Final Adventures

Embattled and beleaguered, Robert Watts, producer in peril, 
leads a "Last Crusade."

By Marc Shapiro
Starlog Magazine #143 June 1989

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is producer Robert Watts' sixth 
Lucas film. His initial reaction to it was the same as the previous five. 

"There has not been one of them where I haven't looked at the 
script and wondered, 'How in the hell are we going to do this?' 
But, like the previous five, we've gone ahead and just done it." 

Watts, the kindly British producer of Indiana Jones and the Last 
Crusade, is describing the Lucas work ethic in a Spartan office 
of the Amblin Entertainment complex, where a traffic jam and a 
blockade of appointments has him running late. 

Watts indicates that the expected secrecy wrapped around this 
film, premiering May 24, prevents him from describing specific 
scenes. But what Watts, whose credits also include the first 
two Indiana Jones movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Who Framed 
Roger Rabbit, is at liberty to talk about is the complexity of 
The Last Crusade. 

"Logistically, The Last Crusade is a very complex and busy movie,"
notes the producer. "There's much more hardware in this movie than
in Raiders and Temple of Doom combined. Camels, bicycles, planes, 
boats, ships, horses; you'll find any form of transportation 
available in 1938 here. 

"Shooting on location was a major challenge," he adds. "Every place 
we went was pretty far flung. We started shooting in Spain, then went 
to England, Italy, Jordan and Germany. We ended up in the United States
shooting in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, California and Texas." 

Watts (who previously discussed his career and the Indy movies in 
STARLOG #94) recalls little that was different about assembling the 
elements for this third epic. "What was nice about doing this particular 
film was that, because it was all the same people, we were able to avoid 
the feeling-out process that was necessary on Raiders. 
The first day on the set was like one big family getting back together ." 

However, this family went to work with the knowledge that The Last Crusade
may very well be their final reunion. 

"Everybody involved was well aware that there may not be another Indiana 
Jones movie. But I don't think that so much created a different mindset 
as it inspired us to think that, if this were to be the last one, let's 
make this a great one to go out on." 

Men of Action 

Watts acknowledges River Phoenix's presence as young Indiana Jones 
in a flashback sequence, but while not forth- coming with details 
of the Last Crusade storyline, he's willing to answer the question 
of whether Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade will tie up any loose
ends. 

"In a sense, each of the Indiana Jones movies has tied itself up,"
responds Watts. "Strictly speaking, the movies have never been 
sequels but rather individual stories with a returning 
central character. The third film won't end with Indiana Jones 
settling down in the suburbs with a wife and kids. You won't be 
left with the impression that he's getting out of the adventure 
business forever." 

What Watts believes the audience will get out of The Last Crusade
is a deeper understanding of Indiana Jones than they found in the
two previous adventures. 

"With the River-Phoenix-as-young-lndy scene and the introduction 
of Sean Connery as Indy's father, we're dealing with personal 
relationships more in this film than we ever done before," enthuses
Watts. "In that previous films, Indiana Jones has emerged 
as a very interesting character with a lot of potential. He's 
not a hitman and he's not a superhero. He's this strange mixture 
of academic and man of action. 

"What we've done with The Last Crusade is to expand on the 
character's potential by including dialogue and discussion 
surrounding Indy's past relationship with his father. 
That will have its comedic moments but, on another level, 
audiences will find it quite poignant as well." 

Watts found that this expansion of Indy's non-action persona 
was ultimately reflected in what he perceives as growth on the 
part 0f the filmmakers.
 
"There was definitely a change in the approach to directing 
this film," assesses that producer. "There's no finer director 
of action than Steven Spielberg, but I saw an increasing amount 
of care and time being taken on the dialogue scenes. Suddenly, 
it was on everybody's mind that having a strong personal relationship 
for the first time was very important and that great care should 
be taken to make that element of the picture work. The fact that 
so much time was given over to character development indicated to 
me a definite maturity by the filmmakers." 

With that screen relationship in mind, Watts points to the pairing 
of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery as something that must be seen 
to be believed. 

"Both Harrison and Sean have these extremely large screen personas," 
says Watts, "and there was a bit of concern about how the chemistry 
would work in putting them together. Fortunately, they seemed to 
click as actors and as characters from the very beginning. There 
was nothing competitive in any of it and what resulted was great
performances from both." 

As far as the action side of things is concerned, Watts hints at 
a desert sequence involving tanks and horses as typical of "the 
very outlandish pieces of action in this film." 

