Filmtracks: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)

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Written 7/4/23, Revised 8/1/24

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Buy it... if you are prepared to be impressed by John Williams' ability to maintain his high standards of adventure and romanticism in this rousing conclusion to a nostalgic franchise.

Avoid it... on the album if you expect a satisfying presentation of the music heard in the film, Williams emphasizing suite arrangements that don't always reflect the personality of the score itself.

Williams

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: (John Williams) When negotiating with Paramount Pictures for 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, concept originators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg secured the rights to a total of five films related to adventuresome archeologist Indiana Jones. It took until 2023 before the final film of that planned series debuted, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny featuring a cranky and disillusioned, 80-year-old Harrison Ford in the titular role. Whereas the prior entry, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008, sought to start handing off the concept to a new generation, that idea is reprised in a new direction in the fifth movie. A retiring Jones grudgingly teams with his goddaughter, also an archeologist but a grifter interested more in profit than preservation, for a journey that seeks Archimedes' Dial, which can supposedly predict fissures in time and space that would allow time travel. Not surprisingly, the villains are once again Nazis, led by a German astrophysicist desiring to use the device to travel back in time from 1969 to redirect the course of World War II to ensure Nazi victory. The film is, as expected, a nonstop chase, but a series of grimly personal gun killings and a less than entirely likeable heroine are distinct detriments. The franchise has also further devolved from its original reliance upon fantastic physical effects towards an increasing role for fantasy CGI that is not entirely convincing, especially by the depiction of the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC by this movie's end. Still, the de-aging techniques for the two flashbacks are remarkable, and the extremely expensive film appealed reasonably well to older audiences and serves as a decent farewell to Ford's character. Neither Lucas nor Spielberg had integral roles in the movie, but replacement director James Mangold was blessed with the continued services of composer John Williams, who, at the age of 90, had declared Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to be his final film score before later walking back that statement and musing that he might have another ten years of work left in him.

The presence of Williams' music in this film is just as integral as that of Ford, the styles of the two inextricable in this context. The lengthy production schedule of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny allowed Williams to write a very long score, and he is credited solely with its writing. His trusted collaborator, William Ross, was provided co-orchestration and co-conducting duties, along with the writing of a source piece. The end result is absolutely saturated with Williams' musical sensibilities that date back to the 1980's, the work fitting squarely with its predecessors in its demeanor, constructs, and performance styles. But unlike previous films in the franchise, especially the first two, this score doesn't dominate the soundscape in the film, highly functional but not drawing too much attention to itself as mixed into the mass of the narrative. For a film with ample fantasy elements inherent in its plot, it receives a mixture of straight adventure music with dashes of romance and occasional nostalgia. Williams opts for a straight orchestral sound for the film, with no choral element and adding the slight ethnicity of either a cimbalom or dulcimer as the only distinctive tone outside of one cue with a bevy of struck wooden percussion. A piano is applied as a stinger device for the element of mystery, along with plucked harp and celeste at times, but expect the major sections of the ensemble to carry their very predictable roles here. There isn't much horror disturbance in the otherwise accessible flow, the hard suspense techniques in "Water Ballet" provided by a prickly percussive presence. True to the franchise is the wildly plucked sneaking mode late in "The Grafikos" (with hints of hero themes) that denotes for this series, as per usual, that the main characters will inevitably be covered in nasty bugs at some point. The mix of the score is overly dry, which isn't entirely out of character for Williams but does sap some perceived size from the end product. Less than an hour of the actual score is featured on the initial Disney Records album; the maestro reportedly wrote over 90 minutes of material for the movie, and whole sections of action, including the opening fortress scene and Tangier tuk-tuk chase, are largely missing or truncated on that album.

