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Kinkella Remembers Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Pseudo 122
874 Plays1 year ago
After spending so much time comparing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I thought “Hey, maybe I should talk about the Last Crusade.” This movie came out at a turning point in my life - I was 17 years old and getting a bit tired of my hometown. Come with me now back to 1989….
Transcripts
For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/pseudo/122
Links
- Archaeology is Awesome Textbook: https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/archaeology-awesome
- Dial of Destiny Review: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo/121
- Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo/115
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Transcript
Introduction: Episode 122 and Indiana Jones Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You are now entering the pseudo-archaeology podcast, a show that uncovers what's fact, what's fake, and what's fun in the crazy world of pseudo-archaeology.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the pseudo archaeology podcast, episode one hundred and twenty two.
Recent Indiana Jones Discussions
00:00:29
Speaker
And tonight we are looking back to a year I like to call 1989 and the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. OK, so guess what? I had a good time talking about Indiana Jones five the other day.
00:00:53
Speaker
And I got to be in my bonnet about talking about Indiana Jones movies and not just movies in general, because I know it's weird that I'm doing like two movies in a row. And
1989 Memories and Personal Life Changes
00:01:08
Speaker
it's not like this channel is, you know, movie review channel, but.
00:01:13
Speaker
Thinking about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade really jogged my memory and not about the movie so much, although I rewatched it recently to take notes to work for you people. So I give you quality product. You're welcome. I was thinking about specifically when the movie came out. The movie came out.
00:01:36
Speaker
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when I was 17. So this is the summer of 1989. And for me, it's the summer between 11th and 12th grade. And I
Life Epiphany and Career Influence
00:01:48
Speaker
actually it's funny, man, I remember watching that movie in the theater and I remember it pretty well. And it was because of.
00:02:01
Speaker
like a life epiphany I had while I was watching it and really at the end of the movie. And it was so important to me. I actually wrote about it in my textbook. So I wrote a textbook like a year and a half ago called Archaeology is Awesome, and it uses the Indiana Jones font on the front. And the setup for my textbook is every chapter. I would write a little vignette
00:02:30
Speaker
of
Movie-going Experience and Archaeology Inspiration
00:02:31
Speaker
my life in archaeology, right? Just a little like short story. And so for one of the chapters, I actually wrote down my experience from the theater, and I'm going to read it to you. So here it goes. Indiana Jones and the possibilities of things to come.
00:02:49
Speaker
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out when I was a junior in high school, during the time when students are beginning to take college seriously and think of potential schools where they might apply. Even though I was in an overcrowded theater, sitting way too close to the screen, man, I remember that. The third installment of the Indiana Jones trilogy was providing me with one of the most enjoyable cinematic experiences of my life.
00:03:15
Speaker
Although the movie delivered excitement, adventure, and levity as Indiana Jones raced around the world searching for the Holy Grail, it was the final scene at the amazing archaeological site of Petra that put it over the top for me. With the carved stone facade of Petra in the
Release Context and Cultural Impact
00:03:33
Speaker
background, Indiana's friends jumped on their horses and raced away into the setting sun, leaving the Holy Grail for another day.
00:03:42
Speaker
As the theme song blared and the credits rolled, a possible career choice was added to the list in my brain. In the same moment as I watched the other moviegoers leave the theater, I realized that I was ready to leave home and go to college. So there you go. And that's true. You guys, I totally remember that. It was almost like this out of body experience where I just
00:04:11
Speaker
I remember at the end of the movie and I was just, you know, I'm in my hometown and I'm looking and I went to go see the movie with just a friend of mine, like a good friend of mine. I didn't have a girlfriend or anything like that at the time. And I just remember looking around and just thinking, you know, I need to get out of here. And I was just, I'd always been excited
00:04:40
Speaker
to go to college just to go, you know, to experience something new. But that moment I was like, ready. You know, so that time for me was really important. And I remember that summer of 89 and to bring it.
