WGA, pt.6: Whipped Adventure Served with Gilded Brass (Raiders Of The Lost Ark - John Williams - Soundtrack)

Member Name: berlioz II

Product:	Raiders Of The Lost Ark - John Williams - Soundtrack
Date:	07/12/06 (620 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Perfection in film scoring: works in film and works just as well alone

Disadvantages: Scarcity of album very unfortunate

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Hello, everybody! I am again returning with a new edition to my survey of composer John Williams’ Golden Age scores, moving forward to the sixth volume. It is quite incredible to note how one man’s musical expertise was responsible for basically creating some of the most easily recognizable themes ever in the history of film music within just a few years apart from one another. 1980 was entirely donated for the composition of the second part of George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, which brought back not only the popular Star Wars fanfare and Force theme, but also introduced the immortal Imperial March of Darth Vader and the philosophical Yoda’s theme to just as much acclaim as the original themes. With 1981 pushing forth, Williams’ began it on a slightly curious move by scoring the rather silly Heartbeeps, a story about two futuristic servant robots falling in love and wanting to start a family. Starring Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters, the movie was cheesy and silly beyond belief and Williams followed suit with a weird electronic score that is far from enjoyable and is a million miles off from his most acclaimed work. However, this was but a sidestep as the following score of the year proved to be as much on par with Star Wars and Superman to make one easily forget that little deviation of form.
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In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were the new, hot filmmakers of a new, younger generation. With movies like Jaws, Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, these two directors shot themselves to the top with their intelligent, adventurous, popular and fresh approaches at manipulating old genres as well as creating some new paths never explored before. Among the series of films that originated at this time was the Indiana Jones series, featuring the dry (but apparently hunky) archeology teacher of a university at a professional level, who turns into an adventurous, whip-wielding hero in the best Saturday matinee adventure style in his leisure (played wonderfully by Harrison Ford). Although the genre was a far cry from the more sophisticated and more realistic movies by others (or even by themselves), Raiders of the Lost Ark was great popcorn entertainment whose popularity proved very influential among other action adventure films that followed. The story was fast-paced with a plot that worked well, it was well-acted, had charm and it still remains as one of the most well-proportioned, paced and entertaining films I have ever seen. And then there was the score by John Williams.

After Williams scored Star Wars he set out a trend that brought back the art of traditional orchestral film scores and soon this became the standard for many other composers that followed. Composed during a time of great creative productiveness, Raiders continued the renaissance of orchestral film scores with its by now identifiable Williams sound and spearheaded by an incredibly catchy main theme (what else?). Known as the “Raiders’ March,” this theme was full of that robust and optimistic attitude that Harrison Ford’s rough and heroic archeologist Indiana Jones exemplified. Like the main fanfare of Star Wars, the Raiders’ March is also infamously well known and it has caused some deterioration in overall enjoyability. After years of playing it everywhere, it has suffered from the curse of over-exposure, so that many today are a little deterred by it. However, when the entire score is studied more closely it becomes more obvious that the Raiders’ March really doesn’t figure all that prominently in the film as one would have expected. It does get a proper workout in the cues “Flight from Peru”, “Desert Chase”, “The German Sub” and “End Credits”, but otherwise it is only mostly referenced to, never allowing it to dominate above the other material. What I found quite interesting, though, was that the theme is actually constructed of two themes Williams originally proposed for Spielberg. The first is the heroic and optimistic fanfare that is filled with that wonderful sense of adventure, while the other is more lyrical in nature, evening out the more robust sides of the music. When he asked Spielberg which one he would prefer, Spielberg just said, “Why don’t you just use both?” Therefore Williams combined the two separate melodies, and thus was born another timeless theme into Williams’ already bursting canon of great themes.

Complementing the theme for Indiana Jones, there is the romantic theme for Marion, which is first introduced as a reference in “Journey to Nepal” and gets its most pronounced appearances in “To Cairo”, “Reunion and the Dig Begins”, “Marion’s Theme” and “End Credits”. This is one of the most satisfying love themes I know, although it doesn’t actually rise above the level of intense passion like some other Williams’ love themes such as those for Superman and The Empire Strikes Back, but rather stays more soft, whimsical and charming. The third major theme is the one for the Ark of the Covenant. This theme is filled with a sense of religious euphoria with a mysterious and even a little foreboding twist of ancient power about it. This theme actually is the most dominating theme of the score and it makes large appearances in “The Map Room: Dawn”, “The Well of the Souls”, “The Miracle of the Ark” and “The Warehouse”. Apart from these major themes, there are also a few smaller motifs or themes that add some interesting color to the music. The Nazi’s have a very pompous march-like brass motif that is best heard in the cues “Airplane Fight” and “Desert Chase” and then there is the theme for the medallion that works as a point of growth to the Ark theme proper, also tinged with that ancient Egyptian sound, most notable in “The Medallion” and “Ark Trek.”

Raiders of the Lost Ark is, in my opinion, one of the most enjoyable film scores ever written and functions in much the same way as the movie itself: no matter how many times you hear it, it just keeps giving pleasure, despite having one of the most easily recognizable tunes ever created. The key element here is the great cohesiveness and sense of fun in the music. Whereas many scores of today tend to have such wall to wall scoring that about 97% of a movie contains music (some of it over dialogue scenes and often being nothing more that atmospheric rumbling in addition to the places where the music is at its most set up), Raiders, like many other early Williams compositions, features such straight-to-the-point scoring which makes it a model example of music in film where every note seems to bare importance. Such cohesiveness really makes the score in itself so much more entertaining and definitely not boring. Performed with great enthusiasm by the London Symphony Orchestra, the original recording has a great sense of fun that no re-recording has been able to reproduce, as well as featuring wonderfully rich sound, which is quite a testament to the quality products that rolled out from Abbey Road in the early 1980’s.

