Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (US, 1989) shows the development of the father/son relationship and the mutual respect they gain for one another. The film directs itself on Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) who has been informed of his father, Henry's (Sean Connery) kidnapping and has been assigned to retrieve him and The Holy Grail. Often throughout the film, you feel an uneasy tension between Indiana and his father. Their bond doesn't seem to be very strong, but by both having the obsession with finding and saving The Holy Grail form the Nazis, they develop an understanding of each other. When Indiana was a child he didn't communicate much with his father. His father was always obsessed with his diary and the discovery of The Holy Grail. Indiana quotes "This is an obsession, Dad. I've never understood it. Never. Neither did Mom." Henry responded by saying "Oh yes she did. Only too well. Unfortunately, she kept her illness from me. All I could do was mourn her." Taking this into consideration, this obsession with The Holy Grail affected Indiana's family life. Indiana grew up not understanding the importance and the reason of why his father was overly obsessed and mesmerized by this artifact. But going on this adventure with his father had them brought together. After Indiana plunging to his supposed death off the cliff, Henry says "There was so much that I had to tell him." Henry saying this thinking that Indiana was already dead, but in fact had not died. Taking this into consideration, Indiana and Henry reunite showing that this substantiates their bond. This shows how much they need one another and how much there was "unsaid" about each other to one another. Henry fighting death, Indiana has to face his fears, tumbling through darkness, risking his own life for his father. It wasn't about the Holy Grail anymore that he wanted to retrieve. All Indiana cared about was getting The Holy Grail to his father to save him.