While some listeners will prefer Williams' 67-minute initial album arrangement, the quality of the music merits a fuller presentation. Nothing in the score for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny can match the immense prowess of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom, but the work is on par with the latter two sequels' music and remains extremely distinguished compared to Williams' contemporary peers. No other composer is writing this kind of music in the 2020's, the impressive complexity of Williams' writing squashing any notion that he had lost a step in his 80's. Even aside from the joyously nostalgic element of hearing vintage Williams adventure music, the composition reaffirms the maestro's place atop the ranks of history. He has a knack for adjusting his cadence with precision, tempos constantly modulating in subtle ways to address the momentum of a scene. His techniques at suspense and militaristic propulsion here combine elements of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the composer remaining very familiar in those exquisitely effective comfort zones. His thematic constructs are worn on the score's sleeve, each very faithful to their character applications in the film and easy to distinguish. For all these reasons, a 67-minute album consisting of 14 minutes of suite arrangements can't do this score justice. The six-minute "Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" cue does lend some moments to the opening of the film but is mainly an arrangement of the score's new themes for the end credits, which utilize the "Raiders March" portion of the closing cue, "New York, 1969," and the regular suite format of "Helena's Theme" before launching into the purported prologue cue. The returning legacy themes include the obligatory "Raiders March" and the love theme for Marion Ravenwood. (The composer's passion for interpolating the 1981 theme for the Ark of the Covenant into these scores is not obliged here.) Joining them are new themes for Helena, the Nazis (in two variants), the villain Voller and his obsession with the Dial, and Archimedes. The Romans at Syracuse receive their own lumbering motif as well, and few moments in the score do not explore at least one of these identities.

The vintage spirit of Williams' music persists in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny because of his smart interpolations of the two main themes from Raiders of the Lost Ark. He applies the "Raiders March" with exactly the right frequency and emphasis in this sequel, adapting it in expected, full swing at times but also affording it a few attractively whimsical and beaten renditions as well. Its application at the surprising introduction of the impressively de-aged Ford in the opening scene is grin-inducing. Williams sprinkles the iconic identity throughout the satisfying resurrection of his "Desert Chase" material from Raiders of the Lost Ark in "Germany, 1944." Anticipatory fragments at 3:14 and echoes at 3:54 are followed by the underlying rhythm at 4:08 and the theme on flutes at 4:13 with a nice resolution. As Jones exchanges words with his friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies, in a welcome return), woodwinds start "To Morocco" with the secondary phrasing of the theme and horns join for the primary phrasing in a subdued but respectful performance, denoting the sadness of the scene. The idea regains its footing in its original "travel mode" heroics as it extends out of the Helena material at the end of "To Athens." The march returns in a quick action burst at 2:04 into "Polybius Cipher" and lightly on horns at 1:08 into "The Grafikos." For Jones' resignation of his fate in "Centuries Join Hands," the theme becomes slight with uncertainty at 1:03 and shifts to noble horn relief at 2:26 that resembles the tone of late scenes in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. At the end of that cue, however, trumpets offer hints of old flair at 2:48 as Helena gives Jones a dose of his own medicine. The finale of the film revives the theme's retro march form at 2:19 into "New York, 1969" for the first portion of the end credits, and there's nothing new about this abbreviated arrangement of the theme. Given the amount of time available to Williams on this score, the lack of any new presentation of the classic theme, especially one without the great interlude sequence, is a disappointment despite hitting all the right nostalgia buttons. Better adapted is Marion's theme, which is troubled, incomplete, and meandering at 1:44 into "Perils of the Deep" on woodwinds before its redemption in "New York, 1969," building from solitary woodwinds at 0:48 to a lovely romantic version akin to the wedding cue closing the prior film but weighed by time and sadness.

