INDIANA JONES: 4-film collection 4K UHD Blu-ray (Paramount, 1981-2008) Paramount Home Video
The George Lucas brand is primarily known for two
enduring film franchises; Star Wars (1977-present) and Indiana Jones
(1981-2008…although a 5th installment is rumored to be in production
for 2022). In more recent times, the former has suffered greatly at the hands of
its creator, with Lucas’ inability to keep his digital play tools to himself
resulting in multiple ‘special editions’ to keep the original trilogy ‘relevant’
by contemporary standards, with revisions and insertions of scenes and
characters, completely to have marred the impact and lasting appeal of those
legendary original three classics. Mercifully, the latter franchise has remained
virtually untouched by such idiotic meddling, allowing audiences to judge for
themselves the purity of the original efforts poured into their creation. While
the first film in the IJ franchise – 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark –
remains undeniably, its best, the retrospective demonization of 1984’s Indiana
Jones and The Temple of Doom is largely unwarranted, while the third and
fourth installments - part 3’s ironically titled, Indiana Jones and the ‘Last’
Crusade (1989), and, much delayed, but eventually released Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull (2008) are but wan ghost flowers, riding the coattails of
that elusive spark of creative genius that so dominated the first two efforts.
Herein, it is definitely worth a moment’s pause to
reassess the financial climate in Hollywood circa 1981, the industry still reeling
from Michael Cimino’s $40 million box office thud, Heaven’s Gate, which
placed the once venerable United Artists on the chopping block, rife for bankruptcy
and a not-so-hostile corporate takeover.
By 1981, virtually all of these seemingly indestructible titans of the
American film industry had teetered on the brink of extinction at least once.
Warner Bros. was purchased outright by corporate leviathan, Kinney in 1969. MGM
officially closed its doors as a production house, following its acquisition in
the early 70’s by Vegas financier, Kirk Kerkorian, who released an obscene
public statement to his investors, about the one-time greatest studio in all
the world now his personal garage sale, ‘hotel company’ and a relatively
insignificant distributor of movies, the rights to which it would continue acquiring
like a handful of paperclips elsewhere. Thanks to its diversification into
television and theme parks, Universal kept its corporate balance sheet from
sinking too far into the red, while 2oth Century-Fox, began to look toward its
own amalgamation with Rupert Murdoch to shore up its sagging bottom line. In
the late 70’s, UA had made the utterly disastrous miscalculation of hiring a
corporate bean counter from TransAmerica to headline its studio, making sense
of the movie biz only by number-crunching spreadsheets. Nowhere, however, was
the turnaround towards good fortune more astonishingly felt than at Paramount.
After a fallow period in the mid-60’s effectively threatened to shutter its
doors for good, the studio was acquired by mega-oil and gas giant, Gulf +
Western who reluctantly appointed actor come mogul, Robert Evans as its CEO.
Under Evans’ guidance, Paramount did a complete about-face from dead last to
A-list production house with its pulse firmly on what the public wanted to see.
It began courting bankable stars and directors, producing home-grown
product of high caliber quality, making it the envy of all the rest.
A handful of movies released
alongside Raiders of the Lost Ark, from Paramount and elsewhere, bear
brief mention, if only to comparatively asset the competition. There was the
curiously antiseptic melodrama, Absence of Malice, made by Sydney
Pollack for Columbia (on the brink of its own renaissance), Uni’s darkly
purposed horror classic, An American Werewolf in London, WB’s adult comedy,
Arthur, about a perpetually inebriated millionaire, UA’s Blow Out,
an edgy thriller from Brian De Palma, the indie-made (but distributed thru
Warner Bros.) Chariots of Fire – to take home the lion’s share of Oscars,
Condorman, and, The Devil and Max Devlin, the Walt Disney company’s
two bizarre attempts to enter the adult live-action market, director, Sam Raimi’s
independently made, shot on a shoestring, and, utterly bone-chilling horror
classic, The Evil Dead and Paramount’s sincerely blundered thriller, The
Fan – sporting a high-quality cast to include Lauren Bacall, James Gardner
and Maureen Stapleton, but quickly to devolve into a sort of botched gumbo of
missed opportunities. UA bounced back with another installment in the perennially
popular James Bond franchise, For Your Eyes Only, Universal made the
sick little slasher, The Funhouse with Tobe Hooper, and the
fundamentally flawed Ghost Story, to headline a bevy of one-time greats
- Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Melvyn Douglas and John Houseman.
