THE ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES

Remember those thrilling days of yesteryear, when we huddled inside a darkened theater, enjoying the rousing action and hairbreadth escapes of our favorite adventure hero on the big screen, while stuffing ourselves from a giant tub of popcorn? I'm referring, of course, to the 1980s.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both grew up as big fans of movie serials of the 1930s and '40s, and both had ambitions to recreate that kind of film excitement themselves. Both men had success beyond their wildest dreams with their early films in the 1970s, Lucas with his space opera classic STAR WARS and Spielberg with his own horror and sci-fi works. By the time they got together to create their own serial-style adventure movie, they found themselves playing with a much bigger toybox than they ever thought possible. They'd both contributed greatly to advancing the way movies could be made, and before long their little adventure movie became a globe-spanning epic, but still retained its small-scale sense of fun. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was a colossal hit, and led to two lesser but still amazing sequels.

I hardly need to relate the story of each of these three features in dealing with this box set, since they're so well known. I'm glad I saw them all in theaters first, I pity those that saw them first on television, and I'm overjoyed to think that so many folks will now get to see them for the first time via these THX-approved transfers, all with sparkling Dolby Surround soundtracks. Some little details: despite the addition on the packaging, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK retains its original onscreen title. The filmmakers' reactions to each film generally mirror the audience's. And it's telling to look back and see that INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM has the most horrific scenes, and yet it's the lighter LAST CRUSADE that got the PG-13 rating which was created at Spielberg's suggestion following TEMPLE's release.

The first I heard of RAIDERS was an article in Jim Steranko's old genre magazine Prevue which featured Steranko's production artwork. It was a treat to see that art once again, reproduced in the opening minutes of Disc four's 127-minute Making-Of documentary. It's a fine film in its own right, and gives the viewer a nearly sequence-by-sequence account of each film's production through interviews with most of the surviving cast and crew, plus production materials and behind-the-scenes footage. Here you can see Harrison Ford learning to use a whip, Spielberg and his leading lady Kate Capshaw flirting with each other, Ford and Spielberg teaching Sean Connery Three Stooges shtick, etc. Some of this footage highlights Ford's real sense of humor, something we don't see that much of from him in interviews anymore.

Disc four also includes a series of featurettes of about ten minutes each covering different aspects of the trilogy (music, f/x, stunts) in greater detail, several trailers, and DVD-ROM weblinks to more exclusive content.