The Nazis themselves received a somewhat fragmented
identity in
Raiders of the Lost Ark, and with
The Last
Crusade taking audiences into the heart of their country and
technology, Williams invents a grand motif in the style of a descending
fanfare for their posturing. This theme's integration into both the
scherzo and later cues is remarkably handled and, in many ways, it is
the most memorable aspect of the score. The theme for the Grail, or
better yet for its mystique, is appropriately ancient in its
progression, but is also quite simple, perhaps an attempt by Williams to
mirror the appearance of the Grail and its basic representation of
goodness. A sub-theme within the mould of the music for the Grail is
actually the Henry Jones theme, which is also a smart move by Williams
given that Indy's father is so obsessed with the artifact. Often
performed by woodwinds and strings after a statement of the Grail's
theme, Henry's theme is sympathetic, but never truly engaging, an
effective method of extending the separation within the family. Perhaps
the most surprising aspect of the religious music from
The Last
Crusade is the lack of consistent use of a choral element. While the
choir was an incredibly vital part of
Raiders of the Lost Ark's
"Map Room at Dawn" cue (and other representations of the Ark's power),
Williams allows most of the similarly rendered visuals on screen in this
film to pass with only the orchestra. His Grail theme is still
effective, but the lack of depth, especially compared to the engaging
single choral moment in "The Penitent Man Will Pass," is puzzling. More
so than in the other Indy scores, Williams seems to introduce snippets
of motifs in several places that are never fully realized. In doing so,
each major cue has its own personality traits, and some are more
effective than others. In the middle of "The Canyon of the Crescent
Moon," for instance, Williams utilizes a sudden, soft woodwind solo that
is never placed in proper context. Part of this confusion is caused by a
general lack of clarity of the Henry Jones material.
As is to be expected in any score of this franchise,
two chase cues stand out; both "Escape from Venice" and "Belly of the
Steel Beast" rely on propulsive rhythms, though neither seems to build
the same steam that listeners heard in "Desert Chase" from the first
film. The cue for the chase in Venice is playful in its instrumentation,
though sparse in the depth of those specialty contributions (the film
version of this cue does not exist on either the 1989 or 2008 albums).
While "Ah, Rats!!!" intelligently uses whining strings for the rodents,
the intriguing part of the music below Venice is Williams' reprise of
the Ark's theme from the first film as Indy and Elsa see its likeness
inscribed on a wall. On the whole,
The Last Crusade is a
competent and interesting score, but it fails to extend the bold
enthusiasm of
Raiders of the Lost Ark and the exotic
attractiveness of
Temple of Doom. The lack of choral use, as well
the absence of a sultry romance theme for the villainess (Williams
rarely lets a score like this go by without giving due time to the
sloppy kisses), could make you leave the score for
The Last
Crusade wanting more. Two important detractions from the score on
album prior to 2008 are significant to note, because they were factors
in some of the problems described above. First, the recording quality of
The Last Crusade, especially on the original 1989 album, is very
unsatisfactory. There is no dynamic vibrancy to the recording, with the
snare drum mixed annoyingly front and center, and with a sound so dry
that the effectiveness of the religious climax is sadly flat. Some of
this problem could be related to the recording of an 85-piece ensemble
in Los Angeles rather than the arguably more accomplished performers and
recording studios in London. In several of the most pertinent cues
during the score's latter half, the ensemble sucks the life out of
Williams' original ideas with performances that contain none of the
nobility or grandeur that the writing demands. The most popular piece
for concert performances from
The Last Crusade is, obviously, the
lengthy "End Credits" suite, but if you get a chance to hear several of
the other cues from within the middle of the score performed by other
ensembles with more current and advanced recording technologies, you
will almost always be impressed by those presentations.
Some of these problems with
The Last Crusade
were mitigated upon the 2008 release of a set of all four scores in the
franchise (including significant portions of additional, previously
unreleased material from the first three scores) by Concord Records, the
group responsible for the commercial album for
Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A longtime disappointment for fans of
the franchise was the lack of proper treatment of both
The Last
Crusade and
The Temple of Doom on album. The latter never
received a full release in the first place, and the hour from
The
Last Crusade on the commercial 1989 album not only suffers from the
aforementioned flat recording quality, but is also missing almost an
hour of music from the film (some of which quite memorable). A
late-1990's Japanese import of the album offered the same selections,
but with improved sound quality. Bootlegs of the complete score began
surfacing in 1997, though the sound quality of these, believe it or not,
was even worse than that of the commercial product. The Concord set
helps alleviate consumer angst, though with some string attached. The
set's remastered sound quality for
The Last Crusade is clearly
superior, finally solving that nagging problem. Roughly 33 minutes of
additional material from
The Last Crusade is available on the
set, 18 of which actually inserted amongst the previously available
material for a more rounded listening experience. Some fans will quibble
with the arrangement over two CDs or the editing of cues back into their
original recorded forms, though the score is still well served by this
set. The added material includes notable performances of the Grail theme
(in "Father's Study" and "Wrong Choice, Right Choice") and especially
the Nazi theme ("Alarm!," "Marcus Is Captured/To Berlin" and the
remainder of the blimp scene cues). Otherwise, however, the additional
music isn't strikingly memorable. There is still 15 minutes of major
cues missing (along with 5+ minutes of other, less significant bridge or
source recordings), leaving the door open for another product in the
future to clean up the mess and collect more money from fans. Only the
primary CD of that 2008 presentation was re-issued by Disney in 2024 as
part of a useless and expensive franchise set. Ultimately, some of those
fans will cling to their more complete bootlegs, but Concord's 2008
selection of music, despite forcing them to purchase all four scores,
was still long overdue and welcome.
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