00:04:59
Speaker
back towards the movie a bit, we have to remember that, you know, Last Crusade came out like, what is it? Since it's
Plot Structure and Cultural Moment
00:05:08
Speaker
89, it's five years after Temple of Doom. And so this is like eight years after the original Indiana Jones movie. So at the time, Indiana Jones was kind of passé. It really was. And also the Temple of Doom
00:05:28
Speaker
hadn't been that great. Like, Temple of Doom kind of tarnished Indiana Jones a little bit. People don't remember this. And even for me, as like a 17-year-old in 1989, I think I kind of had to play it off with my friends a little, like, hey, I'm going to go see Indiana Jones. And they were like, oh, that's a lame loser. So we have to think of this movie in its cultural moment. Indiana Jones is eight years old, and he's kind of passé.
00:05:58
Speaker
And this movie had to make up some serious lost ground from Temple of Doom. It did. Like, I remember after Temple of Doom came out, it really, Temple of Doom felt like Indiana Jones sells out. It did, right? For audiences of 1984. I remember that. It's one of the nice parts I find as you get a little older, it's like, oh yeah, I actually experienced that. I can tell you guys about that. I can tell you like,
00:06:27
Speaker
The setup really mattered. It mattered
Opening Scene and Young Indiana Jones
00:06:30
Speaker
that as a teenager, it was a little lame to still like Indiana Jones. Right. We, of course, have this callback now if everyone loves Indiana Jones, but at the time, little shaky. So with that.
00:06:49
Speaker
in our in our heads. Let's go through the Last Crusade, right? Let's go through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and I'll do my thing. We'll talk through the three acts of the movie. And we remember that Act One is kind of the set up and we see who the hero is. And then he gets a call to adventure and he kind of refuses it. And then when he finally goes on it,
00:07:14
Speaker
He kind of begins the adventure. Then we're into act two. There's all these trials and tribulations. Act two is really long. Then there's this crisis, this the terrible part in the movie where you're like, oh, my God, the hero is not going to make it. And then they start to crawl back out. They go into act three. You have the climax and then the falling action or the denouement, and then it's over.
00:07:36
Speaker
And I think what we'll see is the Last Crusade really follows this template, just like so many movies do. So parting the clouds and going backwards in our way back machine to 1989, there I am sitting in the theater and the movie starts, right? And it does the Paramount Pictures, how the Paramount Pictures has the hill, right? The mountain.
00:08:06
Speaker
It fades into a mountain or a hill that we know is from the American Southwest. So immediately we're set in the American Southwest and we're told that it's Utah in 1912 and
00:08:22
Speaker
There's a
Storytelling Techniques and Indiana Jones Lore
00:08:23
Speaker
Boy Scout troop, right? And so we see that, oh, this is young Indiana Jones played by River Phoenix. Man, River Phoenix did such a good job in this. And there was an interview with him where he had actually been in a movie with Harrison Ford before he was in Mosquito Coast, filmed in Belize, by the way. And
00:08:47
Speaker
Since he had worked with Harrison Ford already, he'd studied him. He studied the guy for like months. So he knew Harrison Ford's little personal isms, you know, how he moved. And I had.
00:09:04
Speaker
critiqued, dial a destiny, the first part, you know, what that's all computer generated, that the physicality was all wrong and weird. Right. And that kind of made that part suck. This is the opposite. You have an actor mimicking Harrison Ford in the best possible sense. Rewatch that, you guys. Rewatch that first bit with River Phoenix. River Phoenix does a
00:09:28
Speaker
fantastic job of sort of doing Harrison Ford. Again, in the best possible sense, he just nails it, you know, the look, the sort of vibe, the feel. And so the setup is that.
00:09:45
Speaker
Indiana and his friend go off and try and get the cross of Coronado, which these other kind of looter guys are getting. And you see this grown up man who is sort of kind of cut from the same cloth. Right. This is where Indiana Jones gets some of his ideas on how to be him. So, of course, it doesn't work out. There's a chase on a train. Huh?
