The Complete Making of "Indiana Jones": The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films

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Customer Reviews:

• 
  2008-05-29
  By Martin A Hogan, San Francisco, CA.
  I am a huge fan of the "Indiana Jones" series, even though I was slightly disappointed with the most recent film. However, this `coffee-table' style book is a classic keeper! Authors J. W. Rinzler and Laurent Bouzereau piece together all the information any fan could want. From the inception where George Lucas and Steven Spielberg first start the process to the final sequel, there's a ton of information here. It's almost comical the way the storyboards are so carefully and accurately drawn and then filmed. The chronicling of the initial three films is a lesson in production where you get the inside scoop from Spielberg, Lucas and the cast and crew, especially the last ("Crystal Skull") film. I particularly liked the section on "deleted scenes" as some seemed like a good idea and others were just plain silly. This book would make a great present as well.
  
  
  
• 
  2008-05-29
  By The Fault,
  This really is a superlative book that covers all four Indiana Jones films with incredible depth. There are a wealth of interviews from cast and crew plus information covering so many aspects of the films (there are also segments of transcripts from discussions between Lucas and Spielberg giving extra insight into the making of the films), combined with a vast array of behind-the-scenes photographs, as well as images of artwork, promotional material and story boards. This book really has it all - 300 full colour pages with almost everything you could want to know about each film. It chronicles the origins of Indiana Jones, from how the franchise was first conceieved through to the making of the latest film. You will be hard-pressed ever to find a book about Indiana Jones as insightful as this - being an official Indiana Jones product on the Lucas Books brand, we get get truly exaustive facts courtesy unbridled access to the Indiana archives. Despite being an official product, the book is refreshingly open and honest about the franchise, discussing criticsms aimed at the the films over the years, as well as disagreements and problems encountered over the years, rather than painting a rose-tinted picture of everything. We all know how well the franchise turned out anyway (despite the somehwhat undewhelming 4th installment which left me rather disappointed). Whatever your opinion of the 4th Indy film, I can confidently say that this book is netiher underwhelming nor disappointing - I can't stress enough how wonderful it is. Without a doubt a must-have for any fan of Indiana Jones.
  
  
• 
  2008-06-06
  By Mr. T. Zalucki, Ipswich, England
  I thought I would order this book as I am a great fan of the Indiana Jones films. This amazing book gives such in-depth information on all four of the films. The pictures are stunning, from storyboard to set.
  As this book is published by Lucasfilm, they have unlimited access to everything and so it covers all of the films in near pornographic detail. A great book to read if you are a fan of the series or even if you are not this would make a very good coffee table book to pick up and flick through.
  
  After reading it this morning I have learnt some really interesting things such as in 'Raiders', Indy shoots the arab swordsman because Speilberg and Ford couldn't be bothered to film a fight scene. And apparently in 'Temple of Doom' there are hieroglyphics of R2-D2 and C3PO on the wall!!. This is one of those books that will make you want to watch and fall in love with the films over and over again and appreciate how much work went into them.
  
  
• 
  2008-06-20
  By M. Evans,
  but only slightly. This is a gorgeous-looking (and absolutley enourmous) book that will probably be too large to fit on your bookshelf, but looks great lying around on a coffee table. It's greatest asset is it's wealth of visual material, there are many photographs from the 4 movies both infront of and behind the scenes that I don't think have ever been published before, as well as several illustrations of concepts for scenes from the films that were not used that look stunning. I did find, however, that the text was slightly underwhelming. I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know, and the author seems to like to go into too much detail when it comes to trivial matters like the dates that certain scenes were filmed, and how many injuries were sustained by the cast and crew (does anyone really care to know about a sound technician getting a sprained thumb or a camerman bumping his shin?. The documentary on the Indiana Jones DVD is actually far more inforamtive and interesting. The book makes for a rather dry and turgid read, I found. I was also disappointed that the films themselves were not analysed or reviewed, it's more just the technicalities of making the films. Plus, because this was written before the most recent film was released, there's nothing about how the film was recieved or how well it did at the box office. There also seems to be a bias towards Raiders as it gets far more coverage than the other 3 films. Having said all that, it is still probably the best book about the Indiana Jones films to have been published to date, and the visual material alone almost justifies the price. So, overall, not entirley perfect, but still a must for any Indiana Jones fan.
  
  
• 
  2008-08-06
  By Captain EO, Cardiff, Wales, UK
  It's a shame it's taken a fourth installment of the Indy series to get a book of this magnitude made but it's definitely worth the wait.
  
  As a huge fan of this type of book and an even bigger fan of Indy, this publication is my idea of my heaven and each time I picked it up to read I never failed to be impressed. It's not absolutely perfect, there's a level of information provided that at times wanders into the realms of being pointless (minor crew injuries being the most noteworthy) but I'd much prefer a book with too MUCH information than one which leaves me wanting so much more, like many "Making-Of" efforts tend to.
  
  Any book or documentary with Laurent Bouzerau's involvement is guaranteed to be extremely well-researched & highly professional & this Indy book is testament to this. It's beautiful to hold in your hands and if it was any larger it would take more than one person to turn it's pages as it's a heavy product as it is ! As you'd expect with any book licensed by Lucasfilm with Spielberg's involvement it also contains amazing images, many I've never seen before. The text is definitive and although there's a lot of stuff I already knew of, there's lots of new things that even the most knowledgable of Indy fans will learn.
  
  If there was one thing I learnt from this book that I'd already suspected was the difference in opinion between Spielberg, Lucas & Ford on the latest installment. George Lucas insisted that it be a 1950's Alien B-Movie whilst Spielberg was reluctant to tread this path (especially some years back considering his involvement with ET, Close Encounters, etc). Harrison Ford makes no secret of the fact that the only part of the Indy series that he's not fond of is the supernatural, far-fetched stuff, in particular what he calls "little green men". As a big Star Wars fan I'll always hold George Lucas in high esteem but I firmly believe that where Spielberg still understands what an audience wants, Lucas has lost touch and reading of their difference of opinion here cements that opinion. I really enjoyed Crystal Skull but it would have been far more enjoyable without not just the idea but the scope and scale of the alien element of the story. I know Indy is a collaborative effort but it appears to me that eventually Spielberg & Ford wanted to make another installment so much that they almost "gave-in" to Lucas and went down along with his preferred idea.
  
  To summarise, this book is totally absorbing. It's possibly the best book I've read of it's kind & each page was a joy to read. Awesome.