Horror was big, as Rick Rosenthal’s incredibly
faithful sequel, Halloween II, managed largely to rekindle the chills of
the John Carpenter original. Uni and Sylvester Stallone teamed for a sizable hit
with the terrorist-themed, Nighthawks, Hollywood legend, Henry Fonda
marked an end to his career and life on a high note: the heartfelt, On
Golden Pond, opposite another titan of the old guard, Katharine Hepburn,
with whom, even more incredibly, he had never worked with before, while Steve
Martin attempted to do a Fred and Ginger-stylized musical, the costly but
poorly received Pennies from Heaven, co-starring Bernadette Peters and Christopher
Walken. Warren Beatty made an epic – Reds, while George Cukor, dusted
off an old Bette Davis/Miriam Hopkins’ melodrama, Old Acquaintance, for co-stars,
Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen – the almost as good, Rich and Famous.
Cinema’s goodie-two-shoes, Julie Andrews bared her breasts for hubby, Blake
Edwards’ silly little sex-farce S.O.B., and Bo Derek showed her more
than perky rack, though not much else, clinging to a rippling mass known as
co-star, Miles O’Keeffe in the ill-fated reboot of Tarzan the Ape Man.
So, to suggest there was nothing quite like Raiders
of the Lost Ark on Hollywood’s radar in 1981 is an understatement.
Spielberg’s desire to revive and elevate the classic B-grade serialized action/adventure
yarn, to have dazzled his young boy’s imagination and fill up his leisure during
the late 50’s, was, ironically, what the movies had been waiting for all along.
Initially turned down by virtually every
major studio in Hollywood, the film that introduced audiences to the
uber-rugged archaeologist/fortune hunter, Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost
Ark was the quintessential homage to B-serials, adding considerable cache
to Spielberg’s already impressive canon of film achievements. In the early
start of his career, Spielberg possessed an uncanny knack for telling stories to
ignite our childhood excitement, regardless of one’s actual age – the spirit of
adventure tapped to its extreme and able to catapult his audience into those
wondrous, forgotten recesses of childhood fantasy, if, from a very exhilarating
and adult perspective. Initially Raiders was begun by George
Lucas, even before he had finished penning the script to Star Wars
(1977). Alas, the idea for a fantasy/adventure set during WWII languished in
Lucas' fertile fancy until he took a much-needed vacation to Hawaii. Meanwhile
Spielberg had purchased the rights to an unrelated screenplay by Philip
Kaufman. Although this project would never reach fruition, upon being asked by
Lucas to direct Raiders, Spielberg remembered how much he
appreciated Kaufman’s prose and hired him to outline the story concept for this
film. In the final phase of its pre-production, writer, Lawrence Kasdan was
brought in to polish off the dialogue.
The name Indiana actually belongs to Lucas’ dog – a
Malamute that also served as Lucas’ inspiration for Chewbacca in Star Wars.
Although Spielberg concurred with Lucas that Indiana was a fine first name,
Lucas’ choice of ‘Smith’ left Spielberg cold and was eventually changed to
‘Jones’. Tom Selleck was Spielberg’s first choice to play the lead after Lucas
resisted casting Harrison Ford yet again. Ford had previously appeared for
Lucas in American Graffiti (1973) and then, even better, as the hotshot
flyer, Han Solo in Star Wars. Mercifully, Selleck’s CBS iron-clad
commitments to TV’s Magnum P.I. precluded his involvement. So, Lucas
rather begrudgingly fell back on Ford as his second choice. With skyrocketing
costs at home, England’s Elstree Studios would serve as the primary production
house for interior shooting, with cast and crew moving to Hawaii, and later,
Tunisia for exteriors. Only two years before, Elstree had been the scene of a
devastating fire to ravage its production facilities and backlot during the
shooting of Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic, The Shining (1980). Hence, in a
planned sequence for Raiders, where Marion Ravenwood’s (Karen
Allen) bar is burned to the ground, Spielberg made extensive personal
assurances to the executives that his policy would be ‘safety first’. Flame
retardant was liberally sprayed everywhere with firemen standing by,
extinguishers drawn, to ensure no such disaster occurred on his set. In
Tunisia, whole portions of the city had their television antennas removed so Spielberg
could lens wider shots seen from Sallah’s (John Rhys-Davies) rooftop apartment.
