TheMutt92 said:
Seeing at LC at the current moment has 0%, I began thinking more and more about it and realized, comparatively, LC is more like a piece of literature than comic book pulp.
I don't think I agree with you, but you do raise a good point in my mind about Last Crusade's inspirations compared to the other movies.
Last Crusade is often cited as the Indiana Jones movie that's the least inspired and has the weakest story, and I agree. (For the record, my ranking of the movies is in the order they were released, and I love Crusade.) I think the reason for this lies in its influences. All of the Indiana Jones movies are homages to 1930s Republic serials and pulp fiction in general, but beyond that each of the movies has its own more specific inspiration.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is very much modeled after Treasure of the Sierra Madre, most obviously in its opening scene. Indy has a lot of Bogart-like qualities in the movie (see: heavy drinking), and Spielberg employs an almost noirish use of shadow. The desert cinematography also arguably recalls David Lean.
Temple of Doom is a Gunga Din type movie.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 1950s B-movie.
But what about Last Crusade? What's
that movie's major inspiration? Well, it's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that's the problem. It isn't interested in setting itself apart so much as being a really good rehash of Raiders. It's unoriginal. I think the reason Last Crusade works as well as it does is largely to do with Spielberg's fondness for the material, as shown in the genuine emotional resonance that exists in moments between Indy and Henry Sr. Spielberg's always had a hard on for father-son movies (which is evidenced by the fact that
every single one of his movies has a father-son relationship). Last Crusade is the perfect example of why execution is even more important than story. Objectively speaking, Crystal Skull has a much better basic story than Crusade does, but it doesn't matter because of how inept the storytelling is. Spielberg's heart is in Last Crusade, and it shows, and it keeps the movie great despite the goofiness and retreading. I'm not sure how that accounts for the greatness of Temple of Doom, which Spielberg says his heart wasn't really in story-wise, but I still see a breathless energy in Doom that is utterly nonexistent in Crystal Skull. Maybe Spielberg didn't dig Temple's story, but it definitely feels like he was into the production in general.
Anyway, I know I derailed a bit, but I think the material itself and the director's feelings for it had a lot to do with why the feel of Last Crusade might be the least pulpy. That aspect is definitely still there in some form though, as the Ebert quote point out.