Wlos: Last Crusade

In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones’s father was introduced into the storyline, which gave the audience “. . .the opportunity to learn something more about the character.  The device of introducing his father played by Sean Connery was a stroke of genius,” (Pfeiffer & Lewis 175).  When Jones’s father is added to the mix, the audience receives a new look into Indiana’s persona because it gets a chance to see one of Jones’s role models and comprehend on how the role model has shaped his character over the years by identifying patterns in Indiana’s present relationship with his role model and inferring the trajectory of their influence on each other over the course of Indiana’s life.  When it is noted that the movie’s content provides its viewers with this medium of observation, it is no wonder that atonement with the father is one of its main themes.

            “Atonement with the father,” is a phrase that refers to a father and a son achieving peace, or reconciliation with each other.  When the film opens up with Indiana’s father ignoring him in the very first scene (when Indiana comes back home and his father repeatedly states “Not now, Jr.”), previous animosity between the two becomes flagrantly apparent.  Therefore, when Indiana and his father are reunited later in the film, the search for atonement is an automatic outcome.  Essentially, the audience predicts the fact that Indiana and his father need to make peace with each other because that is what the only given facts of their previous relationship suggests.  Quite basically, by introducing such facts and following up with what they suggest, screenwriter Jeffrey Boam allowed his audience to make an accurate prediction, which is a great way to make them enjoy themselves by feeling smart.

            How was atonement with the father seen after the facts of Jones’ previous father-son relationship became apparent?  It was suggested throughout the entire film, each man made a efforts that showed the probability of care for each other, but care is only something the audience can infer until Jones’s father is seen reacting to the belief that his son fell off a cliff and then states “I thought I lost you,” with utter relief upon the realization that his son was safe.  It is in this moment, that we see the men embrace and the atonement that has been beating around the bash comes into a full throttle effect.  The audience is no longer judging the probability that the men care for each other, it is now an undeniable fact.

            Why is it so important to note the manner in which screenwriter Jeffrey Boam developed the theme of atonement with the father?  By dissecting how the writer achieved such a theme we realize that it is a rather dependent variable. For a theme to develop properly, it is dependent on many things, it doesn’t just happen independently.  If no facts of Indiana’s previous poor relationship with his father are presented, no person will look begin to identify the theme of atonement.  They could be shown the same scenes, but they will identify some other sort of theme.  In the case of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the thematic message of atonement with the father is a direct result of the pattern developed by the writer.  

In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones’s father was introduced into the storyline, which gave the audience “. . .the opportunity to learn something more about the character.  The device of introducing his father played by Sean Connery was a stroke of genius,” (Pfeiffer & Lewis 175).  When Jones’s father is added to the mix, the audience receives a new look into Indiana’s persona because it gets a chance to see one of Jones’s role models and comprehend on how the role model has shaped his character over the years by identifying patterns in Indiana’s present relationship with his role model and inferring the trajectory of their influence on each other over the course of Indiana’s life.  When it is noted that the movie’s content provides its viewers with this medium of observation, it is no wonder that atonement with the father is one of its main themes.

            “Atonement with the father,” is a phrase that refers to a father and a son achieving peace, or reconciliation with each other.  When the film opens up with Indiana’s father ignoring him in the very first scene (when Indiana comes back home and his father repeatedly states “Not now, Jr.”), previous animosity between the two becomes flagrantly apparent.  Therefore, when Indiana and his father are reunited later in the film, the search for atonement is an automatic outcome.  Essentially, the audience predicts the fact that Indiana and his father need to make peace with each other because that is what the only given facts of their previous relationship suggests.  Quite basically, by introducing such facts and following up with what they suggest, screenwriter Jeffrey Boam allowed his audience to make an accurate prediction, which is a great way to make them enjoy themselves by feeling smart.

            How was atonement with the father seen after the facts of Jones’ previous father-son relationship became apparent?  It was suggested throughout the entire film, each man made a efforts that showed the probability of care for each other, but care is only something the audience can infer until Jones’s father is seen reacting to the belief that his son fell off a cliff and then states “I thought I lost you,” with utter relief upon the realization that his son was safe.  It is in this moment, that we see the men embrace and the atonement that has been beating around the bash comes into a full throttle effect.  The audience is no longer judging the probability that the men care for each other, it is now an undeniable fact.

            Why is it so important to note the manner in which screenwriter Jeffrey Boam developed the theme of atonement with the father?  By dissecting how the writer achieved such a theme we realize that it is a rather dependent variable. For a theme to develop properly, it is dependent on many things, it doesn’t just happen independently.  If no facts of Indiana’s previous poor relationship with his father are presented, no person will look begin to identify the theme of atonement.  They could be shown the same scenes, but they will identify some other sort of theme.  In the case of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the thematic message of atonement with the father is a direct result of the pattern developed by the writer. 

Andrew Wlos