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| Williams |
Raiders of the Lost Ark: (John Williams) Director
Steven Spielberg confessed to actor Roger Moore in the late 1970's that
he had significant interest in helming a future James Bond entry.
Unfortunately, due to the rule that no director in the 007 franchise
would receive a cut of the profits, a Spielberg necessity, the pairing
was never destined to be realized. Instead, Spielberg met up with George
Lucas in late 1977, after both had achieved massive success in the
mainstream, and decided that the two would have to collaborate on a
serial-like adventure at some point in the following years. That
partnership would manifest itself in
Raiders of the Lost Ark in
1981, with the James Bond character mutated into a rough but tough
professor and archeologist, Indiana Jones. The dusty world of the late
1930's is the playground for stark contrasts between good and evil in
the early years of the Indiana Jones franchise, and despite the
impressive box office returns of all four films in that series,
Raiders of the Lost Ark remains as the critical and popular
favorite. Regardless of Paramount's attempts in the 2000's to change the
name of this film to
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost
Ark, don't let shameless marketing manipulation tarnish one of the
greatest titles ever to bestow an adventure film. The production had
everything you could ask for: the likable and believable hero, strong
romantic chemistry, interesting secondary characters, an awesome
combination of stunts and special effects, a touch of ancient history,
the wrath of God, several hair-raising escapes from impossible
situations, a genuine sense of humor, and, without a doubt, a classic
score by John Williams. The composer was at the pinnacle of his career,
enjoying a period from 1977 to 1983 when he could do little wrong,
defining the Bronze Age of film music with his thematically memorable
orchestral powerhouses for blockbuster movies. Williams' score for
Raiders of the Lost Ark was among nine Academy Award nominations
for Spielberg's picture, and the fact that Williams' score was not among
the film's five Oscar wins remains a great source of frustration
(Vangelis, who won for the soon badly dated
Chariots of Fire,
didn't even attend the ceremony;
Raiders of the Lost Ark lost to
Chariots of Fire in the major categories as well).
The spirit of Williams' style for
Raiders of the Lost
Ark is finely tuned to the adventuresome tone of the film's story,
matching the exuberance of each of its scenes with the same precision of
theme and emotion that would reinvent itself as "magic" in
E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial the following year. The title march attracts the
most obvious attention when the masses recall
Raiders of the Lost
Ark, but in reality the extremely effective and even catchy
subthemes for the score are equally vital to the score's success. Still,
it's the title march you hear in stadiums and in trailers for the
following entries in the franchise; just as Monty Norman's theme for
James Bond and Williams' theme for Darth Vader are engrained in pop
culture as the most obvious musical representations of one serial movie
character, the march for Indy Jones is worthy of the same distinction.
The score is a rare occasion in which the entire package, with only a
few small detriments in lesser cues, is better than the brightest
moments of almost any other score. Williams so thoroughly nails the
pulse of this picture, from the melodramatic awe of the Ark to the
gritty rhythms of Jones resilience as he battles a convey of trucks,
that
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a cinematic experience much
greater in both intensity and entertainment value because of Williams'
contribution. Three major themes exist in the score, and the purpose of
each is so clear that the composer would work all of them into sequels
in the franchise. A variety of lesser motifs, including secondary
phrases of these major themes, occupy significant roles in the work.
There has long been speculation about additional motifs in
Raiders of
the Lost Ark, though while Williams does definitely conjure
auxiliary ideas throughout the score, their direct application (for
labeling purposes) remains open for debate. What isn't contested is the
harmonic beauty of the score, especially in the themes for Marion
Ravenwood and the Ark of the Covenant. Even the film's major action
sequences (no less than four of which exist) offer exhilarating tonal
structures and readily enjoyable rhythms, producing a consistently fluid
experience on album. It was an era during which Williams' writing didn't
contain as many complex layers, and the listener is rewarded with a very
clean set of constructs not obscured by an excess of distracting
orchestrations.
