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It’s Matt Wrather’s first Father’s Day, which means it’s finally time to tackle Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the podcast. We’ve talked about Raiders and Dial of Destiny, and have written copious amounts of material criticizing Crystal Skull, but have yet to fully excavated this 90’s adventure classic until now, with all three of your regular panelists (Matt, Pete, and Mark) firmly ensconced in fatherhood, wearing funny hats and bashing their children over the head with fake Ming vases.

Befitting the occasion, we spend a lot of time on the father-son dynamic in this movie, specifically how the three trials are a metaphor for fatherhood. We explore other symbols in this movie: the Holy Grail, aka the Holy Grail of Holy Grails; the crusading knight jousting on horseback and motorcycles; and things that are both illuminated and provide illumination. We also deal with the over-the-top humor and action of the movie and grapple with whether or not they constitute actual plot holes. For example: how is a medieval French knight able to speak English? Hmmmmm?

We also manage to work the recent video game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, into the conversation, particularly with how well it captures the essential features of a great Indiana Story. Hint: “greaser son” is not one of them.

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Episode 883: In Latin, Cocomelon Starts with an I originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]