Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Pt 3 - “X Marks the Spot!”

This is the third of a 10-part section by section analysis of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. You can find links to the other nine parts at the end of this piece.

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Ah, Venice!

In a film stacked with sequences that could be counted among my favourites of all time from any film, the Venice sequence in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade remains a terrific blend of thrilling action, historical Dan Brown-style detective work, broad comedy and character development. We remain in the escalation phase of the film’s first act, building pieces, but Steven Spielberg is demonstrably having fun throughout this section.

In the previous scene, Walter Donovan had sent Indy to meet Dr. Schneider, who was Henry’s academic research partner, and there serves to be an unconscious bias toward the masculine as he and Brody assume they’ll be meeting a man. Indy immediately switches into debonair James Bond mode once Dr. Elsa Schneider appears, recognising a stunning blonde when he sees one. They immediately reduce Brody to a third wheel, switching into some outrageous flirting for professionals who have just met. “You have your father’s eyes.” “And my mother’s ears, but the rest belongs to you.”

There is something deliberately classic Hollywood about this exchange. The film is set in 1938 but you could imagine a film in 1938 throwing a scene out such as this in a film noir or a screwball comedy, from a Cary Grant or even possibly a Humphrey Bogart, to a Claudette Colbert or a Lauren Bacall. It is somewhat cheesy but also timeless and Harrison Ford fits the model of a classic movie star perfectly while bouncing off Alison Doody, who I’ve always believed should have been a far bigger star than she ever was. She gets far more to chew on here than she does opposite actual James Bond Roger Moore in A View to a Kill a few years earlier.

Random aside, but the role of Elsa was also offered to British actress Amanda Redman, who turned it down. Imagine turning down an Indiana Jones movie? Hard to fathom, but there you go.

One other aspect to emerge from this sparky conversation is how Henry continues to be painted. It is completely at odds with the kind of role we expect Sean Connery to play, and the kind of man we would expect to father such a masculine, brawny archetype as Indy. Brody has already described him as “an old fool” and Indy “a bookworm.” Elsa suggests Henry closing in on information about the Knight’s tomb in Venice stirred childlike emotions: “I’ve never seen him so excited. He was as giddy as a schoolboy.” This comes as a surprise to Indy, who still has a very patrician, dry view of the man he grew up with.

Something of that excitement is awakened in Indy during the sequence in the library, as he and Marcus realise via the Roman numerals that Henry was looking for the tomb’s location, and we can infer in how Elsa states that Henry sent her away to the map section that he didn’t trust her, though at this point we are unaware of her duplicity. Spielberg plays this entire scene for a sense of wonder, as Indy climbs the steps—John Williams’ score in full mounting brass—only to see that the Roman X is the entire floor they were standing on. “X marks the spot!” he says with a chuckle of incredulity.

It’s all such a fun subversion of the dry academic Indy cosplays of, twisting precisely what he tells those students in an earlier scene. Of course X marks the buried treasure in the world of Indiana Jones! But Spielberg is in on that joke, making the point that Indy’s other life as a classic movie hero is entirely at odds with the life Henry would have had (and Marcus still does). If you want no further proof of this, take the whole beautifully played moment with the old librarian and the stamp. It’s Chaplin-esque in the comic-timing and facial expression carrying the comedy.

I’ve often wondered, fun as it is, why that moment was needed at all. Does it speak to Spielberg’s efforts to make Last Crusade lighter than the previous film? It is an attempt to adjust the reality that Indy is actually defacing a converted medieval church in order to access the tomb? By playing it for comedy, we’re meant to ignore how Indy is doing more damage to the ancient world than the opposite. It’s the ongoing contradiction of films such as this - does Indy actually destroy more than he protects? It’s an open question.

Interesting note once they’re in the catacombs. Elsa has already made the point that Knights brought back pillars from Byzantium sacked during the Crusades, which helped form the Venezian church, but we also learn that this was a Pagan site from the 4th or 5th century beforehand, due to markings carved on the walls. “The Christians would have dug their own passages and burial chambers centuries later.” Elsa adds. There is a level of deep history around this site that goes back, crucially, to the age where Grail legend extends to the Arthurian realm in English mythology. One wonders if these connections were always in the back of Boam and Spielberg’s minds putting this together.

There are some great nods and winks here too. Elsa sees the Ark of the Covenant etched as a mural on the wall, which Indy identifies. “Are you sure?” “Pretty sure,” he deadpans. Harrison Ford plays that perfectly. Later, when confronted by the mass of rats squirming through the catacombs, Indy makes the point on finding the Grail tablet about his father: “He never would have made it past the rats! He hates rats! He’s scared to death of them!” Which is a fun play on the idea of the Jones men having a fear of venomous creatures, following Indy with his paralysing fear of snakes. These are all aspects meant to remind us these two men aren’t so different after all.

I also quite enjoyed Indy’s line when they realise the catacombs are full of petroleum. “I could sink a well down here and retire,” which might in itself be pithy but in the context of the opening sequence, where Indy grows up in the echoes of the Old West and the rush to expand the frontier, the idea of oil prospecting to make a fortune feels like a deliberate point. A clash between the new capitalist advances of the 20th century against the ancient world Indy now explores, one of Knights and Pagan markings.

Their discovery—one where Spielberg as the tablet comes off softens and enhances the frame to almost glow ethereally—is cut short by the seemingly sinister Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who send the tomb up in flames. Again, it allows for the great juxtaposition of action and comedy as Indy and Elsa, covered in petrol, pop out of a manhole in the middle of an urbane, sophisticated Venezian cafe. Which of course kickstarts the excellent Venice speedboat chase sequence, where again Spielberg gets to tap his inner Bond fan. Glamorous location, beautiful sidekick, machine guns, fights - it’s a classic Bond action sequence through and through.

Kazim, the representative of the Brotherhood (played with unexpected received pronunciation by Kevork Malikyan), positions them as protectors of the Grail, keeping its secrets from those who would hunt it. They are in some respects a cliched concept—the secret society of Middle Eastern descent—but they are a very un-intrusive part of Last Crusade. They pop up here and then essentially vanish until the tank chase sequence later. Kazim’s purpose seems to be primarily to draw out Indy’s motivations across the film. “Ask yourself, why do you seek the Cup of Christ? Is it for His glory, or for yours?” he asks, at which point Indy assures him his main motivation is to find his father.

The fact Kazim then tells him where to find Henry positions him as a gatekeeper of sorts. This is Indy’s first trial, in many respects. He must answer virtuously in order to be given this ‘sacred’ information, Henry’s whereabouts. He is not acting in his own interests or with designs on using the Grail for himself. Indy’s motivations as he draws back toward his father will prove key to especially the denouement of Last Crusade and several of the choices he, and Henry, make along the way.

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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Pt 8 - The Canyon of the Crescent Moon

Pt 9 - That’s the Cup of a Carpenter

Pt 10 - Into the Sunset

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