Music Album Review: 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Original Music Soundtrack'
In the summer of 1984, British-based Polydor Records
released Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, an 11-track album with selections
from composer-conductor John Williams’ score for the second chapter of the
Indiana Jones saga. The album was issued in three formats – vinyl long-play
(LP), audio cassette, and the then-new compact disc (CD) – but due to the limitations
of how much content a single LP record can hold, Polydor and Maestro Williams –
who is credited as the album producer – chose only 40 minutes’ worth of music
from his score for the 118-minutes-long film.
The resulting Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom soundtrack was a “sampler” of action cues and leitmotivs
from the film, including Short Round’s
Theme, Fast Streets of Shanghai, and the film’s dazzling opening number –
Kate Capshaw’s cover – in Mandarin Chinese – of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. However, due to Polydor’s
decision to release the soundtrack as a single LP album instead of a 2-record
set, most of the tracks are short, with an average running time of three minutes.
(The longest selections in the 1984 album are – at 5:57 – Nocturnal Activities and – at 6:19 – Finale and End Credits.)
Additionally, as in most “sampler” formatted soundtracks,
the music is not presented in the same order as it is heard in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In
the 1984 Polydor recording – which I still have in a 1984-era cassette – the track
list looks like this:
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After DCC Classics’ release of an expanded Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack in
1995, movie scores aficionados hoped that the Temple of Doom album would get a similar “expanded and improved” reissue.
It didn’t happen right away, but in 2008 Concord Music Group, under license
from Lucasfilm, released a digitally recorded and longer (1:14:58) album, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Original
Motion Picture Soundtrack.
Co-produced by John Williams – original album producer – and
Laurent Bouzerau – soundtrack reissue producer – in 2008, this Concord Music
Group doesn’t contain the complete score
from Steven Spielberg’s financially successful but controversial film. As Bouzerau – who is a prolific
“behind-the-scenes” documentarian known for his “making of” featurettes made to accompany DVD and Blu-ray releases of such films as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Jurassic Park saga, Lawrence of Arabia, and American Graffiti – explains, there is a methodology at play when it comes to track selection in soundtrack albums:
“behind-the-scenes” documentarian known for his “making of” featurettes made to accompany DVD and Blu-ray releases of such films as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Jurassic Park saga, Lawrence of Arabia, and American Graffiti – explains, there is a methodology at play when it comes to track selection in soundtrack albums:
There was a science
and musical logic to how the cues were to be organized, merged together and
divided. The CDs didn’t need to include everything and every note heard in the
films. For this new Indy soundtrack release, some of the cues are as John had
originally mixed them for the first album issues; other cues were dropped
simply because they didn’t fit the musical journey envisioned for these new
CDs. Still other cues from the film are being presented on CD for the first
time. The result, however, represents a unique musical experience for listeners
and fans of the now-classic film series that stimulates the imagination and
makes you want to watch the films again; it is the “spirit” and the “heart” of Indiana
Jones.
The track list for the 2008 reissue:
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My Take
In the traditional “notes” that he writes for the soundtrack
albums from his movies, Steven Spielberg often leaves effusive comments about
the film in question, its basic themes, and his long-time collaborator – and friend
– John Williams’ musical contributions. Witty, concise, and generous, Spielberg’s
comments reflect his love for the film medium and his admiration for Maestro
Williams.
Regarding the score for Temple
of Doom – a project that Spielberg now considers to be darker and more
intense than he originally envisioned, the Oscar-winning director writes:
“Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom is as much a replica of, as it is a departure from. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Musically, all
of the familiar marches are back, tracing the heroics of ace archeologist Dr.
Indiana Jones from the turbulent streets and dark alleys of 1935 Shanghai, to
the sweltering jungles of uncharted India, at which point John Williams, the
maestro of movie magic, and we the audience take an unexpected detour to the
far side of fear and fantasy.”
Much has been said – and written – about the dark tones and
themes of the 1984 “prequel” to Raiders
of the Lost Ark, a sensibility that Williams’ score – wittingly or otherwise
– reflects. Indy creator George Lucas intended his homage to the serials of the
1930s and ‘40s to mirror the dramatic arc of his other similarly-themed trilogy
Star Wars, which also has a “dark”
second chapter in The Empire Strikes
Back. That Temple of Doom – with its
scenes of human sacrifices and Indy’s not-so-charming treatment of his female
sidekick Willie Scott – turned out darker and more intense has often been attributed
to the turmoil in Lucas’s life; he was in the middle of a nasty divorce from
his first wife, editor Marcia Lucas, while at the same time he was raising a
trio of adopted kids as a single parent and
running the Lucasfilm “empire.”
In attempting a “further adventure’ neither John
Williams, George Lucas, nor I wanted to retrace our steps. This is a shiny new
story with heroines, sidekicks, and villains you’ve never before seen. And John
Williams has composed new themes for each of them. – Steven Spielberg
Movie music inevitably reflects the images we see on screen,
and Williams’ score for Temple of Doom is
no exception. The familiar “Raiders’ March” is trotted out several times in the
film and in the soundtrack, especially in Map/Out
of Fuel (track 5) and End Credits (track
22).
However, because Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom is set a year before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the bulk of the
1984 film’s score is unique to its characters and settings.
Temple of Doom takes
place in two Asian countries, China and India. Unlike the other three films in
the Indiana Jones series, we never
see the United States – Indy’s home country is only mentioned as the main
characters’ eventual offscreen destination.
Consequently, many of the film’s cues and character
leitmotivs – particularly Anything Goes (track
1) Streets of Shanghai (track 4) To Pankot Palace (the second half of
track 8), The Temple of Doom (track
13), and Slave Children’s Crusade (track
16) have a definite Oriental flavor
to them.
And because this is a film that is set in the 1930s – the movie
mentions Japan’s invasion of China and the bombing of Shanghai – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’s love
theme – heard in Nocturnal Activities (track
9) and End Credits evokes the
sweeping romantic styles of Hollywood’s Golden Era composers Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind, Casablanca) and
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (The Adventures
of Robin Hood). In Nocturnal Activities
the love theme is delicate, even playful and evanescent; in End Credits it’s played in grand,
soaring strings and horns when it’s included in a suite comprised of The Raiders’ March, Parade of the Slave
Children, and Short Round’s Theme.
Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom is my least favorite movie in the Indy franchise. It’s dark,
gory, and controversial for its depiction of India and Hindu culture. It’s also
one of several 1984 films produced or directed by Spielberg that resulted in
the creation of the PG-13 rating. I like it and I have watched it plenty of
times on VHS tape, DVD, and Blu-ray – just not as much as I have watched the other
installments of the Indy franchise.
Still, I love the music Maestro Williams composed for Temple of Doom. Whether it’s the virtuoso
arrangement of Cole Porter’s Anything
Goes (performed, for real, by actress Kate Capshaw, in Mandarin) or the
madcap Fast Streets of Shanghai, John
Williams once again proves that, as this reissue’s producer noted earlier, his music
is “the ‘spirit’ and the ‘heart’ of Indiana Jones.”
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