"And I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne..."

[tree_and_leaf]

Last night I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in German, which is a curious experience. The dubbing is fairly well done, but there are a few changes of emphasis - the most obvious being the scene where Indy and his dad have been captured in the Austrian castle, Ilsa kisses him, with the words 'That's how we say goodbye in Austria', and the SS bloke says 'And this is how we say goodbye in Germany', and hits him. In the German, he says something like 'This is how the SS says goodbye.'

It's such a splendid film, though - and the rather free way it handles mediaeval history and literature (not to mention geography!) is not inappropriate, given the myriad sources from which the various versions of the Grail legend coalesced. (Although I admit I am biased in favour of a film in which mediaevalism is represented by Sean Connery!) Theologically, it's a lot better than one might expect.

Am going to see the new film on Wednesday night; have very low expectations, but after two hours of an academic planning meeting, I'm sure it can't fail to be an improvement on that

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Both great moments! I also really like the conversation between Indy and his father after Ilsa has been killed (Ilsa and Donovan are both destroyed because in their different ways they fail to see that the important point about the Grail is not the object itself but what it points to); and I find the scene where Indy heals his father (and Marcus crosses himself) very moving, too.