Critics reviews

What comes through most strongly in The Last Crusade—and what makes it, finally, the sweetest of the films—is its embedded sense of reassurance, visualized by Spielberg as a literal ride into the sunset. I’ve always felt that this final shot was also the end of analogue action movies as we know them.

Where Lucas and Spielberg get into trouble is in the gap between content and execution—between the pulpy material ... and the extreme sophistication of the storytelling. Spielberg's skill at humanizing his characters just enough to draw one in, primarily through the universal nexus of family and childhood, creates a felt reality in which the two-dimensional characters seem out of place.

Last Crusade, for all its layered New Testament sorcery, feels most of all as if it's simply about Ford and Connery starring in a film together.

I can understand why the creators of this movie didn't want to spoil our fun by reminding us of what drove us into the theater in the first place. The fact that they can transport us with fantasy while making full use of the iconic residue left by Jesus, Hitler and the Nazis, and a few other "entertainment" standbys from the real world is what I find so creepy.