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When I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time on my sixth birthday, it was a watershed moment in my childhood. After witnessing spectacular stunts, melting Nazis and Harrison Ford playing the fedora-clad badass Indiana Jones, I had a new idol. With my best friend in tow, I was hell-bent on recreating the death-defying stunts from the flick, including an attempt to hang on a car's rear axle and mimicking Indy's trip underneath a Nazi truck. I begged my parents for a bullwhip of my own for Christmas, but they wisely refused, denying my dreams of becoming Mesa's foremost relic hunter.

Needless to say, when the announcement came earlier this year that the "Indiana Jones" trilogy was finally coming to DVD, I was stoked. I could pitch my well-worn VHS copies of the films and embrace the wave of the future.

Hell, I finally gave in to progress and a DVD player for this set alone.

It's too bad my excitement of watching the films in widescreen with crystal clear picture and sound was dulled by DVD's dearth of special features, essentially what the format has been known for.

Make no mistake, Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels are among my favorite flicks and the pre-eminent action film of the 1980s. It spawned a host of imitators on big and small screens alike. (Anyone remember the short-lived 1982 TV show, Bring 'Em Back Alive starring Bruce Boxleitner?)

The brainchild of Hollywood über-directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who conceived the series on a Hawaiian beach in 1977, the film series is homage to the serials and B-movies of their youth. Much like Star Wars was equal parts Flash Gordon and J.R.R. Tolkien, Indiana Jones was equal parts Fred C. Dobbs, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Cary Grant.

Spielberg especially wanted to create his own version of James Bond, an adventurous hero who could recover the lost Ark of the Covenant, defeat the Nazis and still have time to romance Marion Ravenwood (played by Karen Allen).

The film took the world by storm, and the moviegoers demanded more. The pair responded, creating a more brutal and adrenaline-fueled prequel in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a complete departure from what Lucas and Spielberg established in Raiders. Indiana was still heroic, yes, but not as squeaky-clean in the first film, portrayed as more of a rougish grave robber out for "fortune and glory." It provided added dimension to the series instead of simply serving up more of the same.

Not to say that Temple of Doom is not a flawed film. Willie Scott, the film's heroine as played by Spielberg consort Kate Capshaw, is not the tough-as-nails broad that Marion Ravenwood was in Raiders. After dealing with her shrill voice for most of the film, I was hoping Indy would have dropped her into the lava. Short Round, played by future-Goonie Ke Huy Quan, also provides some comic relief ("Dr. Jones, no time for love!") but illustrates how Lucas suffers from a terminal case of "cute-sidekick disease," the same affliction that spawned Jar Jar Binks.

Having been scarred by the backlash to the Temple of Doom, Lucas and Spielberg retreated to safer ground with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The film borrows wholesale from Raiders, regurgitating both its structure and villains (the Nazis). While not as groundbreaking as its predecessors, Last Crusade gave Spielberg a chance to pay homage to the series' James Bondian roots by casting Sean Connery as Indy's dad. The repartee between Connery and Ford is one of the film's highlights, as is the story of enlightenment found through the Holy Grail.

The DVD presentations of the films are impressive. Any trace of scratches, dirt or flaws present in the VHS versions have been erased. The colors are vibrant as the film has been remastered by Lucas film. While not being a hi-fi audiophile, I still enjoyed that the films now boast THX and 5.1 surround sound.

Thankfully, Lucas and Spielberg haven't given into their revisionist impulses and left the special effects intact, rather than tampering with them (à la the Star Wars and ET special editions). They look a bit aged, but that just adds to the films' charm.

As awesome as the presentation of the films are, that's how big of a disappointment the lack of special features and extras are. You get a fourth disc filled with five substantial documentaries that contain tons of behind-the-scenes footage covering everything from the special effects to the stunts. But for hardcore fans like myself who already know most of the back-story of the films, it's old hat. (Though I had no idea Ford performed a majority of the stunts in the films himself.)

After producing jam-packed DVD versions of Star Wars prequels, this is something of a letdown. Where's the commentary featuring two of the greatest directors in modern cinema? Where are the long-awaited deleted scenes? (Especially the one explaining how Indy survived the submarine trip to the Nazi hideout.)

I'm certain Lucas is falling prey to the avarice that has dominated most of his career. Get the fans to pop for "basic" set now and have them return for a super-deluxe, feature-packed version that's sure to be released once the fourth film (tentatively scheduled for summer 2005) comes to DVD.

As for me, I'm content with this version and will settle for downloading the special features off the Internet. Now, if I can only get my hands on a bullwhip ...

Reach the reporter at benjamin.leatherman@asu.edu.


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