It is often because of this perfect blend of smart
thematic ideas and their straightforward rendering that the early 1980's
are remembered fondly by Williams fans and movie buffs alike. Unlike the
Star Wars prequel scores, the three
Harry Potter entries,
and other major action and adventure works of the next decades by the
maestro,
Raiders of the Lost Ark doesn't hide its intentions in
flurries of hyperactive secondary lines within the orchestra. It's a
score that smacks you across the face with performances that
occasionally even lack counterpoint, driving home the point in a
particular scene with the same creative and resilient, but ultimately
simplistic mentality of Dr. Jones himself (Williams ironically labored
on the theme to great lengths, though). Some listeners might consider
the title march to be rather sparse in performance for these exact
reasons, but since Indy isn't a complicated fellow, the catchy brass
theme is his most valuable sidekick. At the time of the film's debut,
the lack of an overture performance of this theme meant that audiences
didn't hear this identity until the finale of the film's first
remarkable chase sequence. Only in the rolling of the "End Credits" did
audiences hear the theme in the concert version so famous today because
of its album releases in original and re-recorded form. After several
redemptive renditions of theme starting at the one-minute mark in
"Flight from Peru," the theme returns in significant parts of "Airplane
Fight," "Desert Chase," "The German Sub," not to mention more subtle
applications such as those in "Ark Trek" and the end of "To the Nazi
Hideout." Perhaps the most effective uses of the theme come during the
map sequences of the film, showing Jones' movements on plane and ship
around the world. In "Journey to Nepal," "To Cairo," "To the Nazi
Hideout," as well as similar map sequences extending all the way to
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, spirited
fragments of both the title theme and others during these scenes are
moments for Williams' music to shine, and it's also during these cues
that the composer often inserts gong hits and other creative elements to
suggest a culture change. The title theme's most glorious performance
comes in "The German Sub," during which Williams pays tribute to Erich
Wolfgang Korngold's sense of swashbuckling style with a pompous
variation of the theme well suited for Jones' cheered submarine
ride.
While "The Raiders March" (the title of its short overture
translation on album) is the centerpiece of the score, film score fans
may tend to find more residual enjoyment in the other two major themes
of
Raiders of the Lost Ark. The first comes with Marion and the
obvious chemistry between her and Indy. Its structure, orchestration,
and performance are remarkably similar to the love theme from
Superman, and each of its appearances in
Raiders of the Lost
Ark is equally lovely. The theme is introduced at the very beginning
of "Journey to Nepal," as her name is first mentioned, and it flourishes
in its first major performance in the "To Cairo" travel cue as Marion
and Indy join forces. The most abrasive performance of her theme comes
at the end of "The Basket Game," with pulsating brass punctuating Indy's
belief that Marion has died in a truck explosion (though a sensitive
woodwind performance following helps sooth the lament). The scenes of
Marion's imprisoned interactions in "Reunion and the Dig Begins" offer a
few bright spots in an otherwise tense cue, and as she and Indy escape
aboard ship, their first scene of suggested intimacy is provided with
the closest performance to the concert arrangement in "Marion's Theme"
(a cue struck short in the film by the burning of the Ark through its
wooden box, scored by Williams with the most unpleasant dissonance of
the entire work). Aside from the normal interlude to the march in "End
Credits," Williams only suggests Marion's theme again on fleeting flute
at the end of "The Miracle of the Ark" and in more assuring tones in the
first thirty seconds of "The Warehouse," as our favorite duo departs the
screen. This theme would return in 2008 during
Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with Marion's re-integration into the
plotline served with several hints of her theme before her marriage to
Indy in the final scene is served with a flourishing, gorgeous string
performance not much unlike that in the "Marion's Theme" cue in
Raiders of the Lost Ark. An abbreviated version of the concert
arrangement for the theme would conclude the mid-section of the "End
Credits" for the fourth film as well. Despite all of the attention
afforded to the title march and love themes, however, neither offers the
most powerful support of any theme in the film. That distinction
develops for the Ark itself.
One of Williams' most brilliant and underrated themes, the
music for the mysterious Ark of the Covenant is both attractive in its
religious weight and frightening in its ominous, descending structure.