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The primary new thematic identity of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny belongs to Helena, the quasi-heroine with an eye for cash and mere tolerance of Jones' nobility. It's a lushly romantic golden age throwback theme that strives to combine a bit of demeanor from Sabrina with spirit from The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and the prior Indiana Jones scores. Williams aptly translates the idea into an action identity, though it struggles to lose its anchoring romanticism at times. The theme plays an outsized role in this score, taking on much of the conversational load. Interestingly, its secondary phrasing features a touch of Superman love theme remnants. Williams was clearly enamored with the character, as he adapted this theme into two distinct suite arrangements and applied it at the start of his summary track featuring all his new themes. The end credits and regular concert arrangement in "Helena's Theme" are redundant and emphasize the romance of the idea without any of the character's spunk or energy. An extended concert treatment in "Helena's Theme (For Violin and Orchestra)" is a lovely track, but the solo violin seems out of place with the character of the score. The composer loves concocting these pieces for live performance, but this one really doesn't represent this work at all. The theme opens lightly on celeste in "Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and immediately shifts to dramatic low strings for a minute, but don't expect to hear this passage in any obvious place within the film itself. Helena's theme emerges tentatively in the middle of "To Morocco" and flourishes by the end of the cue. After slight allusions at the opening of "Voller Returns," it is pitted against dancing "Raiders March" phrasing late in "Auction at Hotel L'Atlantique." In whimsical action mode at 0:52 into "Tuk Tuk in Tangiers" and thereafter, the theme alternates with its softly romantic mode heard early in "To Athens," during which the idea soars for the transitional scene. Her theme struggles in the middle of "Perils of the Deep" while pieces define early ambience in "Water Ballet," and it lends phrasing to early "Polybius Cipher" optimism against the Voller/Dial material. Worried portions open "The Airport" but increase in intensity later against the villains' music, regaining its full action stance at 3:23 for her motorcycle airplane stunt. It reiterates its romanticism to the urgent start of "Centuries Join Hands" and follows the Marion material at 1:50 into "New York, 1969" with spritely dashing.

The next three thematic groupings share interesting relationships in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the Nazi themes mingling with the Voller/Dial material and that latter music connecting directly to the Archimedes theme. There's definitely a connective arc in these ideas, and they are often intertwined in complicated fashion outside of their most transparent renditions at either end of the emotional spectrum. The Nazi material is largely a fresh take on an old concept for Williams. There are hints of his music for the Nazis from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade built into the new themes, but he chooses not to outright restate the rather pompous 1989 theme intact. There are two Nazi motifs in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the first a comic-book fanfare of glory heard only twice in the movie and the second a more robustly ominous force that sometimes includes a final phrase that resurrects the final three, descending notes from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade equivalent. The brass fanfare opens the movie in a passage that can be heard at 1:07 into "Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." Notably, a resounding bass thump at 1:24 here shakes the floor with power, a technique not utilized elsewhere in the work. This fanfare returns at 1:06 with snare triumph in "The Airport" as a Nazi plane is prepared for flight, confirming the motif as one of glory for Nazi infrastructure. The actual theme for the Nazis in this score follows Voller's group of thugs as they terrorize and kill, lending arrogance through its ascendant brass formations. This rising figure repeats several times after 1:55 into "Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and returns with more suspense at 2:58. It lends subtle militarism at the start of "Germany, 1944" before revealing the full rising figure at 3:26. The idea consolidates at 2:10 into "Voller Returns" with confidence, becomes sinister at 4:16 into "Water Ballet," and formally adds the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Nazi phrasing to the end of its performance at 2:20 into "Polybius Cipher." It frantically figures into the crescendo late in "The Grafikos" but gains stature as uniforms are donned once again in "The Airport," blazing in full at 1:32 against the Voller/Dial motif and achieving even more confidence at 2:12. It's engrained in the action at 2:20 into "Battle of Syracuse" as the Nazis humorously and inexplicably mow down ancient Romans with modern weaponry. Ultimately, the best of this material is housed in "Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and "The Airport."

