Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981 Film)

The music is excellent! One moment it can be soft and haunting or it could be loud and exciting. "The Raiders March" is a great one and of course, everyone is familiar with the song. It's also a good example of loud and exciting. An example of a dark and haunting track is the next one "Main Title: South America 1936". That song is also great and it is played at the very beginning of the movie. The whole album is amazing and I will never forget the musioc.

This CD also has a booklet that has a lot of information about how the movie was done. It includes notes from Steven Spielberg and John Williams, it tells a little bit about the story. There are also sketches and photographs from the movie. So, if you are thinking of buying this soundtrack then I would also suggest that you take some time to look through the notes.

If your a fan of Indiana Jones, John Williams, or you enjoyed the movie than this CD might be worthwile.


A Musical Treasure Worthy of Indiana Jones   July 5, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

John Williams' score for the Indiana Jones series is, after his music for the Star Wars saga, perhaps his most popular musical creation, at least to those of us who came of age in the late 1970s and early '80s. The Raiders March is synonymous with thrill-a-minute action, and one cannot imagine Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones without that trademark snapbrim fedora on his head nor that brassy and bold march in the background.

Previously available only on LP and cassettes when it was first released in 1981, the original soundtrack contained roughly half the cues in the Nick Redman-produced 1995 single CD recording. For many years, the only domestically released Indy soundtrack on compact disc was 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but at last DCC Compact Classics got the green light eight years ago and Raiders (and Williams) fans were finally rewarded with this treasure of film music.

The CD gets off to a rousing start with the abbreviated version of The Raiders March, THE signature tune that moviegoers and music lovers will always associate with "the man in the hat." It's an abbreviated version that does not, unlike the concert versions heard in other Williams recordings, segue into Marion's Theme. Instead, the album presents the previously unreleased or reworked tracks Main Title (South America 1936) and In The Idol's Temple. Both are mysterious, atmospheric cues, almost abstract. Music from the previous available soundtrack returns with the exciting Escape From Peru. The rest of the tracks (which are presented in chronological order) alternate between unreleased tracks and the few previously released ones, including the romantic Marion's Theme and the exciting and suspenseful Desert Chase.

Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra here carry us on a musical thrill ride that takes us from the jungles of Peru to a nameless island in the Mediterranean being used by the Nazis as a secret base, culminating in the dark recesses of a warehouse somewhere in the United States. And though the Ark of the Covenant is once again lost, we have a better bounty...the music of John Williams.