The good news is that the folks at Lucasfilms have gone over the prints of each movie and cleaned them up digitally (look close and you will no longer be able to see the pane of glass that protects Harrison Ford from the cobra in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Thankfully, this is the extent of the digital work. Lucas and Spielberg have kept their grubby paws of these films and not toned down the violence or given the wonderfully dated special effects a CGI facelift. The transfers of each film look flawless; they are clear of any specks of dirt or other blemishes. The soundtracks have also been overhauled. Fans can now enjoy John Williams' rousing scores on aggressive, THX-approved 5.1 surround soundtracks.

The bad news: no audio commentaries were done for the trilogy. While Lucas reportedly was all for 'em (see the Star Wars prequel DVDs), Spielberg nixed them in lieu of an extensive documentary. All of the extra material can be found on a fourth DVD.

More bad news: no deleted scenes.

However, "Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy" is an impressive two-hour documentary that covers all three films in detail. Bouzereau went out and interviewed anyone who had anything to do with the films. He even interviewed the usually unattainable Harrison Ford and Sean Connery! The documentary can be viewed in its entirety or broken up into separate chunks for each film. As expected, Raiders is given the most weight as Lucas, Spielberg, Ford, et al talk about their recollections making this landmark movie.

The DVD also includes four featurettes:

"The Stunts of Indiana Jones" an 11-minute look at the extensive stuntwork that was done for the trilogy.

"The Sound of Indiana Jones" examine Ben Burtt's innovative sound effects for the films.

Legendary composer, John Williams is the focus of "The Music of Indiana Jones," a look at the musical soundtracks for the trilogy.

Finally, "The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones" examines the special effects work on the films.

Rounding out this disc is a collection of trailers for all three films.

While the extra material doesn't compare to, say, The Lord of the Rings special edition DVD sets, this is still a good collection of extras. Good not great. The documentary and the detail included in it, more than make up for the lack of audio commentaries. Most importantly, all three films look and sound great, preserving them forever.


Finally, Indiana Jones without TV or VHS!   November 27, 2003
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

Finally, the Indian Jones Trilogy has made it to DVD. And it was worth the wait! With amazing picture quality, superb sound, and a few nice touch-ups thrown in throughout the series (one notable example being the snake/glass scene in "Raiders") this DVD set is definitely worth its meager price. All of the special features are contained on a fourth DVD with three extensive "Making of..." documentaries on each film. Additionally, a few short featurettes are included on various aspects of the technical crew, from stunts to sound. The documentaries are very interesting to watch for anyone who loves the films. One learns all sorts of interesting facts and trivia and gets to watch footage from the filming sessions. It's nice to see how the idea started small and developed into a gigantic success.

That being said, it's disappointing that there aren't more special features to be had in this set. I would have liked to have seen Director's commentaries on each film and deleted scenes. This set definitely does not have some of the extra features that other sets include, but the documentaries make up for this fact to a certain extent.

All in all, what's really worth the price of this set are the restored films. Having seen these movies only on VHS and TV myself, it was stunning to see them without any defects or tracking lines. And the sound blew me out of my seat. One can really gain an appreciation for the sound effects editing and the score with this release. At a price of just $15 a film (plus the extra DVD with the documentaries), this set is definitely worth the investment and should be in everyone's collection.


Bring on the DVD collection   March 7, 2000
 14 out of 16 found this review helpful

The Indiana Jones movies would have to rate amongst my most favourite action movies. Like a lot of other people, I refuse to purchase the collection in VHS format. Unfortunately, as wealthy as people like Lucas and Spielberg are, they still want to exhaust the VHS market before they venture into the DVD market. Let's face it, they're doing the same thing with the Star Wars movie collection. I'm sure there will always be a market for their VHS versions, but no matter how desperately I want to add this trilogy to my collection, I will wait for the DVD version to come out... and hope that it does.