Region 1 Paramount (USA)
NTSC, 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced
115, 118, 126 minutes
Audio: DD 5.1 English, DD 2.0 surround French, DD 2.0 surround Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, French, Spanish
Extras: teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; introductions by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas; The Indy Trilogy: A Crystal Clear Appreciation; The Mystery of the Melting Face; Snakes Alive! The Well of Souls Storyboards; Creepy Crawlies; Discover Adventure on Location With Indy; Hold Onto Your Hat! The Mine Cart Chase Storyboards; Indy’s Women Reminisce; Indy’s Friends and Enemies; The Birth of an Action Hero! The Last Crusade Opening Scene Storyboards; photo galleries; preview of a LEGO Indiana Jones videogame
Released: 13 May 2008
thin keepcases in cardboard box
It’s been nineteen years since Harrison Ford rode off into the sunset in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The character is undoubtedly very popular, but I’m sure that Ford’s recent string of box-office duds convinced him to don a fedora and crack a whip once again in this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Paramount released the theatrical movies in widescreen and Pan&Scan box sets back in 2003, and the studio has also released The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones in a series of three box sets. In order to cash-in on the new movie’s theatrical release, Paramount is flogging the previous three films on DVD again as stand-alone “special editions” as well as an “Adventure Collection” box set.
The Indiana Jones movies are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s tributes to the serials that they enjoyed as children. The movies are also Spielberg and Lucas’s answer to James Bond. Therefore, in addition to cliff-hanging, nail-biting adventures, you also get exotic international locales and beautiful femme fatales.
What some viewers don’t know is that the movies are also structured into roughly “one reel” sequences to simulate the episodic nature of serials. Each episode of a serials lasted for only one reel of film, and one reel of film has 12 to 15 minutes of film. Therefore, the Indiana Jones movies have self-contained segments that end cleanly roughly 15 minutes, though Spielberg and Lucas’s adherence to this format became looser and looser as the series progressed.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is the one that most people love, but I don’t think that it has aged well. The movie is fairly slow and uninvolving up until the magnificent truck chase. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is not as bad as most people think, though it also has some dead spots. My personal favorite is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which has a great dynamic between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery (as Indy’s father), an awesome desert chase, and the series’s best leading lady, Alison Doody.
Video:
These new DVDs feature the same 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfers as the 2003 discs. (In fact, even the main menus are practically identical.) The movies look vibrantly pristine, as if they were made recently. Colors are bright and naturalistic (no fading whatsoever), and the transfers are clean and sharp. However, edge enhancement can be intrusive in some instances, and expect to see some grain due to the various cameras, lenses, and film stocks that were used.
Audio:
These new DVDs also feature the same DD 5.1 English tracks that the earlier discs did. Although the audio was sweetened from stereo surround mixes, nothing sounds “artificial” or “mis-guided”; the audio sounds and feels like the audio that you’d expect from movies made during the 1980s. Dialogue is given top priority, and John Williams’s rousing scores are a close second. There is deep bass when appropriate, but it’s never over-powering as we’ve experience with recent overkill movies.
You can also watch the movies with DD 2.0 surround French and DD 2.0 surround Spanish dubs. Optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles as well as optional English closed captions support the audio.
Extras:
This new box set has new featurettes. Unfortunately, you don’t get any of the extras that were on the bonus disc of the previous box set.
Upon loading, the DVDs all play a teaser trailer for Indiana Jones 4. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas also recorded new introductions for each movie. Each disc also has multiple photo galleries and a preview of a LEGO Indiana Jones videogame.
--Raiders--
In “The Indy Trilogy: A Crystal Clear Appreciation”, various people connected to the series (including the fourth movie) talk about their love of the films.
“The Mystery of the Melting Face” details how a Nazi villain’s face was turned into pudding.
“Snakes Alive! The Well of Souls Storyboards” shows how a key set piece was developed.
--Temple--
“Creepy Crawlies” revels in the movies’ delight in making audiences squirm.
“Discover Adventure on Location With Indy” takes viewers globe-hopping.
“Hold Onto Your Hat! The Mine Cart Chase Storyboards” shows how a key set piece was developed.
--Crusade--
“Indy’s Women Reminisce” offers footage from an event hosted by the American Film Institute that was meant to promote the previous box set. The leading ladies of the first three films talked about their experiences, and Harrison Ford showed up at the end of the session for a photo op.
“Indy’s Friends and Enemies” is a superficial retrospective of some of the secondary characters.
“The Birth of an Action Hero! The Last Crusade Opening Scene Storyboards” shows how a key set piece was developed.
--Miscellaneous--
The discs are kept in thin keepcases, which are housed in a cardboard slipcase.
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