With great fanfare, the INDIANA JONES trilogy comes to DVD Oct. 21, 2003 (Paramount Home Entertainment, $49.95) in a handsome four-disc set. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (now bearing the INDIANA JONES AND THEmoniker), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE have never looked or sounded better at home. They've been digitally cleaned up by Lowry Digital Images and remastered by THX. And the extras on disc 4 are like archaeological treasures. They include "Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy," a new exhaustive behind-the-scenes glimpse into the production of each film, containing new interviews with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and rare archival footage from the Lucasfilm vaults, including a screen test between Tom Selleck and Sean Young and all sorts of on-set banter.
Plus there's "The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones," which recounts Industrial Light & Magic's groundbreaking vfx before the advent of CGI. Included are animatics of the fiery RAIDERS climax and a previs of the famous mine car chase, in which models were shot with a 35mm Nikon still camera on little railroad tracks in an underground cave set made out of aluminum foil. Technicians explain their creative use of miniatures, matte paintings and morphing in pulling off the famous stunts and chases.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
