The Last Crusade

What does the title “The Last Crusade” suggest about the film as a whole?

I think that this very determinate title suggests the culmination of an archaeologist’s quest as well as the importance of this quest as a finale. A title such as “Quest for the Grail” would not separate the quest from any other adventure. The idea that this is the “last” of something, an ending, points to the idea that the adventure will culminate in a finale, indubitable conclusion. Additionally, the term “crusade” hints at more of the content of the movie than if the grail alone lent its name to the title. The audience gets a sense of the religious tone of the film as well as the connections to medieval and Nazi crusades. Rather than focusing around the grail itself, the title of the film suggests a more important theme (at the end of the film the grail was dropped, so the actual possession of the grail turned out not to be the resolving point of the film).

How Indiana achieves the grail/the father’s injury and salvation:

In order to achieve the grail, Indiana must basically put all his faith in God (i.e. he must ignore his doubts and literally take a leap of faith in order to get to the grail). As to how this connects to the father’s rescue from death, I think that the undertone is something along the lines of the idea that only those who submit themselves completely to Gog will achieve salvation.

Choosing the right grail:

The choosing of the grail scene is definitely a reference to the many glorified ‘grail quests’ that people go after (i.e. a quest for youth), while the most important, original quest is overlooked by everyone except those people who are truly worthy/who understand the meaning of the real quest. The fact that the Nazi’s chose the wrong grail shows that they were not concerned with religious humility, but rather with glorification. They could have never chosen the right grail, because they were not on a quest for the right grail (the one that would have saved them).