Frequently factoring in the mystery and action of the story is Williams' theme for the Dial itself and Voller by association of his obsession with the object. Voller's criminal conduct receives the Nazi theme, but his heart lies with the Dial's theme. Its snarled, descending main phrasing emulates villain tones from the first two Harry Potter scores and debuts at 1:48 into "Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," where it is also appended at 2:29 to the Nazi material and then meanders a bit. Its main phrase glory develops at 3:28 before toning back to mystery duties in fuller form at 3:44 in that suite-like track. The Dial/Voller theme opens "Germany, 1944" militaristically, at 0:34 on muted trumpets and in suspense at 2:20 and 3:07 before a quick burst at 3:37. It recurs in the middle of "Voller Returns" and supplies reminders at the end of that cue. Williams translates the idea into the humorously stately waltz in "Auction at Hotel L'Atlantique" and brings back "Basket Chase" inspiration from Raiders of the Lost Ark in subsequent light chasing. Frantic pieces are placed against the pursuit rhythms early in "Tuk Tuk in Tangiers," and the theme informs the creepy start of "Perils of the Deep," stewing for a while. The Dial/Voller theme is partial at 0:56 into "Water Ballet" with tingling piano and celeste support, but it clarifies at 0:41 into "Polybius Cipher" and later in lighter shades. It contributes early in "The Grafikos" around the periphery, adopting its boldest form yet at 1:38, mingling with the Archimedes theme and transitioning into that ascending piano motif later. While barely cohesive at the outset of "Archimedes' Tomb," it consolidates at 1:55 on flutes in quiet suspense mode. The idea interjects into Helena material early in "The Airport" and is pinpointed at 0:46 into "Battle of Syracuse," extending to become more fluidly broad later, yielding massive statements at the end of the cue to denote the time travel achieved with the artifact. A full version of the Dial/Voller theme enjoys one final moment at 0:23 into "Centuries Join Hands." At this point, the secondary phrasing of the theme reveals itself as officially representing Archimedes himself, appended over rousing percussion. The Dial theme then returns to flute and harp in mystery mode thereafter. Some listeners may find Williams' applications of the Dial/Voller theme to be somewhat obtuse, especially as they relate to the Nazi material on one side and the Archimedes theme on the other. There's definitely a wide spectrum of emotions associated with the Dial, and Williams seems to apply these various thematic variants to the object depending on the intentions of its potential users.

The twisted, ominous nature of Williams' theme for the Dial, especially in the object's descending phrasing, is mostly a reflection of Voller while the secondary ascending phrases better represent Archimedes' more hopeful intentions for the device. The idea is literally resolved by removing its descending main phrase to reveal Archimedes' motif, previewed at the closing of the "Prologue," where its ascending phrasing is heard on dramatic strings at 4:38 and soft woodwinds at 5:18. In the film, it intertwines with the Dial/Voller theme in "The Grafikos" around 1:38, is suggested early in "Archimedes' Tomb" and then explicitly at 1:12, and conveys some muted heroism at 1:25 into "Centuries Join Hands." Expect some vibes from late cues in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade during these parts, especially as French horns handle Williams' sense of honor. The only other recurring theme in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny represents the Roman's attack on Syracuse. The composer handles this sudden oddity with a thumping bass rhythm and rather clunky motif on top that has some vague connections to the rising portions of Helena's theme but not obviously so. It starts "Battle of Syracuse" and drives much of cue alongside aggressive references to the Dial theme. This material continues early in "Centuries Join Hands" and almost sounds like something Williams would have written for an attack of old Ray Harryhausen monsters from yesteryear. All together, these new themes for the 2023 film are highly effective at their task. Helena's theme completely dominates the score's motific balance on album while the Dial/Voller theme defines much of the remaining personality. Interestingly, though, neither identity has an equivalently powerful sway when heard within the film. The two Nazi themes and lingering ideas from Raiders of the Lost Ark provide the music's most prominent placements in the movie, with "The Airport" a particularly impactful cue for a major plot reveal. There is not much to quibble about with the spotting of the film, though the absence of any hint of Mutt's rather nebulous material from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in "Perils of the Deep" (and replacement with Marion's theme) is telling. The initial album presentation and its 2024 re-issue as part of a useless and expensive franchise set are too short, certainly by Williams' direction, especially with the redundant Helena's theme concert arrangements. Still, it goes without saying that any new Williams Indiana Jones score is an especially gratifying treat and immense pleasure to hear in the 2020's. It extends the quality of the prior two works and continues to espouse the uniquely superior aspects of Williams's writing from decades past. **** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

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For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68 (in 91 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.54 (in 363,716 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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