00:10:08
Speaker
Kind of like in A Dial of Destiny, chase on a train in the beginning part. But they chase across the train cars, right? And this train is like a circus train. So each car has like different animals and different hijinks. And we see how Indiana Jones becomes scared of snakes as he falls into a box full of snakes. We see how he gets his scar on his chin because he uses his whip for the first time. He gets a whip, of course, in one of the circus cars.
00:10:36
Speaker
And he accidentally cuts his chin. So we kind of get these little fun, little bits and bobs of like, oh, that's how in this origin story. Oh, that's how this this happened for the first time. Right. So they finally get out of there. Indiana Jones goes home. We we meet the father, but we don't see him. We just hear his voice, who is, of course, going to be the great Sean Connery.
00:11:01
Speaker
And Sean Connery is totally not excited about what Indiana is bringing in, you know, the the cross of Coronado and all this. So basically, while Indy's dad is busy not caring, the authorities show up, they take the cross back and they give it to the looter guys. Right. And the looter guys looks at Indiana is basically like, hey, better luck next time, kid. And gives him the hat. Right. And so
00:11:28
Speaker
we see in this what's called like a match on. It's a match match on action where the hand goes down on and puts the hat on. And then we see India's head come back up and it's modern Indiana Jones, right? It's Harrison Ford. And now he's on the Portuguese coast in 1938 and he's on a boat. And the same guy who actually was paying for the
00:11:52
Speaker
Cross of Coronado Dig in 1912 is there again, you know, and of course, though, this time, Indiana Jones is triumphant. Then we cut back to the teaching scene.
00:12:05
Speaker
Gotta have your Indiana Jones teaching scene. What's great, you guys, if you look close on the chalkboard behind Indiana Jones, he wrote Catalina and Mescalis and Island. That's Chumash stuff, right? That's stuff from Santa Barbara. That's David Banks Rogers to get into the archaeology of it. Nineteen twenty six. So this is actual stuff. Basically what you get if you're a super nerd like me.
00:12:31
Speaker
is that Indiana Jones was teaching his students the section on California archaeology. It's just kind of fun. Just squint and you'll see. It'll say, Canalenial, Mescalagen Island. That's the name of a large Chumash village site. And then Canalenial was a name that they used to use for the temporal culture of the time. So anyway, of course,
Scene Analysis: Humor, Action, Characters
00:12:52
Speaker
And he's doing his teaching thing. Marcus comes in, Marcus Brody, right? He's going to have a bigger role here, kind of a more fun role in this one, a little more lighthearted than before. They talk about the cross and hey, he has the cross finally, and that's great. But then Indiana Jones goes to like a dinner party. And this part. I laugh at a little in a fun way as
00:13:22
Speaker
an adult archaeologist because sometimes when you have a job like this,
00:13:28
Speaker
You do get invited to like rich people dinner parties sometimes like that can be a thing. But I've I've had those kind of experiences where you almost feel a little bit fish out of water, you know, but because archaeology as a job has that X factor, that interesting aspect to it. Right. That a lot of times.
00:13:53
Speaker
people with means want you around. So anyway, Indiana Jones is at this dinner party hosted by this guy named Walter Donovan. And Walter Donovan is, of course, a rich benefactor who's really into history and shows Indiana Jones this stone.
00:14:12
Speaker
that has a bunch of carvings on it. And Indiana Jones kind of translates it and it's like, oh, hey, I think this is about the Holy Grail. And they talk, oh, yes, the Cup of Christ. And of course, Indiana Jones is like, yeah, it's a bunch of B.S., you know, there's no such thing. And.