Themes of such melodramatic gravity, unforgivingly paced and beautifully
oppressive, are a rarity in Williams' career. Only its placement amongst
the more famous, comparatively fluffy themes in
Raiders of the Lost
Ark restrains it from more popular greatness. Williams teases with
the primary half of the theme at 0:20 into "Journey to Nepal" (as the
Ark is mentioned) before finally unleashing it in one of its two major
choral performances in "The Map Room: Dawn." Thereafter, it is a
faithful reminder of the coveted artifact in "Reunion and the Dig
Begins," mutates into its death march variation in "Ark Trek," and
lights up the crowd (literally) with the second monumental choral
rendition in "The Miracle of the Ark." Williams even allows it the final
chime-banging crescendo of the film, closing out "The Warehouse" in
equally ominous but remarkably glorious fashion. There is no doubt that
the major performances of this theme in "The Map Room: Dawn" and "The
Miracle of the Ark" are the highlights of the score, serving the
religious element without any limit in scope. Interestingly, much debate
exists about the secondary phrase of the theme for the Ark (and
additionally the medallion necessary to help locate its resting place).
While some listeners and critics believe that the medallion itself
actually has a dedicated theme, it's more likely that the Ark theme,
like the title march, simply has a built-in secondary phrase that was
coincidentally used in the scene during which Marion first gazes upon
the medallion. This makes more sense because while the phrase does
appear at the very start of "The Medallion," its most prominent
full-ensemble performances exist at 0:40 into "Ark Trek" and explosively
at 2:55 into "The Miracle of the Ark." Since the medallion has no role
at that point in the film, the music you hear in "The Medallion" is
likely representative of some aspect of the Ark itself, whether it's
religious, historical, or something else. The theme heard on horn at
about 1:00 into "The Medallion" is sometimes confused with being
representative of the medallion, but this music is better classified as
an extension of the theme for the black-clad Nazi agent Toht, whose
mission is to acquire the medallion for himself.
The other themes employed by Williams in
Raiders of the
Lost Ark aren't quite as obvious, and some contention exists over
the composer's intent with a few of those ideas. Unlike the primary
three themes, the others tend to be underdeveloped due to the brevity of
their on-screen inspirations, and this lack of clarity is often
considered one of the score's few weaknesses. The use of secondary
phrases within themes has already been discussed in terms of the
material for the Ark and medallion. The title theme itself features a
secondary phrase that has aged better than the more famous half.
Speculation suggests that this phrase represents Jones in motion, but to
apply it that specifically is likely going too far. Its first
performance is its most attractively elongated in tempo, gracefully
accompanying Indy as he panics over a snake in the plane escape from
Peru. Two triumphant performances of this phrase exist in "Desert Chase"
(at 2:55 and 7:20), and Williams uses it as a bridge to the primary
phrase of the title march after the statements of the secondary themes
in each of his "End Credits" suites for the franchise. The Nazis, on the
other hand, despite claims to the contrary, do have their own distinct
theme, though it would not be used by Williams for
Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade. It likely fools some listeners because it takes so
long for Williams to first state it in full form. Its striking sixteenth
notes on high trumpets over rhythmically relentless timpani (first used
at 2:05 into "Airplane Fight") are a throwback to Williams' minor theme
for the Empire in the first
Star Wars film. Translations onto
lower brass later in "Airplane Fight" really expose these similarities.
The theme receives snare accompaniment at 1:45 and 4:15 in "Desert
Chase." These two cues offer Jones in his closest combat with the Nazis,
so the application of the most obvious performances of that theme in
only these two tracks makes sense. A few hints of the theme exist
elsewhere, include one at 1:30 in "The German Sub." An offshoot of the
Nazi theme becomes a short announcement of bold, minor-key brass for
Agent Toht, and this idea is appropriately alluded to at 1:20 into
"Journey to Nepal" before erupting at his entrance at 0:45 into "The
Medallion." The theme makes its last contributions in the middle of
"Reunion and the Dig Begins." As mentioned before, the faint horn solo
after his little fanfare in "The Medallion" likely represents him and
not the medallion.
