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You can appreciate
a gargantuan boulder chasing a lead character through a grotto a lot
more than you can 70 naboo fighters scattering across a galaxy more so
because it, the boulder, was made for real (fibre glass, I believe?).
Raiders of the Lost Ark was a colossal adventure, the likes of which we haven’t seen since.
Laughs,
romance, action, and primarily, a hard-to-hate hunky hero made of
charm, cheekiness and pluck. Harrison Ford (straight off Lucas’s Star Wars
series) is the 1930’s archaeologist and adventurer who globe-trots
around the world hunting down precious antiques. And for the most part,
Ford’s performance makes the movie. In this first film, Jones finds
himself in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of
the Ark of the Covenant to win the war. The film is fun from
start-to-end, an absolute joy…. And all these years later, Raiders still plays as good as ever.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, though good, was a lot darker in tone than the campy Raiders
– as a consequence, many turned their nose up at it (Spielberg even
mentions on the DVD’s making-of that its his least favourite, too). To
this day, Lucas and Spielberg wish they’d dialled the drama down a bit.
Set
10 years before the previous film, this one sees Indy (an even musclier
Harrison Ford – must’ve made friends with Sly Stallone?) attempting to
rescue stolen children from a pagan cult. There are still light moments
in the film, but the overall dark theme of the film overshadows most of
those fluffier bits.
Personally, I don’t have any reel beefs with Temple of Doom
– well, perhaps the ‘Monkey Brain’ scene, that’s a bit unnecessary, and
probably more suited to something found in Monty Python – I think it’s
got some great moments in it… the bridge scene, the dash down the
rapids, the opening nightclub scuffle…. The mine-car chase!
Having said that, unlike Raiders, it isn’t one I feel the need to return to on a regular basis.
The third, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
was a little more in tune with the style of the first movie. This time,
Indy’s now forced to get about with his Dad in tow - and who better to
play his dad but Sean Connery! Though in real life, Connery is
only 12 years older than Harrison Ford himself! Together, they go after
the much sought after ‘Holy Grail’ (of course bickering all the way.)
In some respects, The Last Crusade
might even be the best of the three films. Everything comes together.
It’s epic. It’s fun. It’s riddled with adventure, and unlike the
previous chapter, it’s for the whole family. It’s hard to find a flaw
in it.
Ok, but enough about the films we’ve all seen two dozen
times on television, fifty times on video and thrice
theatrically….how’s the DVD?
In a word: Excellent.
The
transfers are super. From the impressive menu design to the first
glimpse of that Paramount Logo, you can tell Lucas and Spielberg have
ordered the best treatment for the series on disc. All films are in
newly recorded 5.1 – the first two films were only ever available in
Mono – with over 970,000 of the frames cleaned up for the new print.
Thing is, most of you already own the DVD set, right?
Still, if you’re a Die-Hard Indiana Jones fan like myself, you’ll no doubt want to add this to your tower regardless.
EXTRAS
If that’s the case, you don’t really need to bother with this one – the extras are pretty much the same.
There’s
“The Making of the Trilogy”, the three part documentary covering every
aspect of the making of the three films, that was found on the ‘Special
Features’ disc of the original trilogy set. (A great doco by the way!
Behind the scenes footage, outtakes, bloopers, audition tapes (you even
get to see Tom Selleck and Tim Matheson doing screen tests as Indy!)
and more, running for near three hours.
It’s great that even folks who
had the smallest of roles in the films – like Alfred Molina, who made
his acting debut in Raiders of the Lost Ark – turn up to talk. You
don’t get to see any deleted scenes unfortunately, but this thing is
sweeter than any frivolous cut sequence.
There are also the four featurettes – running for about twelve minutes each – that cover sound, effects, stunts and music.
New
are – well, not much – some new featurettes, introductions to each film
by Lucas and Spielberg, and some interviews. Oh, and unlike the
original DVD set, the extras are tacked onto each film, rather than
separated onto a separate disc.
If this set had included a commentary track, it might have been worth the double-dip.
Conclusion:
Movie 95% Extras: 70%
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