00:14:30
Speaker
Walter Donovan offers Indiana a spot, basically, on his project to look for this. And Indiana Jones is like, nah, it refuels a little bit call, right? It's like, nah, I don't need to do that. You have the wrong Dr. Jones. And then they're like, well, we had the right Dr. Jones. We were working with your father, but your father's missing. And then, of course, Indiana Jones is like,
00:14:54
Speaker
OK, and right at that point, you're like, we're done with Act One, and now we're on to Act Two. And when we return, that's exactly what we're going to talk about.
00:15:08
Speaker
Hello, and welcome back to the pseudo archaeology podcast episode 122. I am your host, Andrew King Keller, and we are remembering Indiana Jones in the last crusade, and we're kind of couching it in the world of 1989. Right. And we're doing our little three act breakdown and now we're on to act two. So.
00:15:30
Speaker
We are have now decided to go on the adventure. Right. And we have that tracing the plane voyage on Indiana Jones. This is so great. And it really tells you, oh, we're off on our adventure now. Right. Which is which is awesome. So they're going to Venice. They get to Venice. They meet Elsa Schneider.
00:15:52
Speaker
Hmm, German name. Suspicious, don't you think? Oh, yes, me too. And she is going to be sort of the femme fatale, right? She's this like blonde bombshell type. They immediately go over to the library and they have to kind of crack a code. It's it's very video game ish in terms of like, where do we dig in the library? And of course, they get to do the joke of X marks the spot.
00:16:22
Speaker
They dig. They find that there are catacombs under the library, which I really dug. I really liked this set up. And I do have to say, I mean, I really liked this movie overall, as I think so many of us so many of us do in the catacombs. There's an image of the Ark and, you know, Indiana Jones goes, Oh, the Ark of the Covenant. And of course, else is like, Are you sure? And Harrison Ford, pretty sure, you know, the great
00:16:50
Speaker
underplayed comedy. So so good. You know. In terms of the pseudo archaeology world. Obviously, so much of the stuff in Indiana Jones is is not real or would never happen. And I've talked about this kind of stuff before. And I don't really care because it's just for fun. It's a movie. It's fiction.
00:17:16
Speaker
But I will say there's moments, and it's rare for me, it's rare for me, I'm very chill. But there's moments in these movies sometimes where I have to clutch my pearls a little.
00:17:27
Speaker
And I clutched
Humor and Character Interactions
00:17:28
Speaker
my pearls when Indiana Jones rips a mummy arm out. Like there's there's just mummies laying in these catacombs. And then he like rips some mummy wrappings out and then wraps them on the bone and lights it on fire to have a torch. And I'm like, what you ruining precious archaeological information, right? It's what's so funny is it's like
00:17:53
Speaker
When he's destroying whole pyramids and stuff, I usually don't care, but little moments like that, I'm like, Oh, how dare you, sir? So he does that, of course, so they can see they get to the tomb of one of the knights. Right. The idea is that these three brothers.
00:18:13
Speaker
were the guardians of the Holy Grail, and two of them are dead, and one of them is so far not accounted for. But this is one of the brothers, and they're able to read, get the rest of the clues from his shield. It's carved on his shield. Very cool.
00:18:28
Speaker
I mean, we have to say if we're comparing this to like Indiana Jones 5, it's very similar to sort of the tomb scene. And they do this a lot of times, a lot of Indiana Jones movies. Indiana Jones 4 has one of these kind of going into the tomb and getting the clue from inside someone's tomb. You know, we've seen this kind of a lot. It's almost like the
00:18:50
Speaker
the Death Star thing in the Star Wars world, who they've used it so many times. It's like, all right, we're going to go get a clue out of a tomb now, but it's hey, man, I had fun. And this is where all of a sudden there's a ton of rats. And the joke, oh, rats, which is hey, man, I thought it worked.
00:19:11
Speaker
But they get out, oh, and then it lights on fire. They get out of it. Famous scene where they climb out of like the sewer grill into like a cafe, an outdoor cafe. Then they get on a boat. We have a boat chase, which I thought really worked.
