Dad's in Media: Indiana Jones

My friend Ryan is hosting a Strange Culture: Dads in Media Blog-a-thon at his site Strange Culture. It's a quality site updated at least every other day. I recommend you read it some time. Since father's day is this Sunday, and I won't be seeing my dad on Sunday. I thought I would participate.

My favorite Indiana Jones film is The Last Crusade (heaven forbid they use that word today). The relationship between Henry Jones (Harrison Ford) and Henry Jones Jr. (Sean Connery) makes the movie work on so many levels for me. It gives more depth to the Indiana Jones character than the archaeologist/treasure hunter in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom.

The movie is more about the father-son relationship than a cup and "knights who say ney"

• Jones receives his father's grail diary in the mail




• In the first part of the movie, we see Indy's father working on a book and it's more important than his son who just stole the cross of Coronado from some grave robbers
• It's his father's lifelong work
• He just learned his father went missing while looking for a holy grail clue in Venice
• Jones went through a catacomb of rats to get the other half of the shield his father needed. That's just love right there. I don't think I could have done that for my dad. It's the scene where the rats are eating the German broad's hair while the tunnel is on fire that keeps me from stepping foot in that catacomb.
• When father and son are reunited they argue about every little thing, even escape. Which eventually gets them caught.
• Jones Sr. constantly calls him Junior in a condescending manner. At one point he even says that "Indiana was the name of the dog."
• The end of the film is Indiana using the grail diary to get to the grail because his father was shot. The only way he can save him is to finish the quest.
• His father frustrates him and confuses him, but Jones doesn't want to lose him. This is why he's willing to jump through razor sharp blades and spell God in Sanskrit instead of plunging to his death, and take a walk of faith on an invisible bridge.
• When the grail crosses the seal, the earth opens up and the German broad dies reaching for it. Jones tries to reach for it, as his father tries to save him. Jones Jr. thinks this is his father's life work. He wants to do everything he can so his father's life won't be wasted.
• The climax of the father-son storyline is when Jones Sr. holding on to Jr. by the tips of his fingers above a bottomless chasm while Jr. strains to reach the grail says, "Indiana....let it go" in a real cool Sean Connery way. You see that Sr. is proud of his son and that this is the first time Jr. ever heard it from his father.

I'm glad I didn't have to wait until my father was holding on to my by his fingertips above a bottomless pit before I knew he was proud of me. I've always tried to be a man he can be proud to say "that's my son." I'm proud to have him as my dad.