The only other obvious recurring motif in
Raiders of
the Lost Ark is a sort of "general artifact theme" that Williams
uses twice as Indy approaches an answer to a historical conundrum while
deep in an underground temple. This rolling bass woodwind and string
motif raises anticipation to palpable levels at 2:45 in the cue "In the
Idol's Temple" and at 1:00 in "The Map Room: Dawn." The churning of the
bassoon early in the performance of this motif during "In the Idol's
Temple" is delicious. The remaining thematic ideas that Williams uses
throughout
Raiders of the Lost Ark are largely singular, ranging
from the digging/encampment motif throughout the first half of "The Map
Room: Dawn" (which also made a curious appearance in
Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) to the memorable and spirited
motif of comedy in "The Basket Game" (which foreshadowed some of the
fluffier material to eventually come from
Hook and the
Harry
Potter scores). Other techniques that Williams uses in
Raiders of
the Lost Ark, mostly in choice of instrumentation or rhythm, aid the
score's superior character. The
Jaws-like rhythm on strings
during the snake scene in "Flight from Peru" is cute, as is the single
chime representing the tolling of a bell upon the arrival to the
university setting at the end of that cue. During the map sequences, the
gong hit for the arrival in Nepal (an early touch of
Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom) and the slight Arabic progression upon the
arrival in Cairo are classy touches. The shooting of the master
swordsman in the middle of "The Basket Game" is a classic example of a
cue that can tell the story of the scene by itself. As Indy just goes
ahead and shoots his fierce opponent (an unscripted change by Ford
during filming), Williams unleashes a burst of brass that resembles,
quite kiddingly, Jerry Goldsmith's
The Wind and the Lion. There
is little disagreement that "Desert Chase" is one of the greatest action
cues of the Bronze or Digital Ages; Williams' tempo slightly increases
as the 8-minute cue progresses, cranking up the intensity as Jones
knocks off one Nazi in the convoy after another. The aforementioned
dissonant crescendo used for the scene in which the Ark burns a hole
through the Nazi crate on the boat is not the same as what was
originally recorded by Williams.
In the later cues, the first minute of "The German Sub"
offers staggered percussive rhythms and brass that will remind many
Williams collectors of the rebel preparation scenes on the snow planet
of Hoth at the start of
The Empire Strikes Back. The last
singular moment of note occurs as the villains melt and explode as they
gaze in the Ark. Williams uses struck percussion to accentuate the
dissonant strings and aimless brass figures that accompany their deaths,
and, after the Ark theme's one final choral expression, Williams allows
the its final note to swirl like the wind, fluttering downward to the
moment the Ark's lid lands. On the whole,
Raiders of the Lost Ark
is so full of such remarkable moments that attempting to analyze each
one is pointless. The score does have a few weaknesses, however. The
development and consistency of the secondary themes is not as tightly
organized as it is in other classic Williams scores of the era.
Additionally, there are a few cues of a more ambient nature that rely on
subtle orchestrations to convey emotions. Normally, this obviously isn't
a problem, but in the case of
Raiders of the Lost Ark, so much of
the score is brazenly obvious and handled by the full ensemble that the
quieter moments are easy to dismiss. Foremost in the cues to skip is the
lengthy "The Well of the Souls," accompanying the scene in which Indy
and Marion are buried alive in the underground room that held the Ark.
Turbulent undercurrents, dissonant brass and woodwinds, tingling
percussion for the snakes, and the absence of any organized thematic
references make the cue largely unremarkable. Also of less interest are
"Main Title: South America, 1936" and the first half of "In the Idol's
Temple," which, outside of a burst of brass at the end of the first cue,
rely on plucked strings and meandering woodwinds to convey the
uncertainty and foreign atmosphere of the quest. In the actual chase
half of "Flight from Peru," this general idea is heightened to almost
comical levels. The shorter concert arrangement of the title theme,
entitled "The Raiders March," is largely redundant and, in retrospect,
only serves to worsen the fact that the theme is so overplayed
(historically) that it has lost some of its initial appeal. Overall,
however, such quibbles with
Raiders of the Lost Ark are of little
consequence. The score remains vastly superior to its sequels, despite
each of their individual strengths.
