to students of Indiana Jones, but then how could it? The Jones movies by now have defined a familiar world of death-defying stunts, virtuoso chases, dry humor and the quest for impossible goals in unthinkable places...When "Raiders of the Lost Ark" appeared, it defined a new energy level for adventure movies; it was a delirious breakthrough. But there was no way for Spielberg to top himself, and perhaps it is just as well that "Last Crusade" will indeed be Indy's last film. It would be too sad to see the series grow old and thin, like the James Bond movies...If there is just a shade of disappointment after seeing this movie, it has to be because we will never again have the shock of this material seeming new. "Raiders of the Lost Ark," now more than ever, seems a turning point in the cinema of escapist entertainment, and there was really no way Spielberg could make it new all over again...What he has done is to take many of the same elements, and apply all of his craft and sense of fun to make them work yet once again. And they do. - Roger Ebert