VS I like to do a lot of screencaps for reviews, but neither of these discs would load up on my VLC player, so, y'all are just gonna have to use your 'maginations. I'm pretty sure most of you would've seen Last Crusade already anyway.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade1989. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Jeffrey Boam. Story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes.
There's no denying that Last Crusade is a fun movie. From beginning to end, it says to the audience,
Hey. We're friends. All these people, we're all friends having a romp. You're going to have a good time here. There are a lot of self-references, encouraging the audience to delight in their relationship to the franchise.
When I think about Last Crusade, I think about the end sequence, and that remains the most interesting part of this movie. Somewhere in the middle, around a Nazi tank camel chase situation, I was, like, this whole movie is one long chase scene. It's like my dreams. (I have a lot of chase dreams.)
It felt familiar, but it was designed to feel familiar, you know?
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The Loveless1982. Written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery.
What a strange little art film.
The Loveless, set in 1959 south Georgia, focuses on Vance (Willem Dafoe) and his group of ex-con motorcyclists. They roll into town and spend time fixing a bike. 82 minutes, and it's a slow burn. You can feel the tension of the Georgia heat. Every character pauses an uncomfortable amount of time between words, every interaction is laden with sexual desire and violence. There's a lot of time where the camera just sits as people move about their small activities in the corner of the shot. At the same time, the film is dynamic, and it's going someplace.
When I finished watching this, I immediately started the audio commentary because I just wanted to understand why this thing existed. I was not surprised to discover that Monty Montgomery went on to work as a producer with David Lynch. There's a recognizable Lynch flavor here.
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Verdict: While I am confident that 95% of the people who watch these two films would prefer to see Last Crusade again, I felt a lot more stimulated by
The Loveless. It's a curious piece, and it's full of people trying things, as opposed to people trying to sell movie tickets.