00:19:26
Speaker
Now, I thought a whole lot of this movie work, some parts that I thought didn't. We'll talk about that later. But the boat chase, simple, believable, real boats, real chase, very little or no CGI at all.
00:19:45
Speaker
Dear Hollywood, please do more of this. Not a bunch of fake crap. That's not believable. Right. It doesn't have to be over the top. It's like it's fun to watch two boats speeding around on a on a river. It's cool. So they obviously get away from the boat chase. We see that Elsa is kind of a badass because she's driving the boat.
00:20:12
Speaker
We see that there's this shadowy group called, I believe, the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Soul or something that that guards the the Grail and doesn't want them to find it. They kind of get back to the hotel. There's there's a descending action for a minute where they're just serving the hotel. There's a bit of a sex scene situation, but their their rooms are tossed and then
00:20:38
Speaker
on the way to the grill, they got to drive to the German castle. Right. And they're going to come across Nazis course. Right. And in this German castle amongst the Nazis, we finally see Sean Connery. We finally see Indiana Jones's dad. Right. Final reveal.
00:21:01
Speaker
And then immediately, Indiana Jones's dad is like, oh, Elsa, you know, she's full of it. Don't believe anything she says, because they're at this moment where there's Nazis, you know, guns pointed.
00:21:14
Speaker
And Indiana Jones is like, no, no, she's fine, but she's not. The big reveal is Elsa's a bad guy. And then Donovan's a bad guy to whirl the bad guys. Right. They're looking for the grail for nefarious Nazi purposes. Course. So now.
00:21:36
Speaker
The tables are turned. Indiana Jones's dad are trapped in this castle. You know, things get lit on fire. They have to get out. It's very difficult, you know, and fun. There is some high concept stuff. There's sort of a.
00:21:54
Speaker
I hate it when movies like this go for the funny too much. There's this rotating wall thing, you know, it's very Marx Brothers ish, where it's like this wall rotates and then they're in the secret Nazi bunker and then it rotates and they're back out in this other room. And the the soundtrack might as well be like, did it, did it, did it? But like it's like, dude,
00:22:23
Speaker
That breaks the tone, right? You guys who've heard me talk about stuff before, I'm I'm always all pissy about tone.
00:22:32
Speaker
And that I'm like, dude, don't need this joke. Silly. It takes away. But they do it. I chose to look away for a moment, you know, and be happy. So they get out of there. We see Sala again for a minute. They kind of plan and talk with Sala a bit, which is nice.
00:22:55
Speaker
as they finally get away from the castle, they get away on a motorcycle and there's a motorcycle chase and the motorcycle chase is cool. It's real. It's simple, but it's real. Seems like I got to say Indiana Jones does a ton of motorcycle chases. They did an Indiana Jones five. They did an Indiana Jones four, but they tend to be some of the best chases because
00:23:19
Speaker
I don't know. They're simple. They're fun. They're not too long. Short. They do this little jousting thing, which is kind of silly, but fun. Why not? Real motorcycles. They have a moment with a serious scene. And this is something that I'm always wanting more of out of movies like this. It's like stop the slapstick comedy bullshit.
00:23:44
Speaker
more little serious scenes, right? To ground us, to make us realize that the stakes are real. You have a serious scene where Indiana Jones is like, he's talking to his dad and he's like, you know, mom never understood. And he's like, yes, she did. Like that's cool. Right? Little scene like that. I love
Climax Scenes and Story Resolution
00:24:04
Speaker
those. Dear filmmakers of all movies, give me a few serious scenes, right?
00:24:13
Speaker
So they get away on the motorcycle. They realize they have to get the Grail Diary back. They get it back. There's a moment where they're at a Nazi rally and Adolf Hitler signs the diary course. They're going to go there again. Kind of high concept. Didn't have to happen. They could have cut it. And then they get on the Zeppelin.