Today, the same feat would have been accomplished by a little digital scrubbing
in a computer software program in post-production. Spielberg would later admit
the Tunisian shoot was among the most challenging of his entire career –
buffeted by stifling heat and a virulent bout of food poisoning that leveled
everyone except Spielberg who had had the good sense to import all his food
from England.
We begin our adventure deep in the Mayan jungles where
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has just recovered an ancient golden idol from a
trap-infested temple. However, his harrowing conquest is diffused when rival
archaeologist, Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman) arrives to claim the prize for his
own, having bribed the natives with trinkets to do his bidding. Barely escaping
with his life, Indy returns to Oxford University. There, he is approached by a
pair of FBI agents who express interest in his knowledge of the Ark of the
Covenant, the final resting place for the tablets Moses brought down from Mount
Sinai. Whoever possesses the ark commands an army that cannot be defeated.
Hence, Adolph Hitler’s intense fascination to possess it. Indy agrees to go in
search of the ark. His first stop is a remote snowbound Tibetan village, home
to his old friend, retired archaeologist, Abner Ravenwood. Unfortunately, Abner
has since died leaving Indy to grapple with his daughter and embittered ex-lover,
Marion, now the sole heir of Abner’s meager estate. Indy’s primary interest is
in an ancient medallion with curious markings. He tries to get Marion to give
him this artifact. But she remains bitter over their failed love affair and
refuses him. She is next approached by Nazi Maj. Arnold Toht (Ronald Lacey) who
is not willing to take 'no' for an answer. Thankfully for Marion, Indy hasn't
gone very far. In the resulting brawl, Marion’s inn is burned to the ground and
she angrily declares that Indy has just acquired a new partner on his
expedition. Toht attempts to retrieve the medallion from the flames, but it
burns an imprint in the palm of his hand and he is forced to flee.
Indy and Marion travel to Cairo where Indy’s old arch
nemesis, Belloq has already begun excavating with information gleaned from the burned
imprint on Toht's hand. But Indy has managed to recover the medallion. It is
double-sided. The inscription on its backside provides Indy with the precise
location of the map room that will divulge secrets to the Well of Souls. Belloq
learns of Indy’s alternate excavation site and entombs him and Marion in the
Well’s snake-infested burial chamber after stealing the ark for his own. After
some perilous moments of panic, Indy and Marion break out of the tomb and join
Sallah on a perilous quest to recover the ark.
Sallah arranges passage for Indy and Marion aboard smuggler, Katanga's
(George Harris) rusty pirate ship. But the Nazis have tailed them across the
sea in a U-boat and take the ark and Marion hostage to a remote island where
Belloq is determined to unleash its power. Aware that to open the ark means
death to all who look upon it, Indy instructs Marion to shut her eyes. Belloq,
Toht and the Nazis are consumed in an unearthly firestorm of demons and
lightening, a searing white shaft of ominous light parting the clouds before
the ark seals itself shut. In Washington, Indy tries to get the FBI to agree to
let him study the ark. He is told by one of its bureaucrats (Bill Reimbold) the
FBI has their top men working on it. As Indy storms out of their offices,
accompanied by a sympathetic Marion, we cut away to a vast warehouse in the
National Archives. The ark, sealed in an unmarked crate, is pushed on a dolly
by a lonely attendant into an unidentified stack, presumably doomed to become
just another forgotten relic expunged from the annals of history.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is undeniably a
grand entertainment, arguably, the best action/adventure yarn of its kind.
