Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1989)
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Thank goodness for that, Dr Jones is back on form!
‘The Last Crusade’ begins with a brilliant little look at a young Indie (played by River Phoenix), and as only a 10 minute section of back story, it crams in a huge amount of references and foreshadowing, which then set up for a really great finale to the trilogy as it was!
Whereas ‘Temple of Doom’ was written by the people behind ‘Howard the Duck’, this film was written by the man who did the screenplays for ‘Innerspace’ and ‘Lethal Weapon 2 & 3’. Therefore, you have a clue as to how much better the writing is, as the story holds together nicely, brings back all the points I liked about the 1st film and disposes with what I didn’t like about the 2nd.
This includes the female love interest, which is once again filled by a character with more to her than just looks, a learned woman who is far more the type of woman I could imagine Indiana Jones falling for. The villainous Nazi’s are back too, but also so is the great John Rhys-Davies, filling those roles that they did so well in the first film.
The real star of ‘The Last Crusade’ however is none other than Sir Sean Connery as Indiana’s father Henry Jones Sr. He puts in a perfect performance in every way, really fitting in right from his first lines and then being a captivating and enjoyable screen presence throughout rather than some side-point to the main storyline.
Without a doubt, this is the best of the 4 films, and worth pushing through the mess in the middle to get to!
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