Saw Indy Jones 4 today...it ain't no Iron Man!

Good gawd, the SPR debate makes me insane. It is pretty much impossible to say you dislike that mawkish crap at the end without someone freaking out. Can't some of us dislike the end of that pandering movie without it offending y'all and your grandfathers personally?

 

There are paid reviewers saying that the new Jones is better than Last Crusade.

They are nuts.

 

It's my father, and no, you can't.
It's not pandering.
You can't be any more cynical than to say SPR is "pandering."
It's not a perfect movie, but it's an excellent one. And if you have any sense of what this country went through in WWII, you understand what the end of that movie was meant to convey.

 

My grandfather fought in WWII, and I still say that SPR's bookends nearly ruin what would otherwise have been a very good movie. I use them as an example when I'm talking about writers who go one sentence or paragraph too far.

For a better ending, the sort of ending that trusts us to understand what's happened without needing to beat us over the head with it, see A History of Violence.

 

There are at least a half-dozen "excellent" movies about WWII. This is one of them, but by no means is it the be-all, end-all. Personally, I think "The Deer Hunter" was much better in portraying the effects of a particular war than "Saving Private Ryan," which was as romanticized in its own way as some of John Wayne's old war flicks were 40 years ago.

 

I had two grandfathers fight in WWII. Despite what you seem to suggest, the movie is not a personal test of my patriotism. I have every big of sense of what this country went through, and the ending still blows. Sorry that personally offends you. Unfortunately for you, it doesn't mean you're right. Doesn't mean I'm right either. But I don't have to like the ending of a movie -- a movie! -- just because of your father's service. Sorry, but that's a stupid argument.

 

Oh, lighten up.
I wasn't being literal.
My point is that the ending is an absolutely stunning metaphor for whether all of America has lived up to the sacrifices the WWII generation made. It is not one paragraph too far. It is the paragraph that made the whole movie work.

 

We'll just have to agree to disagree there.

In other news, I still heart Karen Allen.

 

Well, c'mon.

Someone must have seen it, last night.

 

Flop, flopity, flop, flop.

 

Oh, it's not one of the 500 greatest movies of all time . .. no doubt about that.