Spielberg, whose forte is fantasy, weaves a rich tapestry of the macabre,
combining the sacred with the profane to achieve a sort of pseudo-'religious
experience', albeit with Nazis, serpents and a little sex feathered in for good
measure. On the heels of its heady success, audience anticipation for another
high-octane adventure convinced Paramount to spend even more lavishly on its
sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). That it emerged as
a much darker, more sinister excursion into the occult and black magic of the
Kali was something unexpected, and, in hindsight, rather unsettling. Even
today, many critics rate Temple of Doom as inferior to its predecessor.
It hasn't exactly helped the picture’s reputation Spielberg publicly denounces it
as his least favorite in the franchise. To be accurate, as well as fair, Raiders
of the Lost Ark is undeniably the superior of the two, in narrative
stealth, screen economy and its ability to generate thrills akin to a roller
coaster ride. Yet, might not Temple of Doom be assessed on its own
terms, as an intense antidote to the exhilarating ‘dark ride’? It careens
through some very spooky territory, leaving the palms, sweaty and the heart,
palpitating. To alleviate some chronic,
and, excruciating back pain, star, Harrison Ford underwent surgery just prior
to the shoot, and then, plunged himself into a rigorous exercise program to
buff up for the role, requiring him to remain shirtless for large portions of
the action.
As scripted by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, Temple
of Doom is a much more baleful affair, a sort of Indiana Jones meets
Blade Runner (1980) with stolen bits of business borrowed from unused
ideas Lucas had endeavored to squeeze into Raiders. Lucas and
Spielberg have generally discounted the story by suggesting its best parts were
all leftovers from Raiders.
However, this undercuts the overall arch of excitement that Temple of
Doom effortlessly generates. Comparisons between the Huyak/Katz’s
screenplay and George Steven’s Gunga Din (1939) and Frank Capra’s Lost
Horizon (1936) are inevitable. Indeed, Indy’s escape from Club Obi Wan,
pursued by a ruthless Asian mafia chieftain and his henchmen, brings to mind
the evacuation of Baskul from Capra’s classic, while the Thugee cult that
dominates the latter half of the picture has its obvious roots in Steven’s movie.
To this mix, Spielberg affords Indy a pint-sized sidekick, the orphan, Short
Round (memorably realized by Jonathan Ke Quan) and an American nightclub singer,
Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw…the future Mrs. Steven Spielberg). Yet, what emerges
from Spielberg’s adventuresome milieu is a rollicking departure from the first
movie, its timeline to precede the events of the first picture, in an
action-packed escapist nightmare with some stunningly handsome matte work and
completely convincing miniatures.
On this outing, Indy escapes certain death in Hong
Kong after a murderous mafia chieftain, Lao Che (Roy Chiao) reneges on their
deal and attempts to poison him. Indy, along with his devoted sidekick, Short
Round and whiny chanteuse, Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) steal away into the
night and, after a harrowing chase through the narrow streets, board a plane,
presumably bound for home. One problem:
the airline is owned by Lao Che. The pilots bail in mid-air, leaving Indy,
Willie and Shorty to crash land in India where they soon discover an ancient
evil cult has since been revived and presently grown all powerful once more.
Sacred stones from a nearby village, and the inhabitant’s children have also
been stolen in the night. Indy, Willie and Shorty are taken to the Maharaja's
(Raj Singh) palace in Pankok where they are invited to feast on a most
grotesque buffet of bugs, snakes and monkey brains. Afterward, Indy questions
the Maharaja about the Thugee, but is assured it is a thing of the past. However,
later in his room a Thugee guard attempts to strangle Indy. Making short shrift
of the guard, Indy charges into Willie's suite and discovers a secret passage
that leads to underground caverns beneath the palace.
