 |
| Williams |
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: (John Williams)
With the fourth installment in the
Indiana Jones film franchise
long in the works, the final chapter of the story for two decades
remained
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, perhaps the most
humorous entry in the original trilogy. The introduction of Henry Jones
(Indy Jr.'s father) produces laughs sadly missing from
Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom, while the object of the chasing and
searching in
The Last Crusade is nothing less than the Holy Grail
itself. The film would mark the tenth collaboration between director
Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams, and the two were anxious to
move the musical identity of the franchise towards more mature
structures that would further distance it from the reliance on the
famous "Raiders March" theme from the original film. There were plenty
of fresh storylines with which to inspire Williams to write several new
themes and motifs for the never-ending chasing of the Joneses. The
religious elements of the story provide the same opportunity for
grandeur that Williams had employed with great effect for the Ark of the
Covenant in
Raiders of the Lost Ark, the presence of Henry Jones
allows Williams to explore the more personal and distantly sensitive
side of the main character, and the Nazis are treated to their own new
and robust theme. Missing no opportunity to make a splash, Williams
writes several cues with stand-alone identities throughout the middle of
the score that themselves have become concert pieces. As such, the music
for
The Last Crusade wanders in almost as many directions as
Hook would the following year (though with fewer actual themes,
of course), and there are many similarities in its fragmentation of
attention to the composer's much later
Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban. In both franchises, Williams would branch out so
effectively from the base identity of the original film that the newly
created identity would share only a few of the aspects that made the
original so memorable.
In
The Last Crusade, Williams has lost the magic
and sheer enthusiasm of
Raiders of the Lost Ark, but has
maintained his usual high standard of action writing to such a degree
that the score is still entertaining. Williams and Spielberg decided
that any extended use of the original march would be a symbolic pushing
of the "cheap thrill" button, and thus the only substantial presentation
of that theme exists in the customary end credits suite of all the
themes from the film. It's easy to understand why the country (and the
world, in fact) was becoming tired of the "Raiders March," for it had
received endless airtime in concert halls and public address systems
through the 1980's. But with its diminished role in
The Last
Crusade, also absent is the charming and exuberant element of the
music's impact on the film. By moving further from that addictive flair,
the franchise had almost musically recognized that it was tired, a
characteristic that wasn't lost on critics and audiences. To compensate,
Williams does try to continue the tradition of putting some humor into
the mix, though none of the brighter cues in
The Last Crusade can
still touch "The Basket Chase" from the original film. Williams marks
the early days of Indy's adventures at the outset of the film with a
playful theme that shares all too many elements in rhythm and
instrumentation with his obnoxious Ewok music from
Return of the
Jedi. Later, "No Ticket" is a more successful play on sharp,
deliberate string rhythms in a stand-alone piece. A somewhat humorous,
but fascinating cue remains "Scherzo For Motorcycle and Orchestra,"
perhaps the ultimate chase cue to end all chase cues for the beloved
archeologist. Embodying the more formidable Nazi theme for
The Last
Crusade, this cue is the highlight of the score in its frenzy of
action that perfectly merges the sophistication in movement for Henry
Jones, the impending danger from the Nazis, and the light-heartedness of
Indy's creative methodology.
The Nazis themselves received a somewhat fragmented
identity in
Raiders of the Lost Ark, and with
The Last
Crusade taking audiences into the heart of their country and
technology, Williams invents a grand motif in the style of a descending
fanfare for their posturing. This theme's integration into both the
scherzo and later cues is remarkably handled and, in many ways, it is
the most memorable aspect of the score. The theme for the Grail, or
better yet for its mystique, is appropriately ancient in its
progression, but is also quite simple, perhaps an attempt by Williams to
mirror the appearance of the Grail and its basic representation of
goodness. A sub-theme within the mould of the music for the Grail is
actually the Henry Jones theme, which is also a smart move by Williams
given that Indy's father is so obsessed with the artifact. Often
performed by woodwinds and strings after a statement of the Grail's
theme, Henry's theme is sympathetic, but never truly engaging, an
effective method of extending the separation within the family. Perhaps
the most surprising aspect of the religious music from
The Last
Crusade is the lack of consistent use of a choral element. While the
choir was an incredibly vital part of
Raiders of the Lost Ark's
"Map Room at Dawn" cue (and other representations of the Ark's power),
Williams allows most of the similarly rendered visuals on screen in this
film to pass with only the orchestra. His Grail theme is still
effective, but the lack of depth, especially compared to the engaging
single choral moment in "The Penitent Man Will Pass," is puzzling. More
so than in the other Indy scores, Williams seems to introduce snippets
of motifs in several places that are never fully realized. In doing so,
each major cue has its own personality traits, and some are more
effective than others. In the middle of "The Canyon of the Crescent
Moon," for instance, Williams utilizes a sudden, soft woodwind solo that
is never placed in proper context. Part of this confusion is caused by a
general lack of clarity of the Henry Jones material.
