The Last Crusade :: River Phoenix :: Sneakers

He played the young Indiana Jones in Last Crusade and a young spy in Sneakers. River Phoenix looked to have great potential, but of course died young of a drug overdose.

It's always tragic when young talent dies.  We can look at that spark of talent and imagine how much more amazing work they would have done if they had been given the chance to live a full life and career.  Imagine River Phoenix competing for roles with Leonardo DiCaprio.  Imagine more of Heath Ledger's Joker in the next Batman sequel.  Imagine the laughs we could have gotten from more comedies from John Belushi, John Candy, or Chris Farley.  Imagine the directions music would have taken with more albums from Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon of The Who, or Kurt Cobain.

You're imagining some pretty amazing stuff, right?

Well, I'm probably going to piss some people off for saying this, but you're probably wrong.  I'm not saying that those artists wouldn't have made more good or even great art.  But thinking that a handful of talented performances or great albums means that they could continue to make great art forever is fallacy. Two words: Chevy Chase.  If Chase had died in 1985 after SNL, Caddyshack, Vacation, and Fletch, he would be considered one of the greatest comedians of all time.  Instead, we got Chevy in the 90's with a failed TV talk show and awful films like "Cops and Robbersons."  Chevy Chase was a Hollywood punch line for nearly two decades.  John Belushi is still a genius because he didn't live long enough to be offered scripts like "Funny Farm."

That doesn't diminish any of these artists' youthful accomplishments.  It just brings the godlike status of these deceased celebrities back down to earth a bit. 


By the way, Sneakers is an awesome spy thriller with a great cast: Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, David Straithairn, and even James Earl Jones.  Check it out if you've never seen it.

Temple of Doom :: Harrison Ford :: The Last Crusade

Harrison Ford from Temple of Doom to Last Crusade gives me one last visit with Indiana Jones, because, no, I will never own "Crystal Skull."

Ahh, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I love this one.  I might even love it more than Raiders of the Lost Ark, although that's a really tough debate that I keep going back and forth on.

This one's got everything.  Horses, tanks, daddy issues (James Bond as Indy's Dad?  I love Sean Connery), origin story, knights, museums, a hot blonde, blimps, boats, motorcycles, evil Nazis (as if there's any other kind), plus the hilariously inept Marcus Brody. 

One of the things I love about Indiana Jones is that he has to rely as much upon his brain as he does on his fists, gun, or whip.  The entire climactic scenes in the cave when Indy must pass the trials and choose the correct Grail rely on his knowledge and reasoning skills.  And it's still riveting to watch, despite the complete lack of explosions and fighting.  Take a lesson Michael Bay.

It is interesting watching this film in the post-Dan Brown / Da Vinci Code era.  That book and a ton of A&E / TLC / History Channel shows have been pushing the idea of the "Holy Grail" as actually being a continuation of Jesus' bloodline.  So it kinda feels refreshing to go back to when the Grail was just a cup.  A magic cup, but still a cup.