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Remembering “Indiana Jones
and The Last Crusade”
A 20th Anniversary Tribute |
Read more at
in70mm.com
The 70mm Newsletter
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| Compiled by: Michael Coate, Hollywood, USA |
Date:
19.07.2010 |
 Twenty years ago, Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm Ltd. gave us “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, then considered the final installment in the globe-trotting adventures of our favorite cinematic archaeologist. The rousing experience turned out to be the year’s second most popular movie (second only to “Batman”), grossing just under $200 million in North America and another $300 million internationally.
The summer of 1989 was a memorable one, in particular for fans of the 70mm presentation format. The studios that season circulated over 500 large-format prints of eight productions. In addition to “Indiana Jones”, 70mm releases during summer ’89 included
“The Abyss”, “Batman”, “Casualties of War”, “Dead Poets
Society”, “Lethal Weapon 2”, “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” and a re-release of the classic “Lawrence of Arabia”.
So, without further ado, enjoy this quick-reference anniversary tribute to “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.
CAST:
Indiana Jones – Harrison Ford
Professor Henry Jones – Sean Connery
Elsa Schneider – Alison Doody
Marcus Brody – Denholm Elliott
Sallah – John Rhys-Davies
Walter Donovan – Julian Glover
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
SCREENPLAY: Jeffrey Boam (Screenplay), George Lucas & Menno Meyjes (Story)
RELEASE DATE: Wednesday, 24 May 1989
PROMOTIONAL SLOGAN: “Have The Adventure Of Your Life Keeping Up With The Joneses.”
PRODUCTION BUDGET: $48 million
OPENING-WEEK BOOKINGS: 2,327
OPENING-DAY BOXOFFICE GROSS: $5.6 million
OPENING-WEEKEND BOXOFFICE GROSS: $37 million
OPENING-WEEK BOXOFFICE GROSS: $46.9 million
CUMULATIVE DOMESTIC BOXOFFICE GROSS: $197.2 million
RANK ON TOP-GROSSING FILMS OF 1989: 2
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More in 70mm reading:
“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”:
The North American 70mm Engagements
Remembering “Indiana Jones And The Temple Of
Doom”
Remembering “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
in70mm.com's page about films blown up to 70mm
35mm to 70mm Engagements by Year
35mm to 70mm Engagements by Title
Presented on the big screen in 7OMM
The Alleged 70mm
Releases
70mm Blow Ups
Which Never Were
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Memorable
Dialogue |
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 “Nazis. I hate these guys.” — Indy
“We named the dog Indiana.” — Henry Jones
“Germany has declared war on the Jones boys.” — Walter Donovan
“You call this archaeology?!” — Henry Jones
“Oh, rats!” — Indy
“He chose…poorly” — Grail Knight
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What the Critics Said |
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 “If this new ‘Indiana Jones’ movie makes a large number of millions at the yahoo box offices, well, then you’ve been had. Every magazine and TV station in the world has been trumpeting stories about this latest epic, which is no more than a well photographed and not very tightly edited series of fights. Fights on top of tanks, railroads, cliffs, power boats, usually involving Indiana Jones versus a lot of not so funny Nazis. Show me a funny Nazi and I’ll give you five bucks! Depressing and expensive trash hyped to the max.” — Gary Franklin, KABC-TV, Los Angeles
“Did anyone seriously doubt that this would be anything but one of the absolute highlights of the summer?” — Bob Curtwright, The Wichita Eagle-Beacon
“The duet between father and son, and between two actors who always seem to have mischief in their eyes, is the brilliant twist on which the film will live or die. The very idea of Mr. Connery as Indiana’s father seems too delicious to be true.” — Caryn James, The New York Times
“‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ is the kind of movie that gives pure no-apologies entertainment a good name. It’s a beautiful machine, thought out and revved up to the last detail, with no other purpose but to delight—and it delights.” — Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
“This deliberately old-fashioned Saturday matinee yarn has everything money can buy, but never really generates a sense of wonder and excitement. A definite improvement over the second ‘Indiana Jones’ outing, but it still bears the mark of one too many trips to the well.” — Leonard Maltin, “Entertainment Tonight”
“Loud, brutal and infantile, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ is a declaration of artistic and even moral imbecility. It is all plot without story, all action without life.” — David Elliott, The San Diego Union
“Although this production is exceedingly well made, save for a rousing ending, I wanted more. More humanity…more wit…more laughs. I wanted more of a film like the original ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’.” — Gene Siskel, “Siskel & Ebert & The Movies”
“Of all the directors working in the movies today, Steven Spielberg has the truest instincts for keeping an audience visually engaged, plugged in. This is his great gift—to put us inside his movies—and at his best, his natural command of the simple mechanics of storytelling, of editing and camera movements and pacing, enables him to evoke a kind of pop transcendence that comes close to the effect of the higher, classical arts. The greatest of his films are pure, pop epiphanies, exhilarating, innocent and uniquely, indelibly his own. Somehow, though, they are your own, too, and the great disappointment of ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,’ the largely irrelevant third and (supposedly) final installment in the hair-raising adventures of the super archeologist, is that it seems to be neither yours nor his.” — Hal Hinson, The Washington Post
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Awards |
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Sound Effects Editing (Oscar)
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Release dates (day.month.year) |
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 • Go to
“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”: The North American 70mm
Engagements
24.05.1989 … Canada
24.05.1989 … United States
08.06.1989 … Australia
08.06.1989 … New Zealand
22.06.1989 … Argentina
29.06.1989 … Hong Kong
30.06.1989 … United Kingdom
05.07.1989 … Colombia
05.07.1989 … Mexico
08.07.1989 … Japan
22.07.1989 … South Korea
01.09.1989 … Spain
14.09.1989 … Norway
14.09.1989 … West Germany
15.09.1989 … Denmark
15.09.1989 … Finland
15.09.1989 … Sweden
29.09.1989 … Netherlands
30.09.1989 … Philippines
06.10.1989 … Italy
18.10.1989 … France
HOME VIDEO RELEASE: February 1990
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Trivia, Tidbits & Factoids |
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Doctor Fantasy’s Magic Caboose, featured in the prologue, is an inside joke/reference to producer Frank Marshall.
During the week of the film’s release, the leather jacket and fedora worn by Harrison Ford were donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Indiana Jones’ full name was revealed during this film: Henry Walton Jones, Jr. Walton, by the way, is George Lucas’ middle name. George is also a junior.
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Sources/References |
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Numerous newspaper articles, reviews and advertisements; and Boxofficemojo; The Hollywood Reporter, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989, Lucasfilm Ltd./Paramount Pictures); Internet Movie Database; Time Magazine; Variety.
Thanks: Miguel Carrara, Nick DiMaggio, Bill Kretzel, Jim Perry, Tim Schafbuch, and the many librarians who contributed to this project.
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Updated
28-07-24 |
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