00:24:33
Speaker
Now, some people bitch and moan that the Zeppelin has pretty crappy special effects, which it does. I remember even in 1989 looking at the screen and going like, that looks weird. And I remember even thinking like, I'm like, I don't know if they should have done that because it just looked kind of fake and odd.
00:24:53
Speaker
But it's only on screen for a minute. So Indiana Jones' dad, like sneak on the Zeppelin. They have a couple of funny scenes. They do a couple of serious things. Thank God they are able to escape off the Zeppelin on a biplane that's hooked to the Zeppelin itself. And that's true. Those used to have stuff like that. That whole plane, there's a little plane chase, you know, that does feel a little fakish and a little little over the top.
00:25:22
Speaker
They then I forget exactly how this goes, but they they then land. I think they crash land. But then one of the worst scenes is there's a pilot who's following them in like a German plane and he crashes through a tunnel and the fuselage of the plane like skids by them in the tunnel and the pilot in the plane like looks at them and stuff and kind of does like, oh,
00:25:52
Speaker
Hey, this is wacky. Why? Why do that? Why, why, why? I don't understand when good filmmakers do crap like this. It's like, but what? And that would have cost so much money and time.
00:26:08
Speaker
I don't I just continue to not get it when movies do stuff like this. Totally not needed. Totally cut you out of the scene. You're like for a stupid joke and it's completely unrealistic. Oh, yeah, the pilot's going to be like, I'm just scraping through here and the fuselage of a plane isn't just going to explode on content. Come on. Just stupid, dude.
00:26:33
Speaker
So now, though, that they're the Indiana Jones's dad are out of their clutches, they can kind of start planning for their counter attack, right? And talk with Salah a bit. And they're going to try and move forward.
00:26:49
Speaker
Then they end up getting attacked by a tank. There's this big tank scene. And I think it's something you remember if you think back to this movie, right? That the tank scene, it's like, okay, they're on horseback some and there's a tank and Indiana Jones basically has to battle against the tank. And at the big crisis scene, the tank ultimately falls off a cliff and is destroyed. And we think that Indiana Jones was in it too, right?
00:27:20
Speaker
And we're like, oh, my God, we know the hero is not dead, but it seems like he's dead. And. Of course, he's not. He clambers up from the side of the cliff and Sean Connery hugs him and he goes like, oh, my boy, I thought I lost you like serious. And I love stuff like that. Right. A serious reaction. How a father would really react if they thought they had lost their child.
00:27:48
Speaker
Nice. Right. I can almost forgive them for the stupid, stupid plane thing. So now they've gotten over this crisis moment. Now we're into act three. Right. And act three is basically just Petra. Right. They go to Petra. This is where the holy grail is going to be. And then.
00:28:15
Speaker
There's three trials that have to be gone through in order to get to where the Holy Grail is. And what's happened right now is is Indiana Jones's dad has actually been shot. Right. And so Indiana Jones is forced to do this. It's one of those Indiana Jones tropes where they've had a bunch of red shirts, right? A bunch of miscellaneous troops already try to get through these and they've all been killed.
00:28:40
Speaker
And the first one is the breath of God. Only the penitent man shall pass. And Indiana Jones figures that's like, oh, I have to kneel. And he kneels just in time for some huge blades go by. And so he doesn't get his head cut off. And then he has to pass the word of God, which is he has to spell out Jehovah. And there's this joke like, oh, but Jehovah begins with an eye. And he
00:29:05
Speaker
steps on the wrong letter. And then there is, of course, the path of God, the famous leap of faith where Indiana Jones just does it. And it looks like he has to just step onto the into this like cavernous fall, like just off this cliff. But there's actually a little pathway there that you can't see.
00:29:26
Speaker
And so Indiana Jones steps down a famous scene in the movie, right? Gets on it and then walks this final path, meets the final brother who's guarding the Grail, who's an ancient, ancient old man soldier, right? A not a soldier. What am I doing? I'm sorry. It's late. I'm excited. You know, a knight, not a soldier so much as he's a knight.
