Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a highly regarded reel of entertainment featuring Indy and his father searching for the Holy Grail, but it was Steven Spielberg’s initial dislike of the idea that spurned the most enjoyable aspect of the film.
With two hugely successful and critically acclaimed Indiana Jones films under their belt, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had to come up with an idea for the third movie in the franchise, which was always thought to be just a trilogy. Now, fortunately for Indy fans, The Dial of Destiny marks the fifth film in the franchise.
In a making of Indiana Jones documentary now available on YouTube, Spielberg and Lucas have discussed different aspects of each film, including The Last Crusade.
What partly made the first two films work was the McGuffin — no it’s not a McDonald’s sandwich but rather an object that the plot revolves around. In Indiana Jones’ case, it’s the object(s) he is motivated to seek out. The McGuffin for the first film is in the Ark of the Covenant and, for the second film, it was the sacred stone of an Indian Village. Now, for the third film, they needed something big.
George Lucas had the perfect idea but Spielberg didn’t seem to fully appreciate it at first. He explains, “Lucas wanted Indiana to go after the Holy Grail and I didn’t think that was a very exciting McGuffin.”
Not an exciting McGuffin? The Holy Grail?! Holy cow! Certainly, it’s more exciting than sacred stones and potentially as exciting as the Ark of the Covenant, right?
Well, Spielberg thought not. He admits, rather humorously, “I thought it was static, and it was a cup, and it would just sit there.”
It’s technically true that the cup itself would just sit there. And I get that a movie about a cup does not sound very exciting but obviously it was not like Lucas was suggesting “Hey, Stevie, let’s make a movie about a cup!” Of course, any object would just sit there. It all depends on what the characters do with it. So, to get Spielberg onboard, Lucas added to the idea and told him, “We can do something paranormal about it. Why don’t we say that if you drink from the cup you have everlasting life? It’s like the fountain of youth.”
This idea was just getting better as far as I’m concerned and I would have happily sat down – with a side of fries with my McGuffin – to watch Indiana Jones add it to his itinerary of explorations. But Spielberg still wasn’t overjoyed about it. However, as he re-tells the story, it seems clear that he was more focused on coming up with a story to build around it as opposed to the McGuffin itself and that’s what was knawing at Spielberg because he needed to know the story.
So, Spielberg began thinking of what that story could possibly be. Then, something occurred to him that would effectively come to define the film.
Spielberg asked Lucas, “Why don’t we make it a father-son story?”
Not entirely dismissing the Holy Grail idea, Spielberg explains that he suggested, “The Holy Grail can be a metaphor for bringing together Indiana Jones and his dad.”
As the story developed in Spielberg’s mind, he further explained, “The father is the Grail expert who had devoted his entire life in search of the Grail and then he gets kidnapped and then Indy has to look for his father.”
This can also lead to Indy and his father trying to find the Holy Grail together. Of course, Lucas liked the idea and they moved forward with it.
Thankfully, to their delight, the dynamic between Harrison Ford as Indy and Sean Connery as his father worked, though George Lucas was originally against casting Sean Connery for the role. He was obviously won over shortly after filming began.
Lucas also realized how the father-son relationship brought depth to the franchise.
“The relationship between Indy and his father had a real powerful impact on the movies because before there was character but it was mostly action-driven and the fact that we can do what was essentially a character piece with some action in it, surprised me.”
After the film’s release, Spielberg was more than happy with the audience’s reaction and realized that the film might be the best one in the franchise. He explained that he went to multiple showings in different theaters on opening weekend and heard the audience laughing at every bit of humor in the film, which was mostly surrounding the relationship between Indy and his father.
Because of that, Spielberg observed, “ I thought in terms of audience participation, the most successful of the three movies if you just listen to the audience laugh and clap as the movie went along – is The Last Crusade.”
Though Indiana Jone and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull failed conjure the magic of The Last Crusade, it remains to be seen whether James Mangold will manage to repeat the latter’s success with Dial of Destiny, which hits theaters this June 30.
