Search - John Williams :: Raiders Of The Lost Ark

This Intrepid Archeologist...

Michael D. Kuhlman | Pompano Beach, FL USA | 03/27/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...has scoured the Earth for decades looking for the definitive soundtrack that captures and presents every magical note of music John Williams wrote for this legendary adventure, and this latest incarnation is certainly a quantum leap over even the 1995 DCC reissue of the original 1981 LP and CD, including several tracks never before released, even in the 1995 reissue, including Washington Men/Indiana Jones theme "Well, what does this Ark look like?" "There's a picture of it right here." and when the monkey man poisons the dates in Bad Dates.



What is really intriguing is how George Lucas must have been constantly re-editing the film right up to its May 25th, 1981 release date--the opening bars of In the Jungle are repeated twice in the film (to coincide over the Paramount logo dissolving to a real, perfectly-matched mountain in Kuwai where the opening South America 1936 scene of Raiders was shot, and several other cues, like some additional bars when Indy has jumped Tarzan-style into the swamp in Peru and climbed on board Jock's plane to escape the arrow-chucking Jovitos, are actually longer on the soundtrack than they are in the film! Such is the nature of filmmaking...



Sadly absent, though, on this disc, is the entire section where Indy and Sallah enter the Ark's tomb, and, intercut with Marion getting Belloq drunk and trying to escape, with the classic Toht coat-hanger gag that amused Spielberg (and the rest of us) so much, Indy and Sallah hoist the Ark out of its tomb to glorious brass and the haunting choir music that follows as the Ark is lifted up into the rising sun and the Nazis descend on our intrepid heroes and Marion is thrown into the Well of Souls. Gladly, though, Uncovering the Ark is presented in its entirity on Disc 4 of the Indiana Jones soundtrack 4-CD pack!!!



We have a truncated version here in this release, that has never before been released, of Indy Rides the Statue, which begins, unlike in the film, with his whip cracking and wrapping around an arm of the statue, and is then complete up to when he breaks the statue loose, and missing is that spectacular burst of Indiana Jones fanfare as Indy rides the statue down to crash through the wall and Marion's subsequent bout with the corpses entombed therein-! I believe George Lucas took this bit of fanfare from Airplane Fight, so it can be easily inserted at the appropriate point by anyone with a sound editing program.



Desert Chase appears to be the same truncated version as on the 1981 release, missing several bars when we see Belloq climbing into his car and telling the Nazis "let's go!" before he slams his car door shut...the brief delay when Indy stops his horse on the hills above the truck convoy before he says "heeya" and ventures down through the sand to enter the convoy to the snare drum and brass rythms of the Nazi theme...missing a few bars when Indy throws the truck's front passenger out onto the trail and enters the truck to do fisticuffs battle with the driver...missing 3 or four bars when Indy is dispatching Nazis using palm trees, missing the entire opening rythm that Spielberg describes as a "furious heartbeat" when Indy is shot in the arm by the young Nazi, a great cue that Lucas liked so much he used it in the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...the track is intact when we cut to the wide exterior looking down on the truck and the one remaining Nazi is on the roof climbing forward, and the track is only missing two or three bars when Indy is thrown out of the truck's windshield and tries to hold onto the hood ornament, which bends and causes him to grab onto the collapsing grill (a thrilling sequence!). Thankfully, the missing bars exist on this track on the 1995 DCC release, although Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra appear to be more on-their-game overall in terms of sync in the take used for the truncated 1981 version and in this release. Considering what a complex and precise action sequence this is, however, one can't help but marvel at the talent of Williams and these musicians of the LSO, to hit their "marks" with such precision within 1/24th of a second! Anyone with sound mixing or editing software and CD burning capability can easily create their own "hybrid remix" to restore the missing notes and create their own complete version for their own CD.



The music for Ride to the Nazi Hideout, the scene inside the German U-boat, also requires some editing to create a note-perfect mix of the music as heard in the film, since this scene clearly underwent umpteen editing revisions prior to release, including a brief shot of Indy riding the sub's periscope, which would logically explain his arriving in the U-boat hangar ahead of the sub, but was deemed to ridiculous a superhero feat by Lucas, even for Indy.



The Miracle of the Ark, when the Ark is opened and the spirits come out to destroy everyone, also requires editing in several key spots, most notably when the beautiful angel transforms into a hideous corpse to Toht's screaming horror and the subsequent mightmarish mayhem that follows.



Overall, the music from this CD, combined with Uncovering the Ark from disc 4 of the Indy quadrilogy set, presents the Raiders score in as close to complete as we've ever heard it! Given the proper editing and re-sequencing of particular bursts of notes, it appears the only pieces missing are when Marion is thrown into the pit, and when she encounters the mummified corpses...not bad! Until Lucasfilm releases a 2-disc set of this movie-music masterpiece powerhouse (if ever), this is the de-facto version of John Williams' score that, as Spielberg says, "tells our hero when to run or duck, whether to kiss the heroine or smash the enemy".



Meanwhile, this intrepid archeologist and sound editor will now embark on his own quest to mix and thus create an "as close to complete" version of the Raiders score as possible, for his own personal enjoyment and not for distribution. Happy listening!"