Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade


There is more to mythology than the face value 7

As the title of the film suggests this concentrates more on the Christian post-Crusades aspect of the Grail legend. The Fisher King was set in the modern day, this as in other Indiana Jones films is set in the 1930's at the time of the rise of Nazism in Germany. This use of the Nazi movement as symbol of ultimate evil questing after Biblical artefacts to gain superiority, be it the Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, is a reoccurring motif, interesting when one considers Speilberg's Jewish roots, a subject he addressed in more serious ways in Schindler's List. Here the Nazi's are portrayed as power seeking maniacs, somewhat incompetent, being aided by a collector of antiquities, one that Jones has had experience of before on a number of occasions, who wishes to find the Grail, not for the power, but for the immortality. As he explains to Jones, Hitler and his armies will be as extinct as the dodo while he still toasts his own health. The Nazi war machine has kidnapped Jones' Father, played for comic effect by a buffooning though elegant Sean Connery. Connery's character is an expert on Grail legend and was employed by the collector to help track down the Grail, he is a traitor who is responsible for the kidnap of Jones' father and also dupes Jones into working for him on the premise of saving his father. Thus we have an enjoyable adventure, filled with romance with a double-crossing female Nazi, comedy in the form of Connery and Denham Elliot and Jones's fights with the might of the Third Reich.

So what has this to do with our quest for the Holy Grail in film. There are the gifts that the Grail can bestow: Invincability and immortality, which takes us right back to the pre-Christian Celtic Cauldrons of plenty. This film also includes the, historically speaking unsubstanciated, story of the Grail's journey after the death of Christ. The mythology here is mixed and vague. Some tales relate that the cup was brought to Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathea, other tales tell of its journey through Knights' Templar into the Cathar religion and there the path and the Grail disappear. Both the Knights' Templar and the Cathars practiced an unorthodox Christianity, much informed by Eastern ideas and Gnostic teachings. Whether it was the physical Grail they had in their keeping or the teaching of the Grail is impossible to tell, both sects were burned as heretics to the true faith, so someone thought they were dangerous. In the film it is a physical cup which is sought, a drink from which will confer everlasting life...to the worthy. We have the story of the Grail Guardians, here three brother Knights who have drunk of the waters and guard the Grail. When we, finally, reach the Grail Castle, carved deep inside rock we meet the last of these ancient knights. He is old and weak and guards a long table, remeniscent of the table in paintings of the Last Supper, this table is crowded with numerous cups and goblets of varying richness. The female Nazi has changed sides, shocked at the shooting of Jones's father and leads the collector to the richest golden, bejewelled goblet. The knight has advised to choose wisely and, of course, the collector has been misled, wrapped up in his greed and lust for immortality, the cup presents him with just the opposite and he ages and rots to dust. We are looking here for the cup of Christ and Jones realises that a humble Jesus would have a humble wooden cup. He chooses wisely and saves his father, having drunk a draught himself to check he has the right one; it would appear that the gift of immortality cannot be taken past the seal carved on the floor of the cavern, so Speilberg does not have to face the prospect of an immortal hero. Nor should the Grail be removed beyond this point. The spy then succumbs to greed, disobeying the Grail knights warning and attempts to take the cup. This has the effect of creating the destruction of the carved cave and her death. It is interesting that then Jones risks his life to try to grab the Grail. Is he doing this for his father, who has spent a lifetime in pursuit of this treasure, or has he too, momentarily, come under the strength of the Grail to test our true intentions. He leaves it on his father's prompting. Jones Senior has learnt the lesson; the Grail has taught him what is really important in life.

We have spent less time looking at this film, mainly because it has less of the underlying Grail message. We should mention the group dedicated to keeping the Grail's whereabouts a secret. They are like the family of the Grail in whose keeping the Grail is said to be. Also one of the most interesting aspects is a very minor scene. The Grail knight offers Jones his sword, a symbolic act in the story of the Grail itself, as we have already discussed. In this case, however, had Jones taken the sword the knight would have died passing the guardianship onto Jones, who would then have had to remain there until he was defeated in combat by the next seeker. we again have the Grail seeker becomes Grail winner becomes Grail guardian motif. This idea of passing guardianship over on being defeated in combat is a very strong and reoccurring aspect of Grail and Arthurian mythology.

So as the quotation at the beginning of this chapter informs us; do not take mythology on face value, there are much deeper veins of self-knowledge concealed within these tales, indeed, they represent a Western hemisphere philosophical teaching tradition extending beyond Christianity into ancient Nature Religions.

We must finally answer the question: How well is the Grail represented in cinematic terms, with particular reference to these two films.

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