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It’s Matt Wrather’s first Father’s Day, which means it’s finally time to tackle Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the podcast. We’ve talked about Raiders and Dial of Destiny, and have written copious amounts of material criticizing Crystal Skull, but have yet to fully excavated this 90’s adventure classic until now, with all three of your regular panelists (Matt, Pete, and Mark) firmly ensconced in fatherhood, wearing funny hats and bashing their children over the head with fake Ming vases.
Befitting the occasion, we spend a lot of time on the father-son dynamic in this movie, specifically how the three trials are a metaphor for fatherhood. We explore other symbols in this movie: the Holy Grail, aka the Holy Grail of Holy Grails; the crusading knight jousting on horseback and motorcycles; and things that are both illuminated and provide illumination. We also deal with the over-the-top humor and action of the movie and grapple with whether or not they constitute actual plot holes. For example: how is a medieval French knight able to speak English? Hmmmmm?
We also manage to work the recent video game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, into the conversation, particularly with how well it captures the essential features of a great Indiana Story. Hint: “greaser son” is not one of them.
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Further Reading
- Overthinking It Podcast: It Would Be Easier If “Raiders of the Lost Ark” Were Awful
- Overthinking It Podcast 784: He Wants to Die in Antiquity
- Subjecting “Fridge Nuking” to Scientific Peer Review
- Some further complaints about Indy IV (most likely the first in a series)
- From Scooby to Scrappy: An Analysis of Cartoon Doghood
- Henry Jones, Sr.’s Hat
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Game Trailer