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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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The
Adventures of Indiana Jones
The Complete
DVD Movie Collection
(Paramount Home Entertainment)
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| DVD
Release Date:
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October
21, 2003
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Length:
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5 hours 59 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG/PG/PG-13
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.35:1)
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Audio:
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English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, French Dolby Digital,
Spanish Dolby Digital
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| Subtitles:
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English, French, Spanish, Closed-Captioned
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| Extras:
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Feature
Length Documentary - Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy, The
Stunts of Indiana Jones, The Sound of Indiana Jones, The Music
of Indiana Jones, The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones, Original
Theatrical Trailers, Exclusive Access to the Indiana Jones DVD
Website
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At long last, the much anticipated and
long awaited Indiana Jones trilogy has arrived on DVD. Finally. The
four-disc box set, titled "The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The
Complete DVD Movie Collection", includes all three Indiana Jones
movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). The fourth disc is filled
with wonderful bonus material. Although we are forced to buy all three
Indiana Jones movies, owning the movies starring the single greatest
movie hero of all-time is a must for every single last movie fan in
the entire world. It has been too long. But it has been worth the
wait. Well worth the wait.
It all started in 1981, shortly after two young filmmaking geniuses
sat on a beach in Hawaii and hatched a plan that resulted in quite
arguably the greatest action adventure movie of all-time. Fresh off
the success of Star Wars and with ideas swirling in his head, George
Lucas presented the equally successful Steven Spielberg with his idea
of a swashbuckling archeologist who would face many dangers while
chasing ancient artifacts around the world. He would name the hero
after Lucas's dog - "Indiana" Smith. Spielberg loved the
idea, changed the name of the hero to Indiana Jones and history was
made. They cast the likes of Tom Selleck and Tim Matheson for the part
and although the two preferred Selleck, he was bound to the Magnum P.I.
television series and much to the chagrin of Mr. Lucas, Harrison Ford
was given the part. Lucas did not want Han Solo to become know as his
go-to guy. As Lucas himself points out, he did not want Ford to become
his Robert DeNiro. But can you even imagine anyone else besides
Harrison Ford being Indy? I shudder at the thought. It was from this
beach in Hawaii and after the Tom Selleck auditions that a legend was
born. Raiders of the Lost Ark was our first look at the smug but
rather charming, unshaven but still passionate, fedora-wearing,
whip-wielding, professor of archeology, Indiana Jones. The movie takes
us back to 1936 and Indy finds himself in search of the Ark of the
Covenant, the magical box that contains the stone tablets of the Ten
Commandments. Indiana finds himself running from giant boulders,
thrown into a pit full of snakes, fighting big, bald Nazis, dragging
himself under a moving truck and much, much more. He gets shot,
punched, kicked, kissed and robbed. There's a whole lot of everything
in this movie - action, adventure, humour, romance, mystery - you name
it, it's got it. The movie is a timeless piece of art, one that if you
sit down and start watching, you will not be able to stop. Truly a
classic.
The follow-up to Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1984's Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom, was a much darker and at times grotesque look at our
hero's adventures. Lucas himself admits it was a dark time in his
life. He feels going through a divorce perhaps contributed to this
much more disturbing movie. To many, it is considered the black sheep
of the Indiana Jones trilogy. This time around we find Indy in India
searching for a sacred stone that has been stolen from a small
village. In terms of the timeline of the series, it actually takes
place years before he searched for the Ark of the Covenant. The stone
brings the village good fortune and with the stone missing, the wells
have dried up, food is scarce, children are disappearing and people
are dying. Indy is teamed up with a young sidekick, known as Short
Round and Willie (Kate Capshaw), a mouthy club entertainer, and it is
not long before he finds himself in the deep and dark caverns of India
where we see people's hearts getting ripped out by a bare hand,
children being tortured and forced into slavery, people eating monkey
brains for dessert and lots and lots of bugs - and rats! The Temple of
Doom is still an enjoyable movie. It did not live up to the precedent
set by Raiders. And it is a hard movie to endorse especially after
hearing Spielberg himself say that the only satisfying thing he got
out of The Temple of Doom was the fact that he met his future wife,
Kate Capshaw, during the filming. He brags about this like a teenager
gloating to his friends on the extras DVD - very funny. But
nevertheless, The Temple of Doom is still a roller coaster ride of
movie - literally.