Finding the classic scores of Williams' career from the
late 1970's to the early 1980's was a frustrating and often expensive
proposition in the early 1990's. Then, in the latter half of the 90's,
many of these scores received incredible treatment on expanded CD
albums. The first score to be preserved in better form was indeed
Raiders of the Lost Ark, which set a trend with its outstanding
re-release in 1995. Various labels went on to expand
E.T. in
1996, the
Star Wars scores in 1997,
Close Encounters of the
Third Kind in 1998, and
Superman in 2000, leaving
Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom as the lone holdout (a disappointment
that continued until 2008). A CD adaptation of the original 1981
Raiders of the Lost Ark LP record was pressed in 1985 by Polydor,
and just as with
Return of the Jedi, both the American and West
German pressings of that product went out of print and, by the early
1990's, had become moderate collectibles. That 42-minute album offered
all the major cues, but its presentation was heavily edited and out of
film order. In 1995, however, these albums' values depreciated upon the
expanded, 73-minute releases of
Raiders of the Lost Ark by DCC in
America and Silva in Great Britain. Three separate expanded re-releases
came out of that 1995 bonanza, including both a regular CD (with a white
cover), a limited pressing (with a useless, gold slip cover), and, most
interestingly, a high quality double-LP version with a white cover and
gold border. All of these 1995 products offered at least 30 additional
minutes over lengthened tracks and eight major, previously unreleased
cues. The 1995 vinyl release was the gem, however, because it features
five additional minutes of material in "The Well of the Souls" not
available on the CDs (including a notably frenzied performance of the
Ark theme near the end). While stretching a CD to 79:20 in length was
prohibitive, certainly at least some of that material could have been
edited onto the CD pressings. It's a small annoyance, but then again,
how many expanded scores of this era were only pressed on vinyl? Both
CDs contain the same music (if you hustled to the stores immediately in
November of 1995, you got the gold slip cover version), remastered into
superior sound and featuring an impressive 24-page booklet with
track-by-track analysis and interviews.
Much anticipation resulted from the announcement in
2008 that Concord Records, the group responsible for the release of
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, had decided
to compile a set of all four scores in the franchise and include
significant portions of additional, previously unreleased material from
the first three scores. There were reports that
Raiders of the Lost
Ark would be released separately from the set, which would have been
beneficial for those not interested in either the sequel scores or
potentially doubling up on the commercial release of the fourth score.
With that individual album scrapped at the last minute, those
interesting in hearing even more unreleased music from
Raiders of the
Lost Ark only had the option of purchasing the $45 set with a
redundant album for the fourth film. The set advertises remastered
sound, though the 1995 product's presentation was already vastly
improved. Some cues in the 2008 set version seem to feature slightly
more reverberation, though this is debatable. Of all four scores in the
franchise,
Raiders of the Lost Ark needed the least assistance in
achieving complete status on album, and the fact that Concord failed to
provide the totality of material from this one score is disappointing.
It simply leaves the door open for another product in the future to
clean up the mess and collect more money from fans. Most of the
additional music from "The Well of the Souls" on the 1995 LP is provided
in the form of "Uncovering the Ark" on the supplemental, fifth CD of
additional music in the set (along with the concert version of "Raiders
March"). Of the three additional cues included on the actual first CD of
that set, all are about a minute in length and only "Washington Men,"
with its eerie, choral introduction of the Ark theme, is worth the
trouble. Unfortunately, the "Desert Chase" cue has been unnecessarily
trimmed down to its 1985 album length, and a couple of other minutes of
odds and ends from the score remain unreleased. Unfortunately, what the
2008 set creates is a situation that once again forces fans to make
their own compilation of material from the score. It is also very short
on analysis about the score in the otherwise bloated packaging. Still,
on the whole, there's no reason not to have either of the 1995 or 2008
albums in your collection. The only better sensation would be to find
the Ark of the Covenant buried in your back yard. Well, maybe.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
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