There Indy, Willie and Shorty witness a human
sacrifice at the hands of high priest, Mola Ram (Amrish Puri). The unsuspecting trio is then taken prisoner
by Mola Ram's minions and Indy is made to drink the blood of Kali. This sends
him into 'the black sleep'. Shorty is exiled to the slave camps and Willie is
slated to become the next human sacrifice. Mercifully, at the last possible
moment, Shorty revives Indy from his hypnotic trance and together they free
Willie from her certain fate. The trio next boards a mine car, narrowly
escaping a flash flood, before struggling to cross a flimsy suspension bridge,
pursued by Mola Ram and his guards. The bridge breaks apart over croc-infested waters,
leaving Indy and Mola Ram to struggle in a fight to the death. Indy destroys
Mola Ram and, together with Shorty and Willie, returns to the village with the
sacred stones where prosperity has preceded their arrival.
The general consensus in 1984 was Temple of Doom
was no Raiders of the Lost Ark. This, however, did not stop Temple of
Doom from performing enviably at the box office. Viewed today, Kate Capshaw
gets a bad rap for her ear-piercing screeches - a running gag throughout the
film. True enough, Willie Scott is no Marion Ravenwood. But personally, I’ve
never found Capshaw’s performance as the self-absorbed diva anything but
totally amusing comedy relief. And Capshaw proved she had more on the ball than
just a figure of fun. For Temple of Doom’s magnificent opener, the
actress had to learn the lyrics to Cole Porter’s immortal ‘Anything Goes’
in Mandarin. Although Capshaw was scheduled to tap as well as sing, costume
designer, Anthony Powell’s exquisite, but undeniably form-fitting red and gold-sequined
gown restricted her movements to all but a sexy slink. Reportedly, this
sequence was filmed near the end of the production. Alas, only then was it
discovered the elephant that Willie Scott rides to Pankok had eaten through some
of the beads on the back of the dress during the location shoot in Sri Lanka. Promotional
junkets for Temple of Doom declared, “If adventure has a name, it
must be Indiana Jones.” While the public demanded another rollicking
adventure yarn, what came next was a more evenly paced spook show into the
haunted recesses of the human mind. And, as time passes, Temple of Doom
may very well be considered one of the most extraordinary and lavishly
appointed action/adventure movies of all time - solidly crafted and expertly
played with breathtaking stunt work and some truly phenomenal cinematography by
Douglas Slocombe.
Immediately following its release, Paramount once more
approached Spielberg with a pitch for yet another sequel. And while the
resultant movie has long-since been considered the director’s favorite, I have
never entirely warmed to Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989). Part
of the appeal of Indy’s character in these movies was Harrison Ford’s guy’s guy
– someone every man in the audience wanted to be and every woman wanted to be
with. Introducing Sean Connery’s sage
and slightly bumbling patriarch into this formula not only split the point of
interest and focus of the film, but Connery’s constant referencing of our hero
as ‘junior’ utterly diffused Indy’s credibility as a leading man. Herein,
Indiana Jones becomes the comedy sidekick with repressed father-figure issues;
both men, having slept with the same woman, Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody). The
other great sin Jeffrey Boam’s screenplay commits is the absence of a winsome
heroine. Doody is the femme fatale. In its preliminary stages, Spielberg and
Lucas could not agree on a central narrative. Boam’s patchwork is thus a
compromise and looks it, suffering from too many creative ideas mashed together
without ever developing an overall arch to the story. Lucas initially wanted
the plot to be a variation on the ‘haunted castle’ or 'dark old house' motif,
culminating in a search for the Holy Grail. Neither concept particularly
interested Spielberg. Instead, the director pitched an idea to Lucas of a
father and son – buddy/buddy - actioner that would eventually incorporate
Lucas’ Holy Grail concept.
