An Indiana Myth

So, Sheila Benson can’t understand why Indy dallies with a Nazi ice priestess in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (May 28, “Losing Sight of the Reasons for Success”). Writer/executive producer George Lucas’ literary allusion here was about as subtle as a poke in the eye.

The latest in the “Indiana Jones” series is an updating of the centuries-old legend of Parsifal.

Sean Connery plays the analogue to Parsifal’s father-figure Amfortas, whose wound in the side can be healed only by the Holy Grail.

John Rhys-Davies represents Klingsor, lord of a Teutonic castle of doom and chief rival for the Grail.

And Allison Doody, of course, is Kundry, that infinitely complicated character who remains in flux between the forces of light and darkness and who works her seductive wiles on both Amfortas and Parsifal in turn.

No doubt the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell inspired Lucas’ attempt to play out this ancient drama in 1930s dress.

Benson should look up the recording of Campbell’s retelling of Von Eschenbach’s “Parzival.” It’s more exciting than the Jones version.

MARTIN CANNON

Canoga Park

Benson’s article refers to Campbell and, indirectly, to the Parsifal myth in the sentence: “For a film that is supposed to have grown from Lucas’ fascination with myth and legend as taught by Joseph Campbell, this embracing of one of the central myths on which Hitler built his theory of the master race ... is a little peculiar.”