![]() ![]() He was like this when we first met him in "Raiders" and he told Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott), "I don't believe in magic, a lot of superstitious hocus-pocus." However, a more consistent character trait for Indiana Jones, across all five movies, is that he's a world-weary rationalist or skeptic who dismisses the mystical powers of artifacts at every turn. You could argue that, in "Temple of Doom," Indy outgrows his James Bond-inspired tuxedo and goes from seeking diamonds and "fortune and glory" to liberating enslaved children, white savior style. Despite being set before "Raiders," for instance, "Temple of Doom" has a callback to Indy shooting a swordsman in that movie. This stems partly from the episodic nature of the original 1980s trilogy, which sometimes resists the flow of a logical timeline. "The Last Crusade" is set in 1938, two years after "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and three years after "Temple of Doom." Yet when we catch up with the adult Indy again through a fedora-enabled match cut, he remains largely unchanged after the events of the first two films. His motivations for grave-robbing ("This should be in a museum") may be flimsy, but remember, they're just an excuse to reconcile with Dad. Yet it makes it work, borne aloft by John Williams' scherzos and whimsical lines like, "He's got our thing!" and "Everybody's lost but me," which boil the MacGuffin idea and our decisive hero down to their purest essence. "The Last Crusade" pulls some moves that would be annoying if not fatal in a modern prequel, showing how young Indy (River Phoenix played Harrison Ford's son three years earlier in "The Mosquito Coast," too) got his signature whip weapon, chin scar, and fedora hat. Steven Spielberg might as well have emblazoned that train with the words "The Greatest Show on Earth," since that's the name of the movie where one derails and leaves Sammy Fabelman as traumatized as Indiana Jones is by the House of Reptiles. There are none of those in "The Last Crusade," which gives viewers the most humor and entertainment value as it gallops along at a circus train pace. Despite its greatness, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has some dry patches. ![]()
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