The pre-title sequence is a showcase for the late
River Phoenix as the young Indiana Jones – a Boy Scout no less - acquiring both
his guts and fear of reptiles (that we’ve already witnessed in the previous two
adventures), this time, when confronted by some ruthless fortune hunters. In hindsight,
this pre-credit send-up, having absolutely nothing to do with the central plot,
plays like a James-Bondian opener, or, more directly, a precursor to Spielberg’s
short-lived launch of television’s Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
(1992-93). From here we are introduced to Indy’s father, Professor Henry Jones
(Sean Connery) who chides his son on his spur-of-the-moment ill planning. A
rift is created between father and son, moving us into the present day. Indiana (now, once more played by Ford) joins
forces with Dr. Elsa Schneider, a fellow archeologist who has also had an
affair with his dad and is actually working for the Nazis, and more directly,
American fortune hunter, Walter Donovan (Julian Glover doing an utterly
unconvincing American accent). Indy and Elsa’s search for the chalice Christ
drank from during the last supper leads first to Italy, then Berlin, and
finally, Petra. In the interim, Indy reunites with his father. Old emotional
scars are exposed. Eventually, Indy learns the truth about Elsa and his
father’s affair with her. Donovan pursues Indy and Henry, along with Marcus
Brody (Denholm Elliot, inexplicably rewritten here as an obtuse figure of fun)
and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) to Jordan where Indy is forced at gunpoint to
recover the chalice in order to save Henry’s life.
Boam’s screenplay is trying too hard for its laughs.
Characters like Sallah and Brody, that seemed natural, or at least, intelligent
and genuine in Raiders, have been transformed into garish cartoon
parodies of themselves. Several glaring
examples of matte and blue screen make the bi-plane getaway sequence aboard a
Zeppelin obvious and disengaging. The Berlin book-burning sequence, where Indy,
carrying the stolen map book to direct him to the final resting place of Christ’s
chalice, but instead, comes face to face with a bad knock-off of Adolph Hitler
who, mistaking it as an autograph book, signs the blank insert before handing
it back to him, devolves into pure camp at the expense of suspending our
disbelief. While Last Crusade performed admirable at the box
office, Paramount was not all that eager to revisit the creative well yet again
– and, presumably, neither were Spielberg or Ford, who each believed everything
that needed to be said about this character and his adventures had already been
done. As the standard of the age was to tie up movie franchises in trilogies, Last
Crusade appeared to mark an end to Indiana Jones. Alas, the obituary
was short-lived, or rather, reinvented as a moratorium not to be taken
seriously with the announcement that after an absence of 19 years, Harrison
Ford would be returning to the fedora and whip with Indiana Jones and The
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
In retrospect, the picture is a woefully misguided
attempt to reboot and reinvigorate the franchise with Ford, now a weather-beaten
and slightly paunchy 66, well past his prime to play the exotic and
uber-masculine fortune hunter. Scripted by David Koepp, Crystal Skull
struggles to find its place, emerging as more of an addendum to, than a
continuation of, the franchise. The absence between Last Crusade and
Crystal Skull was mutually agreed upon by Spielberg, Lucas and Ford at
the time, each desiring to pursue a more diverse palette of projects. Regrettably,
the passage of time proved a grave disadvantage as Ford was forced into the
part of the sage, handing off the headier action/adventure stuff to his illegitimate
son, Henry ‘Mutt’ Williams (played with forgettable machismo by Shia LaBeouf).
The screenplay reunited Indy with his first love, Marion Ravenwood (an aged Karen
Allen) but advanced the narrative timeline to 1957, necessitating a change of
villain. Gone are the Nazis, replaced by a virulent Cold War enemy, Col. Dr.
Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) who wastes no time kidnapping Indy and his
friend, Mac George Michale (Ray Winstone) whom she then forces to search for
alien remains kept secret in a secluded warehouse somewhere in Nevada.
