dragonfire88's Full Review: J. W. Rinzler and Laurent Bouzereau - The Complete...
Over the last several years, I have started to pick up some books connected to different movies that I liked. I enjoy reading about how the movies are made and learning more about those things. I do have a few movie related books in my piles to read. When my electricity was knocked out for about 32 hours thanks to high winds, I grabbed my copy of The Complete Making of Indiana Jones and a flashlight.
The Complete Making of Indiana Jones is an oversize paperback book with 300 pages. The book was a bit bulky and it was awkward for me to hold while reading it. Part of my problem with that might have been because I was also holding a flashlight. I didn't have any issues with the size of the font, but some people might feel that it is too small. I think the font is a bit smaller than what has been used in some of the other similar books I have.
The book started with a short preface by George Lucas. He talked about some of the movies he enjoyed as a child and how he and Steven Spielberg became friends and decided to make a series of movies about an archeologist adventurer. The preface was followed by a slightly longer foreword written by Steven Spielberg. He talked about his friendship with George and making the Indiana Jones movies. Both men talked about how excited they were to be making Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The next page had information about the author J.W. Rinzler and Laurent Bouzereu, the man responsible for the new interviews with the cast and crew. That was followed by a page listing the main cast and some of the crew involved with each of the four Indiana Jones movies and an indication on which of the movies they were connected to.
The rest of the book was divided into four parts that focused in on each of the Indiana Jones movies. Each section had a few chapters that focused on different aspects of the making of whichever movie was being focused on. The chapters covered specific periods of time in the making of each movie. It was stated after the title of each chapter what time frame was being covered. The way the book was organized was logical and made it easy for me to keep track of the order things happened.
Most of the information in The Complete Making of Indiana Jones was focused on the process of making the movies. Certain things connected to the plots of each movie were mentioned without there being actual plot summaries. There would be some spoilers for people who haven't seen the movies. Some of the changes that the scripts went through were also shared, which I thought was interesting to learn about.
Part I: Raiders of the Lost Arc was the longest section of the book. There was a lot of in depth information on how Lucas and Spielberg first came up with the idea for making the Indiana Jones movies and then all the work that went into getting the movies made. Several years passed after they first came up with the idea for the character before they actually started working on the movie. The development of the script was discussed and I thought some of the early ideas that were eventually discarded were interesting. The development of different ideas for the movie was very interesting and I enjoyed reading about those things. Certain things that were cut would later turn up in one of the later movies. The different critters, like spiders and all the nasty snakes, that were used in certain sequences were also talked about. There were also some pictures of the snakes that I could have done without seeing. Things related to the filming of the movie was discussed, including some of the problems that cropped up.
Once the decision was made to make the first movie, several pages talked about the casting of the main characters. Spielberg had always wanted Harrison Ford for the part, but Lucas didn't want to cast him again. For auditions, Spielberg actually had the actors and actresses cook with him. Some of the people who tried out for the parts of Indiana and Marion included Jane Seymour, Tim Mattheson, Bruce Boxleitner, Mary Steenburgen, Michael Biehn, Sam Shepard, Valerie Bertinelli, Debra Winger, Mark Harmon, Barry Bostwick, Michelle Pfeiffer, Barbara Hershey, David Hasselhoff, Sean Young and Tom Selleck. From what was in the book, it seemed like Sean Young was a favorite for Marion for a while, but the part wasn't offered to her. Tom Selleck was also a favorite once he auditioned and he was even offered the part. He ended up not being able to do the part because CBS decided to move forward with Magnum P.I. at that point, a show Selleck already had a deal for. After that happened, the part ended up going to Harrison Ford. It was really interesting to read about all the different people who auditioned for the parts.
Parts II, III, and IV were shorter than the first part since there wasn't as much information shared about the last three movies. I did think there was still a lot of interesting things shared about the making of the last three movies. Kate Capshaw talked about how her extreme fear of snakes caused Spielberg to cut a scene in which in character was supposed to have an encounter with a snake. I'm glad that scene got cut. She also talked about how she hadn't bothered to read all of the script so she hadn't known about the snake or the bugs ahead of time. She claimed that she didn't know how to scream before taking the part. Capshaw also admitted to taking what she called a relaxant before filming the scene with all the bugs, so she was basically loopy on some sort of pill at that point. That could explain certain issues with her performance.
The last section, which was focused on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was the shortest. There was some information connected to the plot of the movie shared without there being a full plot summary. There was less plot information shared about this movie than there had been about the first three movies. There would still be a few spoilers for people who haven't seen the movie yet. It was discussed why it took so long for the fourth movie to be made. Some of the different ideas for the plot were shared. It was mentioned how they decided to bring Marion back and how they were keeping that a secret at first.
Every chapter shared information connected to one of the Indiana Jones movies. Intermingled into the information were quotes from Lucas, Spielberg, and other people connected with the making of the movie, including Harrison Ford. They shared certain things about their experience on which ever movie was being focused on at the time. There were probably more quotes from Lucas and Spielberg than there were from anyone else. It would have been nice if there had been a bit more from some of the others, especially Harrison Ford and other cast members like Karen Allen. It did seem like there was more from Kate Capshaw and even a bit more attention given to her. Maybe that is because she is now married to Spielberg. The book didn't say, so I don't know for sure when they started dating. All the quotes that were used fit in well with whatever subject was being discussed at the time. I thought they added some interesting information.
The Complete Making of Indiana Jones had tons of pictures connected to all four of the movies. Some of the early storyboard ideas and sketches for different ideas were included. Those things helped to show how certain things changed during the process of making the movie. During the first part of the book, the pictures showed Lucas and Spielberg working on some of their other movies, like Star Wars and Jaws. The first part also had some pictures of things that helped to inspire Lucas and Spielberg in creating Indiana Jones. When the book was focused on the actual making of the movies, there were all kinds of pictures that had been taken on the sets. Some of the different movie posters were also shown. The pictures were always connected to the text on the page they were on. There were some short lines that identified who was in the different pictures. Most of the time, there was a mix of pictures and text on the pages. There were some pages that didn't have any pictures and a few that just had pictures.
I really enjoyed The Complete Making of Indiana Jones even though I read it in less than ideal circumstances. The book was full of interesting information and pictures connected to the four Indiana Jones movies. I learned a lot about what went into the making of these movies. This is a great book for fans of the movies.
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