Indiana Jones Trilogy

Review By: Dan Deevy
(DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com)

The Original Star Wars Trilogy is probably the only DVD release that could possibly elicit more excitement and more anticipation than The Indiana Jones set has. I just hope that when George Lucas FINALLY decides to bless us with those DVD’s he will do as complete and thorough a job as the folks at Paramount and Lucas Film have done with this one!

I have to admit, and I’m sure few will be surprised by this, but Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom has always been one of my guilty pleasures for as far back as I can remember. It’s right up there with The Goonies as a great Sunday afternoon escape; basically because there was nothing else on TV, but a great escape none-the-less. Watching it though has always been difficult at some points just because of all of the terrible green screen special effects. Especially toward the end of the film with the water deluge and the impossibly messy effects during the mine cart chase sequence. Thanks to the current digital mastery of the studios, it has all been amazingly cleaned up!

The digital re-mastering of the picture and sound is practically flawless. All three of these classic adventure films literally look as though they were just made. (The green screen work on The Last Crusade still leaves something to be desired but it looks much better than it did the last time I saw it) And probably the greatest thing about this is that they didn’t add in any new extras like they did with the Star Wars re-releases a few years back. They simply used the technology available to them today to tell the original story more clearly and cleanly.

The behind-the-scenes featurettes are phenomenal. The amount of original material that has survived through until today is frankly staggering. Included amidst all that material are some original screen tests from the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. It turns out that Indiana Jones was actually saved by a potentially huge casting mistake by the television series, Magnum P.I. If it hadn’t been for his commitment to the shooting schedule for that series, Tom Selleck would have been the bullwhip bearing, dashing archeologist Indiana Smith; I mean Indiana Jones (another close call thanks to advice from Spielberg himself)

Also, for any film students out there, there is a ton of footage of Spielberg and Lucas, arguably two of the most successful and influential writer/directors of modern cinema. (OK, granted Lucas lost it after Jedi, but hey, you gotta give it to him for his achievements prior to, right?) Watching their true personalities come out on set on these old reels of film, before they were “legendary” is really something to see.

We are even treated to some brief shots of a much younger Harrison Ford hitting the gym trying to buff up for The Temple of Doom shoot, since it did require him to be shirtless so much more often this time ...