INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

JOHN WILLIAMS

Rating:

Original Review: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a great action score, but I would draw the line a it being one of the best scores Williams has ever written - what about the three Star Wars movies, E.T., Hook and Schindler's List? It starts well with a light-hearted action cue - 'Indy's Very First Adventure' - which starts off quiet and moody with lots of creeping strings, but then emerges as a nice playful melody with flutes and a big brass and percussion beat, but I feel that this score's main let down is it's lack of a strong central theme - in fact, only two or three minor themes of sorts stand out at all - and its criminal under-use of the wonderful Raiders March. The first rendition of the new, serious, solemn but beautiful 'Grail Theme' appears briefly in the second cue, 'X Marks the Spot', with a muted horn playing in the background. It is played again at the end of 'Escape from Venice', and gets a heartfelt rendition at the start of 'The Penitent Man Will Pass'. The second theme is the theme for Indy and Henry, a homely-sounding theme played on a muted woodwind, which appears for the first time during the opening of 'The Keeper of the Grail'. There is also a menacing 'Nazi theme' which appears at various times during action cues. My favourite cue, I think, is the oddly titled 'Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra' (can anyone tell me what a scherzo is?), which again starts off quite amusingly with a floating woodwind theme but then, with a sudden burst of the original Raiders theme and what sounds like the introduction to the Superman Theme, turns into an exciting action cue with the same theme, this time played on an urgent horn, backed by undulating strings and brass fanfares. 'Ah , Rats!!!' starts with the sound of a double bass groaning, but then becomes a surprisingly beautiful cue, as the originally silent brasses come to the fore and play excerpts the Grail Theme as the body of the Grail Knight is found beneath Venice. It ends with a violent-sounding action sequence and a great drumroll then leads into 'Escape from Venice', another good action cue with a nice rhythm to it and even some traditional Italian instruments thrown in. Tracks 8-12 are mainly out-and-out action cues, each combining lots of swirling string work, booming brasses, cymbal clashes and the like, as well as snippets of the Grail and Indy & Henry themes and some unusual middle-eastern rhythms - all of which are very good and entertaining (especially #10, 'Belly of the Steel Beast', which has a wonderfully deep cello-based throbbing undercurrent and has the same sort of feel that 'The Battle of Yavin' from Star Wars has - lots of quick cuts between sections of the orchestra to simulate fast movement and excitement). The score finishes with renditions of the Grail Theme, the Indy & Henry Theme, the Scherzo and (finally!) the Raiders March over the End Credits to bring things to a close.

Track Listing: Running Time: 59 minutes 02 seconds

Warner Bros. 7599-25833-2 (1989)

Music composed and conducted by John Williams. Orchestrations by Herbert W. Spencer. Recorded and mixed by Dan Wallin. Edited by Ken Wannberg. Album produced by John Williams.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.