Mac double-crosses Indy, who escapes and takes refuge
inside a lead-lined fridge to avert radiation exposure from a nuclear explosion
on a bomb test site. Later, Indy is prompted by Mutt to pursue the legend of
the crystal skull in Peru after the disappearance of Professor Oxley (John
Hurt). As the legend goes, anyone returning the skull to the mythic city of
Akator will wield dominance over its alien powers. Mutt and Indy learn Oxley
was placed in a mental hospital, after having suffered a complete mental
breakdown from handling the skull, but was then kidnapped by the Soviets. Jones
and Mutt are ambushed and thrown into a camp with Oxley and Marion. After
several narrow escapes, the troop arrive with Spalko at an ancient temple deep
in the jungle. The aliens use advanced mind control over their hapless human
counterparts. Demanding to know everything, the aliens release Oxley from their
trance and transfer the bulk of their knowledge into Spalko’s mind. She is now their prisoner. They also activate
an otherworldly portal into another dimension, into which Spalko and the rest
of the Soviets are sucked. Indy, Marion and Mutt escape and in the final
moments decide to finally marry.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is so transparently
geared towards a transference of the franchise from Ford to LeBeouf it hurts. After
all, these movies are supposed to be about Indiana Jones – not his son. And
LeBeouf, try as he might, is a doughy and dour action star, more cocky than
clever and far less appealing when whole portions of the movie are merely
handed over to him to do the heavy lifting. The plot is a mess, made weighty, yet
meaningless by hokey vignettes slathered in a woeful amount of dubiously
fake-looking CGI. One of the sheer joys of the original trilogy was its clever
staging of live action, particularly its animal wrangling sequences. In Raiders
we had snakes – real ones, cleverly set behind transparent glass walls to
spare the actors any dangerous interaction. In Temple of Doom there was
a grotesque assortment of bugs to make the skin crawl - literally. Last
Crusade has a justly celebrated sequence featuring live rats. In an attempt
to outdo them all, Crystal Skull gives us an attack of computer-generated
red ants. Alas, it doesn’t work. Borrowing on the same CGI used to create man-eating
scarabs in The Mummy (1999), the red ant attack here just looks totally
fake, and worse, like a blasé rip-off with zero shock value to be derived as
the ants devour anyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. There are other
missteps along the way. Forget the aforementioned escape from nuclear
annihilation by hiding in a fridge. At one point, Indy swings on vines through
the jungle like Tarzan. Blanchett, a reputable actress otherwise, herein cannot
produce a credible Russian accent to save her life. Shia LeBeouf’s Mutt is a
gangly wannabe fortune hunter who’s too curt, yet too precious to be Indy’s
offspring. In the end, the pieces don’t fit and the story simply lumbers along
to its inevitable conclusion. Despite its financial success – predicated more
on fan following generated by the first three movies – Crystal Skull
remains the most unworthy successor to the original movie.
Paramount Home Video unleashes Indiana Jones: The
Complete Adventures in 4K and the results are impressive. The extensive
clean-up Paramount did to ready the Indy movies for Blu-ray back in 2012 was
not without consternation and debate. Actually, the
Blu’s had major issues, particularly Raiders which leaned to a
very cool, slightly teal bias that in no way replicated the original theatrical
experience. I am happy to report, not only have all 4 movies been given an
extensive remastering in native UHD 4K with HDR, but color correction has been
applied to all. The teal bias on Raiders is gone and the movie
now accurately resembles what I remember seeing at the movies in 1981 – a richer,
more refined palette with markedly improved flesh tones, more verdant foliage,
and exquisite amounts of fine detail throughout. All of the movies in this set
sport such exemplary care. Temple of Doom looks astonishingly crisp
throughout, with Paramount having gone back to basics to further conceal the
matte crop marks during special effects and integrate the live action stuff
with the miniatures. Ditto for the matte work on Last Crusade. This too looks
more natural now, even during the biplane sequence. The least impressive results, ironically, are
achieved on Crystal Skull, whose heavy reliance on SFX likely
rendered in 2K, if not less, now appear soft and occasionally smeary.
I love the way the first 3 movies in the original trilogy have been handled – with
the utmost care and attention to detail. Bravo, and well done! Paramount has
gone the extra step of introducing 7.1 Atmos mixes for all of these movies. The most
impressive is Temple of Doom, creating an enveloping sound mix
that truly hugs the sound field on all sides, especially during the climactic
mine ride escape. Here, echoes of steal-grinding wheels, and swooshing air
flying past the occupants realistically ricochets about the room with
frightfully realistic exhilaration. Wow! Bottom line: it’s time to double-dip for
Indiana Jones again, though arguably, for the very last time. Indy in 4K is the
real/reel deal. Buy today. Treasure forever! Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory!
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
Raiders of the Lost Ark 5
Temple of Doom 4.5
Last Crusade 3.5
Crystal Skull 1
VIDEO/AUDIO
Overall 5
EXTRAS
5
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