"Harrison, as in the previous films, did a certain amount of 
his own stunts. He was extremely active in this film and was 
willing to do more than we could quite honestly allow him to 
do. He was willing to take greater risks with his own physical 
well being than we were willing to let him take. Harrison handled 
this film quite well and had a good attitude throughout the filming." 

Rabbits of Animation

 Who Framed Roger Rabbit was Watts' previous box office triumph. 
He co- produced the film (STARLOG #132) for Amblin and Disney, 
and murmurs of a Roger Rabbit II began almost as soon as the 
Toontown superstar debuted. 

"Something is being developed at Disney at the moment," 
reports Watts. ScreenwriterNat Mauldin has, at presstime, 
inked a pact with Disney to write the script. "I'm pretty sure 
there's going to be a sequel. It's going to take a while. 
The last one took three years to make, but with what we learned 
about makingthis kind of movie, a sequel could conceivably be 
out by 1991. 

"From a filmmaking point-of-view, we were learning as we went 
along on the first Roger Rabbit. We've learned some short cuts, 
especially on the technological side, that would ultimately make 
a Roger Rabbit II quite different than the first one." 

Roger Rabbit recently ran afoul of the Academy Awards. Although 
it garnered the expected technological nominations, Watts feels 
the lack of recognition for the film in other categories is a 
particular slight. 

"I'm very disappointed that Bob Zemeckis was not nominated as 
best director. People just don't realize how much of a director's 
picture Roger Rabbit actually was. It took an intense, no-holds-
barred, long-term commitment from Zemeckis to make this movie 
work and I don't think what he meant to the success of the movie
was appreciated by the Academy. I'm also not very happy that Bob 
Hoskins wasn't nominated for best actor. Playing as he did primarily
to thin air was an intensely difficult task and it should have been 
taken into consideration. Unfortunately, in both cases, you don't 
have the right of appeal." 

While Roger Rabbit II creeps into existence, The Last Crusade is 
racing into theaters, and Watts argues the notion that much of the 
Indiana Jones series' spontaneity may be wearing off this time out. 

"I don't think that's the case," he counters. "We haven't become 
complacent in our filmmaking attitude and, while the technical 
side of filmmaking has progressed, I don't think these films have
become overly polished. 

"We've all obviously learned quite a bit between 1980 and now about 
how these films come together and I believe, on The Last Crusade,
it shows in many ways. We're all tuned in more naturally to what
Industrial Light & Magic can achieve and so we were able to do 
this movie without always having to take the time out to talk to
some expert about how to do something. "We had already confronted
the big deal of effects and stunts on Raiders and Temple
of Doom, and so, the prospect of bigger and more stunts and 
action sequences wasn't quite so terrifying," says Watts. 

The sequel's box office prospects aren't terrifying,
either. Indy III is already being touted as one of the 
"can't misses" of the summer. Watts scratches his head for a 
moment before attempting to toss out a theory whyfilms so steeped
in the cliffhanger serials of the '3Os are such a strong hook in the
'8Os. 

"The phenomena is odd in a way because these films do so harken
back to the old serial days. I think part of the reason is the
mixing of modern filmmaking techniques with this old-fashioned
kind of storyline. Indiana Jones' vulnerability has a lot to do
with it. It's easy to be attracted to a character who you honestly
believe can lose the struggle at any moment. 

"But the bottom line on the Indiana Jones movies is pretty much 
the same with any film. If you have a good character, a good story
and a good script, the chances are good that you're going to have
a successful movie on your hands." 


And a successful movie that Watts claims, will bring a heretofore
underappreciated element of the series to the front. 

"The reality is that the Indiana Jones films are still escapist
entertainment, but there's no reason why they can't be a first-
class filmmaking experience as well as escapist entertainment. 
People are going to get beyond the narrow escapes and the bullwhips.
They're going to get a full-blown sense of the character. And if 
audiences come away from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with
a deeper understanding of the character, then a new facet of these
films will have been introduced and new points will have been made." 

Robert Watts looks nervously at his watch. Time has been fleeting. 
The question is to the producer to sum up his Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade experience. 

"From that first day on the set, when we jumped right into the
relationship between Indiana and his father, it was like the entire
cast and crew were running in the middle of a whirlwind; running
hard and fast through the filmmaking process. After weeks and 
months of that running, we stopped one day and turned around...

"And discovered we were finished and had made a movie."