No doubt about it - the early eighties was the decade where Harrison Ford reigned supreme as a god amongst men. Both Han Solo and Indiana Jones dominated the action movie landscape, and without Ford's presence, both movies would have been poorer. And with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull just around the corner, I thought I'd put my two cents in on the coolest, most two fisted, action packed trilogy in Hollywood history.

And so now we come to the third and final chapter (for now) of the Indiana Jones saga: The Last Crusade

The year is 1939, and the Nazis are up to no good again. Denied the Ark of the Covenant, Hitler decides instead go after the Holy Grail - and of course Doctor Indiana Jones is the Go-To man to stop them. But this time out Indy has a personal stake in the matter - he has to find out why his father, Professor Henry Jones (Sean "Shaken not Stirred" Connery) has mysteriously disappeared. He teams up with the senior Jones' research assistant Doctor Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) to figure out where the Grail could be buried. a few clues lead him to Venice and after a few close calls with the Nazis, Indy learns that his father is being held in a castle near Austria.

Indy and Elsa head to the castle to save Henry but Elsa is more than she appears to be and the Joneses have to head to Berlin to try and get the Holy Grail before it falls into the Nazi's evil clutches. This isn't going to be easy however, as not only are Hitler's goons around every corner, but Henry isn't always the easiest guy to work with. . .

As one might expect, we get an edge of your seat popcorn flick with all kinds of action and stunts and suspense. This time out however, we get a focus on characterization, in the form of a relationship between Indy and his father. The action is wonderful, but the interaction between Ford and Connery really carry the film. Again, there's a lot of humor in this film though much of it works better than the humor in the second picture thanks to Connery's acting chops and sly delivery. In the supporting cast department, Alison Doody makes for an interesting love interest and the opening scene in which River Phoenix plays a young Indiana Jones starts the picture off on a good foot. Meanwhile we get Julian Glover - General Veers in The Empire Strikes back and Count Scarlioni in the Doctor Who episode City of Death - in the bad guy roll, and mister Glover is always a pleasure to watch.

As with the earlier films there's a ton of 1940's hard boiled pulp fiction action and adventure packed into the script and the film moves at a very brisk pace ensuring that there's really no down time here. The special effects don’t stand up as well this time with some obvious blue screen work, but these are infrequent at best.

THE DVD -
Released on DVD back in 2003, Last Crusade sports a 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen theatrical aspect ratio with some very nice image quality is very nice across the board. The colors look accurate compared to my laserdiscs and what I remember from the movies as a kid, some of the effects have been cleaned up (like, for example, the reflection of the glass between Indy and the Cobra in Raiders), and given an overall sweep of the restoration brush. There's a bit of mild grain present and very infrequent specks here and there but aside from that the films look very good.

The disc sports an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix and alternate Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are provided in French and Spanish with optional subtitles available in English, French and Spanish. The disc sounds great with plenty of surround sound popping up in the mix at the right time and with some great Subwoofer workout.

THE EXTRAS -
The disc of Last Crusade is devoid of extras itself. However the box set has, in addition to the three films, a fourth disc filled to the brim. Its here you get all the hidden treasures and assorted documentaries. We start off with a pretty beefy piece on the making of the trilogy, with just about all the principal cast and crew involved. There's a documentary on the special effects in a pre computer generated world. There's a short documentary with Ben Burtt, sound and editing god about how the trilogy is an adventure in sound. There's a segment on the stunt work - back in the days where a director was not afraid to dangle a man from the back of a speeding truck and put his life in danger for the sake of art. We get a documentary on John Williams and the Indy trilogy score, a selection of teasers and trailers from all three movies. Rounding out the package is a handful of DVD rom material - but this is mostly spyware and DRM crap, so give that a miss.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
Here's the section where I recap the movie for the people who can't be bothered reading. Fine, let me quickly sum up, and then get on with a rant. Last Crusade is better than Temple of Doom, but not quite as good as Raiders - and is still a fine action movie in its own right.

Now, allow me to go off for a moment. I hate Hollywood - which is a weird statement, considering how many movie reviews I've done, but let me explain. The art of the action movie in Hollywood these days is a lost one. Consider the last couple of really big action movies you've seen in the theater - movies like the Transformers or The Borne series, where the action is edited something akin to if an epileptic had a seizure and fell against the editing machine, and then an editor with ADD decided to splice all these fragments of film together.

There's no wide shots, no flow to the action, no continuity or sense of space. It's all just close ups and shaky camera action trying to cover up the fact that the special effects suck and/or their principal actors have no idea how to fight. Compare this to oh, say - the climax of The Adventures of Robin Hood with Flynn and Rathbone - two master swordsmen. Long shots, interesting use of shadows, dynamic use of the setting - a classic! You just don’t get that sort of filmmaking these days. While the Indy Trilogy may not be quite as good as missers Flynn and Rathbone, it's still some damn fine action work.

Even at its worst (and Last Crusade is FAR from the worst), Indiana Jones rocks the house far more than what we get these days.

MY OTHER INDIANA JONES REVIEWS
* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
* Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
* Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
* Raiders of the Lost Ark

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older