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DILLON ON FILM
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Where It Should Have Ended?
Ought Spielberg and Lucas to have drawn the line after the third adventure of the intrepid archaeologist?
Warning: Contains spoilers.
Some consider Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) the best Indiana Jones film. I don’t, as my vote goes to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), not only as the greatest of the series, but also the greatest adventure film of all time. On top of all that, it’s my favourite (yes, it is important to note the difference between “greatest” and “favourite”) so whichever method of approach you’d care to make, Raiders comes out on top.
That said, Last Crusade is still top-flight, action-packed stuff. It comes closer to matching Raiders than its immediate predecessor Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), though I love that one too. As we approach the release of the new film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (in my case, with a certain amount of nervous dread, though I hope, as always, to be proved wrong), I realised that whilst I’d written at length about Raiders and Temple of Doom (here and here, respectively), I’d yet to pen a piece on Last Crusade. Or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), for that…
