Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: A brief review of the Original Soundtrack album

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade's soundtrack recording, like most albums of the genre, has its virtues and vices. Even keeping in mind that it was released originally in 1989 in records, cassettes, and the still-new CD format, it is still an album that offers John Williams' score for the third film in the Indy series, but not enough of it. 

Having veered by design into dark thematic and musical territory in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas and composer Williams decided to revisit the more fun and thrilling tones of Raiders of the Lost Ark, adding depth to Indy's character by including his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr. and new themes reflecting the father-son dynamic and the quest for the Holy Grail. 

Keeping in mind the limitations of this album, the music here is enjoyable. Listen to "Indy's Very First Adventure" (track 1) and you can almost see young Indiana Jones (as incarnated by the late River Phoenix) as he goes after the Cross of Coronado in a Utah cave, then is chased as he rides first a horse, then a circus train, to get the relic to the sheriff before a band of thugs catches him. It's a very 1930s-style action key in the vein of Erich Korngold, but (and here's the rub) it is missing the segue to the conclusion of the sequence as seen in the final scene, when the rogue archaeologist places his fedora on young Indy's head, then with the appearance of the Raiders March Phoenix's face is obscured, to be replaced by Harrison Ford's as Spielberg flashes 26 years forward to 1938 and a storm-tossed freighter off the Portuguese coast. 

The music of The Last Crusade veers from the rollicking "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra" (track 3 and one of the most clever cue titles), which has a recurring motif heard as underscore during Henry and Indy's adventures as they evade their Nazi pursuers. Williams intercuts that lively theme with a darker musical idea for the Nazis, which evokes an evil militaristic order (in the style of his Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back) with its minor keys and jeering brass notes. The short cue "No Ticket" (track 6), heard when Indy, dressed as a German airship crewman, punches out SS Col. Vogel (Michael Byrne) and sends him flying from the Zeppelin's window, is wryly humorous, while "The Belly of the Steel Beast" (track 10), with its suspenseful atmosphere and rising crescendos recalls Indy's attempts to rescue his dad and Marcus Brody from an enemy tank in the desert of Hatay. 

The famous Raiders' March is seldom heard on this CD, being briefly stated in tracks 3 and 10 and only coming to the fore in track 13, "End Credits (Raiders' March)," where it is married to the "Scherzo" and the sentimental theme for Henry. Nevertheless, for Williams' aficionados, this CD is an enjoyable one.