There are many highlights that are sprinkled throughout the score and keep the listener interested. The first group of cues that take place in South America have a great tropical flavour to them that culminates with the giant boulder scene in “In the Idol’s Temple”. The funny, scherzo-like “The Basket Game” has been a big Williams favorite for a long time now, as is the stand-out cue “The Map Room: Dawn”, a cue that combines the Medallion and Ark themes in a grand, four minute progressively developing excitement, beginning softly at first, but culminating with blazing brass and choir in a brilliant display of Williams’ sense of drama (being one of my absolute favourite scenes ever). Of equal stature is the fabulous “Desert Chase” where Indy’s theme, the nazi motif, and some more of Williams’ lightly jumping scherzo music are combined to make one of the most effective and synchronised action sequences ever made for any film. Here Williams really shows his skills at writing highly choreographed action music. Precise and to the point, there is nothing unnecessary in this eight-minute cue. And finally there is the cue where the Ark is opened. The Medallion and Ark themes dominate here, surging up and down with foreboding power as well as a great sense of dread. Williams also pulls out some really terrific horror music, as the Ark proves to contain something more than was bargained for, ending in a spalsh of heavenly might and biblical destruction.

The original Polydor album contained roughly 40 minutes of music. This release, however, was far from satisfactory. Many tracks were cut down (most notably the “Desert Chase”) or spliced together from separate cues (like “Well of the Souls” that also included music from the Idol’s Temple). Also missing were many of the smaller cues as well as some of the notable lengthier ones such as the “Airplane Fight”. In 1995, however, Silva Screen released an expanded album that arranged all the cues in film order, expanded many of the previously cut tracks and included many of the unreleased scenes like the complete South America sequence, the “Journey to Nepal” travelogue cue, the “Airplane Fight,” “Ark Trek,” as well as the “Dig Begins” sequence. Running a full 73 minutes, it contains nearly all the music featured in the film. Only in the Well of the Souls sequence has some music been eliminated in order to accommodate the music on one CD. Included are some of the best liner notes I have seen, complete with full colour production drawings and photos, a track by track analysis by Lukas Kendall, and quotes from Williams himself. This expanded release really makes the original release completely obsolete and corrects many of that album’s flaws.

However, in the changing marketing climate, the expanded album has since then gone out of print and is unfortunately only available second hand as of now, and you can bet the prices are steep (I bought mine at the fashionable time in 2002 for €20 from my local big store just in the nick of time). Looking at Amazon.uk the cheapest at the moment seems to be a US import at £39.99, while the European Silva Screen release is set at a whopping £69.99! EBay also lists the score from several sellers ranging at the moment of writing from $15 to £79. I’ve also seen a rather curious “25th Anniversary Edition” of the score on eBay that goes up from €21, containing 20 tracks instead of the 19 on the Silva release (in effect containing the cut out “Well of the Souls” material). Produced by “Indiana Industries” in 2005 and touting to be a real factory made one, not a bootleg, it could be kept in mind when searcing the score, though I have absolutely no details of this release’s legitimacy or quality. Still, this is a quintessential Williams score that is a pleasure to hear time and time again. It is one of those scores that I hold within my top 10 film scores of all time and should be found from any serious collector. If you find it, you’d be wise to get it. It won’t disappoint.


TRACK LISTING

Original 1981/1988 Polydor album
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (6:05)
2. Escape from Peru (2:26)
3. The Map Room: Dawn (3:58)
4. The Basket Game (4:50)
5. The Well of the Souls (5:00)
6. Desert Chase (7:44)
7. Marion’s Theme (3:13)
8. The Miracle of the Ark (6:14)
9. The Raiders’ March (2:29)


Expanded 1995 Silva Screen album
1. The Raiders’ March (2:50)
2. Main Title: South America, 1936* (4:10)
3. In the Idol’s Temple** (5:26)
4. Flight from Peru (2:20)
5. Journey to Nepal* (2:11)
6. The Medallion* (2:55)
7. To Cairo (1:29)
8. The Basket Game** (5:04)
9. The Map Room: Dawn (3:52)
10. Reunion and the Dig Begins* (4:10)
11. The Well of the Souls** (5:28)
12. Airplane Fight* (4:37)
13. Desert Chase** (8:15)
14. Marion’s Theme (2:08)
15. The German Sub*/To the Nazi Hideout* (4:32)
16. Ark Trek* (1:33)
17. The Miracle of the Ark (6:05)
18. The Warehouse* (0:56)
19. End Credits (5:20)

*Previously unreleased
** Contains previously unreleased material


Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams
Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
Orchestrations by Herbert W. Spencer
Recording Engineer: Eric Tomlinson
Recording Supervised by Lionel Newman
Recorded at Anvil Recording Studios, Denham and
EMI Abbey Road Studio No.1
Music Produced by John Williams
1995 Album Produced by Nick Redman
Polydor, 1988 (POCP 2013)
Silva Screen, 1995 (RAIDERS 001)

© berlioz, 2005, 2006

Summary: Fun, adventuresome, most certainly not a "guilty" pleasure... just perfect