Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, Julian Glover, River Phoenix
Written by George Lucas, Philip Kaufman, Lawrence Kasdan,
Willard Huyck & Jeffrey Boam
UK certification PG | UK RRP £27.99 | Runtime 344 minutes
Directed by Steven Spielberg
As the new film — Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — approaches, here we have a re-release of the original trilogy in brand new packaging and with some new bonus features. What's that, I hear you ask? Isn't this just a clever and greedy marketing ploy by Paramount and Lucasfilm to once again milk the originals? For shame, you cynics. How can you think such a thing? I'll deal with each film separately, but overall this is a terrific set for those who already don't own the trilogy (although it may be worth waiting until Christmas, when we know there will be a box set released with all four films in it). But you can also buy each film separately for just £9.99 each. What is a nice touch is fresh interviews with all the main particpants as they look back on the first three films — and many of the interviews were filmed on the set of Crystal Skull. The only negative with this release is that there is no 2-channel sound for people who don't have a surround sound system, so listening to the 5.1 soundtrack on a 2-speaker TV means that much of the dialogue is muffled by the music.
Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981)
The film that introduced us to one of cinema's greatest adventurers. Lucas and Spielberg's homage to the great Saturday matinee serials of the 1930s and 40s, Raiders was a box office and critical hit, and made a true star of Harrison Ford.
EXTRAS An introduction by Spielberg & Lucas; Indiana Jones: An Appreciation, in which the cast and crew of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay tribute to the original trilogy; The Melting Face, a recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain’s melting face in Raiders; Storyboard Sequence for The Well of Souls; photo galleries.
Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984)
As much as critics and the public loved Raiders, they hated Temple of Doom. Lucas has said he deliberately wanted to go darker with the middle film (as he did with the original Star Wars trilogy) but the public didn't really go for it. Looking back now, 24 years later, ToD is a terrfic film. But the real shame is that this is still the tame, cut version that has previously been released in the UK.
EXTRAS An introduction by Spielberg & Lucas; Creepy Crawlies — Spielberg, Lucas and producer Frank Marshall talk about snakes, bugs and rats, but won't even hint at what nasty creatures will be in the fourth film; a locations featurette; Storyboard Sequence: The Mine Cart Chase; picture galleries.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Where Indy gets Pythonish and seeks the Holy Grail. This is the one with River Phoenix (as young Indy) and Sean Connery as his dad. The one where we finally learn Indy's real name. Where we learn just why Indy hates snakes so much. And yes, it's the one that is easily the best film of the trilogy.
EXTRAS An introduction by Spielberg & Lucas; The Women: an American Film Institute tribute in which the three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a chat about the films; Friends And Enemies: Spielberg, Lucas and the Indy writers discuss how they created the characters, including the new faces in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Storyboard: The Opening Sequence; picture galleries.