00:29:51
Speaker
World's oldest night since Indiana Jones made it this far. Then, of course, Donovan and Elsa are right behind and they're going to get the Grail. Elsa picks one for Donovan to use. It is, of course, the wrong one. Donovan uses it to drink from the water of life, you know, and then all of a sudden he becomes super old and basically explodes because that's what happens when you get super old really fast. You explode, dude.
00:30:19
Speaker
You didn't know that very scientific. But then the famous line, right? He chose poorly. And then, of course, Indiana Jones knows what to look for. A cup of a carpenter is this very basic cup. He uses it. And then, of course, you have chosen wisely. Then Indiana Jones brings the cup out, pours the water on his dad. So his dad's bullet wound magically goes away.
Emotional Ending and Conclusion
00:30:47
Speaker
But then since he crossed the seal, everything starts to break and fall apart. And Elsa tries to grab the grail and take it out. And she's like, I can get it. I can get it. And Indiana Jones is like, I can't. You can't. I can't hold you. And then she falls down a crevasse to her death. And then Indiana Jones starts to do the same thing. And his dad is trying to hold him. And Indiana Jones is like, I can get it. And then, of course, Henry is like, Indiana?
00:31:15
Speaker
And the Indians like, oh, my God, he lets it go. And then, of course, they make it out. And in one of the best endings of all time, they get on their horses and literally ride into the setting sun. What a damn good ending when we return. My final thoughts. Hello and welcome back to the pseudo archaeology podcast episode one hundred and twenty two.
00:31:45
Speaker
And I am your host, Dr. Andrew Kinkella. I'm talking about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I also want to say Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. Indiana Jones is the Last Crusade. So, you know, what do I what do I think of this movie overall? Dude, I love this movie. Everyone likes this movie. Who doesn't like this movie? Come on. Now,
00:32:15
Speaker
There's always the never ending battle of which is better Indiana Jones one or Indiana Jones three. I would argue Indiana Jones one, but I can totally see this argument for Holy Grail. Right. See, I did it. Last crusade for Indiana Jones, the last crusade.
00:32:34
Speaker
There are some iconic moments. The addition of Sean Connery is like genius. He adds so much to kind of the franchise and the feel and the depth. It's kind of like like in Star Wars, it's like adding Yoda, you know, it's like expanding this world in that way. It's just great. And just Sean Connery's voice, you know, I mean, when he says
00:33:00
Speaker
This is not archaeology. It's a race against evil. You're like, yeah. And am I too proud to not use that when I'm talking to my students and they ask me like, oh, so are we doing archaeology? And I'm like, this is not archaeology. It's a race against evil. And I do the Sean Connery.
00:33:29
Speaker
Like, I'm going to do that. Have I done that? Of course I've done that. Because students need to know, man, that it's a race against evil. Great quote. There's so many other aspects of it, too. The little nice little heartwarming moments, I think, are great. And the ending, man, is just
00:33:54
Speaker
I can't. You know, it's funny. I talked last time that I watched Indiana Jones five with my daughter. One of the other things she had said about Indiana Jones five when we were talking, she she brought this up, you know, she was like, Dad, you know, we did just watch Indiana Jones five, but there's already an end to this franchise and it's called The Last Crusade.
00:34:21
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah, like once you've ended a movie this strong, it is hard to go back and be like, just kidding. You know, is I don't know, is this the best movie ending of all time? The running off into the sunset and and.
00:34:43
Speaker
You literally you're like they're off on another adventure, you know, and it's like in these there and solace there. Oh, dude, it's it's so damn good. It's so
Film's Influence on Life Choices
00:34:56
Speaker
good. I remember in the theater to even thinking that going like what an ending, you know, and just watching it.