The final installment of the Indiana Jones movies is entitled Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). It is much more in line with the
original movie, seemingly in response to the criticism that was leveled
against Lucas and Spielberg after The Temple of Doom - much of this
criticism probably self-induced. Sean Connery is introduced as Indy's
father, Henry. The bickering father and son duo are in search of the
Holy Grail, along the way, fighting the Nazis, performing
death-defying stunts and finding out they both bed the same
hot-piece-of-ass of a woman! Way to go Pops! And to think, that was
even before Viagra. The movie is much more light-hearted than Doom and
gives us some insights into Indy's childhood, the origin of his name,
his fear of snakes, how he came to wear the fedora, where he got that
scar on his chin and his mastery of the bullwhip. The late River
Phoenix plays a young Indiana Jones. Much like The Temple of Doom, The
Last Crusade fails to live up to the lofty standards set by Raiders of
the Lost Ark. But don't all movies? Simply being a chapter in the
Indiana Jones trilogy is probably good enough to warrant a strong
recommendation. Although the movie is difficult to take seriously at
times, it still leaves us with an overwhelming feeling of wanting more
Indy - and more Henry Jones too!
The final disc in the set is the disc full of the wonderful bonus
material. The disc starts off with "Indiana Jones: Making the
Trilogy". The disc features more than two hours of interviews,
behind the scenes footage, bloopers, outtakes and rare audition tapes
(including Tom Selleck's). Hearing Lucas and Spielberg speak honestly
and in great detail about the making of the three films is pure gold.
They tell us everything we want to hear and even things that we don't
want to hear - like the fact that Harrison Ford almost did not get the
part! There are interviews with all three leading ladies (Karen Allen,
Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody - Allen looking a little worse for the
wear, Capeshaw looks stunning and Doody looks okay, although I would
swear she has had some work done on that pretty face of hers). We also
get to hear from a fully-grown Short Round (one of my favourite
interviews), Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, many of the minor characters
and even an old interview with River Phoenix. "Making of the
Trilogy" is a fabulous two hours that takes us into the world of
the Indiana Jones movies like never before.
Besides "Making the Trilogy", the bonus disc contains four
featurettes, which include "The Stunts of Indiana Jones"
(interviews with various people, including Harrison Ford and some of
the stunt men), "The Sound of Indiana Jones" (an interesting
discussion of sound effects and sound editing), "The Music of
Indiana Jones" (featuring composer John Williams) and "The
Light and Magic of Indiana Jones" (primarily focusing on the
special effects). Each featurette runs approximately 12-13 minutes in
length and feature more behind the scenes footage, interviews and
detailed discussions. Interestingly enough, the only time a fourth
Indiana Jones movie is mentioned on the entire disc is by John
Williams in the music featurette - and he just says it is a rumour.
Finally, the disc has three theatrical trailers/teasers for Raiders of
the Lost Ark, one trailer for The Temple of Doom and the teaser and
trailer for The Last Crusade. There is also a preview for the video
game "The Emperor's Tomb". And last but not least, all four
discs can be popped into your PC for access to exclusive material on
the website IndianaJones.com.
All in all, The Indiana Jones Trilogy is a must own. If simply owning
the DVD of Raiders of the Lost Ark is not incentive enough to buy this
box set, well, then just imagine owning Raiders, Indy's only other two
movies, plus a plethora of extras that would make even the tightest of
tight asses squeal with glee. The transformation of the movies to DVD
is pristine and the sound on the discs is close to impeccable. Perhaps
only the Star Wars trilogy being released on DVD might surpass the
Indiana Jones movies in terms of being a must in any film buff's
collection. Owning this trilogy on DVD might be the closest many of us
geeks may ever come to finding a real treasure in our lifetime!
| Raiders
of the Lost Ark: |
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9.5/10 |
| Temple
of Doom: |
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8/10 |
| Last
Crusade:
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8/10 |
| Bonus
Material:
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8/10 |
| Overall:
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9/10 |
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Brendan Cullin - Senior
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