Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At long last, Indy gets the Star Wars / Lord of the Rings treatment!, 27 Nov 2008
I've been a soundtrack enthusiast since I was a boy, and as with many who share my passion the Indiana Jones soundtracks have long been amongst the most beloved and yet still frustrating albums I have owned.
Of course, John Williams' classic mix of brassy heroism, muscular action and broad romantic motifs need no introduction - a perfect mix of 1930s musical idioms and contemporary pace and styling. But for so long we had to endure cut down selections on album, with so many great cues missing.
Admittedly the DDC/Silva reissue of Raiders did much to correct this for the first score, and the original Last Crusade album pushed the limits of the original CD release and felt moderately complete, but Temple of Doom was always the weak link.
Not any more. Now all three original films get the expansions they have so long deserved and fans have so long desired - and all with punchy, pristine remasters.
Raiders, having been issued in a vastly expanded form already, only gets three new cues, admittedly short but all key (the first introduction of the Ark theme for example, which chills to the bone). Last Crusade has a number of minor cues added, plus at last the complete train chase sequence and the wonderful main theme segue from River Phoenix to Harrison Ford - but it is Temple of Doom that truly impresses!
Always my favourite of the Jones scores, the original album missed so many wonderful pieces - the pilotless plane sequence with its huge musical flourishes, the Indian village with its ominous ethnic sounds, the whooping horns and clattering percussion of Pankot Palace, massive tracts of action music from the Thugee mines, the little Raiders swordfight gag, the final battle of the rope bridge and arrival of the troops... At last all are here!
Disc four is the least exciting, featuring the standard album of Crystal Skull, which I review elsewhere (Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). This is a shame, as while it is fairly complete, little cues like the military convoy at the beginning would have been nice additions.
This is actually a five disc set, and disc five is a bonus that rounds up minor cues that couldn't be fitted on the main discs - mostly from Last Crusade, including the Zeppelin sections - plus some audio interviews.
The packaging is superb - a faux-leather box with gold embossing, and matt-varnished digi-pak style sleeves for each main album that use the original album covers. Disc five is relegated to a simple card slipcase, as if it was an afterthought, and the booklet and CD inserts are disappointingly brief and shallow compared to efforts like the Lord of the Rings complete editions or the superb Superman FSM box set.
But, with Amazon now doing this for sub-£25 what excuse does any soundtrack fan have!? Time to retire your older, shorter albums, as beloved as they might be, because remember - it's not the years, it's the mileage, and this new set has plenty of that!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wait Is Over!, 26 Sep 2008
Before christmas looms this will be the most anticipated release for any soundtrack film collector! For almost ten years there had been rumours of releases of these extended scores...then began Raiders.
Now from Concord Records they have managed to find the forgotten master tapes and have created a great complete package consisting of original material not heard or released for sometime!
John Williams is a 'wonderkind marvel' who creates a magical world thru his music. And so to relive those exciting serial pictures Indiana Jones is fighting again, not in pictures but within your mind and your heart!
Go Buy Them!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Long overdue...., 28 April 2009
At last! This really is the ultimate representation of these scores. Although for completists (and I'm one of them) the set STILL doesn't have all of the music from the movies... for some reason Williams insists of giving the listener some sort of 'symphonic experience' as he puts it - this means some rearranging of cues, and plenty of missing cues. This is irritating as I want to be taken on the musical journey of the films, not have Williams decide which tracks he wants me to have and then recut some of them... annoying. Having had that moan I'm still very excited to get to listen to wntire action sequences from Temple, extended sections of Crusade and, of course, the (almost) complete Raiders score - one of Williams most outstanding works. For fans this is, quite simply, a must have...
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~ Various Artists
![The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.1 (12 Disc Box Set) [1992] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51n7vBYxTAL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.2 (9 Disc Box Set) [1992] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZA-7nlEtL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Star Wars Trilogy Box Set [Deluxe Remastered Version]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/212HMX8JJ4L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ John Williams
See all 22 tracks on this disc
![The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.2 (9 Disc Box Set) [1992] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZA-7nlEtL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
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