Scene of the Week: Remembering Sean Connery

This weekend started on a down note when the news broke that Sean Connery had passed away at the age of 90.

Connery will forever be associated with the role of James Bond. Connery was the first 007 in movie history and he portrayed the character in seven films, starting with 1962’s Dr. No and ending with 1983’s Never Say Never Again.

During his “Bond Years”, Connery starred in the bizarre 1974 film, Zardoz. Connery tackled the role of Robin Hood in 1976’s Robin and Marian and also starred in the 1977 war epic A Bridge Too Far and 1978’s The Great Train Robbery.

When his days as James Bond were behind him, Connery continued to lend his gravitas and experience to a myriad of films in the action entertainment genre including Highlander, The Untouchables, The Presidio, The Hunt for Red October and The Rock.

But for me personally my favorite Sean Connery role was from 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Connery played Professor Henry Jones, the father of our hero Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford). In the past, I have described Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as near perfect and scenes like the one I am about to share back up that claim.

This week’s Scene of the Week captures the chemistry between Connery and Ford that really made the father/son dynamic in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade work. At times in the film they were butting heads and seemed like they couldn’t be more different. Then there were times that you realized that Indiana was a chip off the old block. In this scene in particular you clearly see that Indy got his resourcefulness from his dad. The look of pride on Indy’s face as the scene ends is magic, as is Sean Connery’s delivery of his line, “I suddenly I remembered my Charlemagne…”