As is to be expected in any score of this franchise,
two chase cues stand out; both "Escape from Venice" and "Belly of the
Steel Beast" rely on propulsive rhythms, though neither seems to build
the same steam that listeners heard in "Desert Chase" from the first
film. The cue for the chase in Venice is playful in its instrumentation,
though sparse in the depth of those specialty contributions (the film
version of this cue does not exist on either the 1989 or 2008 albums).
While "Ah, Rats!!!" intelligently uses whining strings for the rodents,
the intriguing part of the music below Venice is Williams' reprise of
the Ark's theme from the first film as Indy and Elsa see its likeness
inscribed on a wall. On the whole,
The Last Crusade is a
competent and interesting score, but it fails to extend the bold
enthusiasm of
Raiders of the Lost Ark and the exotic
attractiveness of
Temple of Doom. The lack of choral use, as well
the absence of a sultry romance theme for the villainess (Williams
rarely lets a score like this go by without giving due time to the
sloppy kisses), could make you leave the score for
The Last
Crusade wanting more. Two important detractions from the score on
album prior to 2008 are significant to note, because they were factors
in some of the problems described above. First, the recording quality of
The Last Crusade, especially on the original 1989 album, is very
unsatisfactory. There is no dynamic vibrancy to the recording, with the
snare drum mixed annoyingly front and center, and with a sound so dry
that the effectiveness of the religious climax is sadly flat. Some of
this problem could be related to the recording of an 85-piece ensemble
in Los Angeles rather than the arguably more accomplished performers and
recording studios in London. In several of the most pertinent cues
during the score's latter half, the ensemble sucks the life out of
Williams' original ideas with performances that contain none of the
nobility or grandeur that the writing demands. The most popular piece
for concert performances from
The Last Crusade is, obviously, the
lengthy "End Credits" suite, but if you get a chance to hear several of
the other cues from within the middle of the score performed by other
ensembles with more current and advanced recording technologies, you
will almost always be impressed by those presentations.
Some of these problems with
The Last Crusade
were mitigated upon the 2008 release of a set of all four scores in the
franchise (including significant portions of additional, previously
unreleased material from the first three scores) by Concord Records, the
group responsible for the commercial album for
Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A longtime disappointment for fans of
the franchise was the lack of proper treatment of both
The Last
Crusade and
The Temple of Doom on album. The latter never
received a full release in the first place, and the hour from
The
Last Crusade on the commercial 1989 album not only suffers from the
aforementioned flat recording quality, but is also missing almost an
hour of music from the film (some of which quite memorable). A
late-1990's Japanese import of the album offered the same selections,
but with improved sound quality. Bootlegs of the complete score began
surfacing in 1997, though the sound quality of these, believe it or not,
was even worse than that of the commercial product. The Concord set
helps alleviate consumer angst, though with some string attached. The
set's remastered sound quality for
The Last Crusade is clearly
superior, finally solving that nagging problem. Roughly 33 minutes of
additional material from
The Last Crusade is available on the
set, 18 of which actually inserted amongst the previously available
material for a more rounded listening experience. Some fans will quibble
with the arrangement over two CDs or the editing of cues back into their
original recorded forms, though the score is still well served by this
set. The added material includes notable performances of the Grail theme
(in "Father's Study" and "Wrong Choice, Right Choice") and especially
the Nazi theme ("Alarm!," "Marcus Is Captured/To Berlin" and the
remainder of the blimp scene cues). Otherwise, however, the additional
music isn't strikingly memorable. There is still 15 minutes of major
cues missing (along with 5+ minutes of other, less significant bridge or
source recordings), leaving the door open for another product in the
future to clean up the mess and collect more money from fans. Only the
primary CD of that 2008 presentation was re-issued by Disney in 2024 as
part of a useless and expensive franchise set. Ultimately, some of those
fans will cling to their more complete bootlegs, but Concord's 2008
selection of music, despite forcing them to purchase all four scores,
was still long overdue and welcome.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68
(in 91 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 363,495 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
None of the inserts for the 1989 or 1997 products contain extra information about the
score or film.
The 2008 Concord and 2024 Disney sets contain bloated packaging with extensive photography
and short notes from the composer and director, but they surprisingly contain no analysis
of the music itself.