00:35:05
Speaker
In terms of the archaeology side of it, you know, we we know I'm not going to go over every archaeological fallacy in this or something, because it just I trust you. I trust my audience. I trust you. You know, you know that a tomb isn't going to be that pristine and that we just rip through it looking for a clue or whatever. You know, you're you guys know. In terms of the holy grail itself, though, like, do I think
00:35:35
Speaker
that will ever find the Holy Grail or something like that. And the answer is, unfortunately, no, no way. I would love it if they did love it like it would just be the most awesome thing ever. I I.
00:35:49
Speaker
I want that one, but but I don't put any stock in it. There are other things in archaeology that I always hope for that I kind of hold a candle out for, you know, but they have a chance. This got no chance, you know, and there's even a decent possibility that never existed at all. You know what I mean? So in terms of modern archaeology, looking for something like this, just just forget it, man.
00:36:15
Speaker
Don't bother. And I know I sound like such a killjoy. And I like being positive and excited about archaeology. But when it comes to something this specific, it's just not going to happen. And, you know, just finding stuff, just finding anything from the time of Jesus in.
00:36:36
Speaker
that part of the world, be it Jerusalem or, you know, that kind of thing, that those areas have been so heavily built on, built on again and again and again at one more time. And so many things have been reused and recycled and thrown out and destroyed. You're just not going to find. And I do have to say, guys, whenever. Stuff I see stuff online like new artifacts found in Jerusalem or wherever, you know, sort of a biblical archeology type thing.
00:37:04
Speaker
What they actually find to me is usually pretty damn lame. Not in terms of it's obviously from the time, which is great, but trying to relate stuff like that, that to the Bible is basically impossible. And I don't like it when the media is like.
00:37:24
Speaker
Could be the cup of Jesus. It's like, no, it couldn't. And it's not. And don't try and sell that to people. I think there was a box. This might have been the better part of 10 years ago or so, but was found. And I think it's it literally had like J.C. on it or something. And they're like.
00:37:46
Speaker
It's Jesus Christ box. It's like, God, no, it's not, you know, but I can see through that stuff. But even people who are fairly knowledgeable, knowledgeable about this stuff, I understand if you can't, I understand if it's weird. I understand if you think there's something to it. It's, I do blame the media for that stuff. You know, they go over the top. So obviously in terms of actually finding the Holy Grail is not going to happen. But even though we'll never find a Holy Grail, is it good for the movie?
00:38:16
Speaker
Oh, hell yeah, it's great. You know, I think it's even in terms of kind of the MacGuffin. I think it's better than the arc. I think the Holy Grail is probably the my favorite MacGuffin of all of them in Indiana Jones. I think it just I think it just were killer, but.
00:38:35
Speaker
You know, as we talk about the movie and analyze it and obviously it's a strong movie, it only has a couple real low bits, which are mostly stuff like the CGI plane where the wings break off and it skids through the tunnel. It's so stupid. But barring that, it's it's strong. I like it a lot. But I do have to say every time I see it, I think much more to that moment in my life where
00:39:04
Speaker
I was sitting there looking at the audience and it was weird. I was like, these are all just, I didn't necessarily know these people, but I was like, these are just people from my hometown. I want to get away from these people. And I wonder if you guys, I hope you guys have had moments like that. Moments when you were younger, moments when you were like, you know what? I'm going to go do something cool.
00:39:34
Speaker
Just think about it. Was there a time and in our best moments, we have several times like this in life, several of those moments, man, it's what makes life worth living, right? Those, those steps. It was like those mental moments where you're like, I'm ready to take this next step and it's going to be great. Right. I just think of them and I just happen to have one
00:40:00
Speaker
in a dark theater right at the end of Indiana Jones. And with that,
Credits and Production Details
00:40:07
Speaker
I'll talk to you guys next time.
00:40:13
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the pseudo archeology podcast. Please like and subscribe wherever you'd like and subscribe. And if you have questions for me, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, feel free to reach out using the links below or go to my YouTube channel, Kinkella teaches archeology. See you guys next time.
00:40:34
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, Dig Tech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Chris Webster and Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.