3. Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989)
The Movie: Indiana Jones is pulled into a dangerous quest for the Holy Grail - one which will bring him directly into contact with the Nazis, and into even closer proximity with his estranged father, Henry Jones Senior.
What It Says About You: It's in your opinion that it takes a long time for things to flourish and grow, and the Indy series is no exception. After all,
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is where the series is honed into its finest form, a rollicking blend of comedy and action, a mishmash of previous elements that made the series great. You'll blow a fuse if anybody dares call it a
Raiders rehash, as this is a wholly original concept, despite the obvious comparisons. For one, it's the most character driven, with Indy and his dad, Henry (Sean Connery), taking on the Nazis together. Need you say more? For naysayers, you would point in the direction of the flawless opening sequence in which we're treated to a window into young Indy. Serving as an origin story of sorts, we learn just how the world's coolest hero got his trademark scar, tendency to use a whip and inherent fear of snakes. And the other Indy movies didn't hold a better sense of humour than the one on show here, a trait which you think it highly important: Marcus (Denholm Elliott) comes into his own ("Does anybody here speak English?") as a comic relief character, and was wasted as an intellectual in the original flick. The ongoing banter between Indy and his father after they realise they've both slept with the same woman is played to perfection, too. Not that you'd ever want to be put into that particular situation, of course, but you consider your own relationship with your father to be a highly important one - hell, this movie is great father/son bonding. Most importantly of all, you know that you can't have a truly great movie without a hefty helping of heart, and this is the only film that fully embraces a proper relationship between two characters. The quest for the grail is a metaphor for Indy's relationship with his father, after all, and that gives
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade an edge that the previous two lack.
Favourite Movies: The African Queen (1951), Romancing the Stone (1984), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)