Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3 - final thoughts...

Well, in preparation for the latest Indiana Jones feature film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", Paramount Home Video has completed the trilogy of DVD releases of its "Young Indiana Jones" series with the third and final volume, The Years of Change.

Having the chance to go back and revisit this series has been like a breath of fresh air to me, because it's been, like, 10 years or so since I last saw this on television, and at that it was in re-edited form on the USA Network. The final seven chapters of this volume - "Tales of Innocence", "Masks of Evil", "The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye", "The Winds of Change", "The Mystery of the Blues", "The Scandal of 1920", and "The Hollywood Follies" - are shown in mostly re-edited form from their original 1990's broadcast versions. I say mostly, because of one important example I'll get to later. All of the episodes are presented in full-frame format, Dolby 2.0 surround sound, and optional English subtitles. That's all nice and good, which means you're getting crisp transfers that I have to admit look better than what I remember during the 90's broadcasts. Only two of the seven segments - "The Winds of Change" and "The Mystery of the Blues" - are presented in separate volumes with their respective documentaries ported over to separate discs.

The remaining discs contain a total of 31 all-new documentaries produced by CBS News producer David Schneider spotlighting the real stories of the incidents and people young Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery) encounters in his journeys around the world. Disc 1, as I have previous commented on, covers the lives of writers Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway and news broadcasting pioneer Lowell Thomas, as well as the history of the French Foreign Legion. Disc 2 spotlights the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Ataturk revolution that led to the creation of the independent nation of Turkey, the revolutionary work of Turkish writer Halide Edib, and the fact and fiction behind the real-life Vlad (the Impaler) Dracula (aka Dracula). Disc 3 covers the life and career of philosopher Bronislaw Malinowski, the history of anthropology, and the land and troubles of New Guinea. Disc 5, the companion disc to "The Winds of Change", profiles the Versailles Treaty conference, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Iraqi leader Gertrude Bell, Chinese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, Paul Robeson (who fought to overcome racial barriers as an accomplished writer in his own right), and space pioneer Robert Goddard.

From there, Disc 7 (the companion disc to "The Mystery of the Blues") gives viewers a history of jazz and blues and one of its pioneering musicians, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong; the Untouchable Eliot Ness and his arch-enemy Al Capone; the history of the Prohibition era in the 1920's; a profile of screenwriter Ben Hecht; and a look at the Hellfighters, Harlem's unsung black heroes during World War I. Disc 8 further explores the musical scene with a history of Tin Pan Alley, the success of Broadway, and the Algonquin Round Table. Finally, Disc 9 profiles the pioneers of filmmaking with looks at the eccentric Erich von Stroheim, Hollywood's boy wonder Irving Thalberg, maverick Western director John Ford (who was recently spotlighted in a massive 21-disc box set from Fox Video), and the media moguls who transformed Hollywood from a small town in California into the glamour capitol of the world. On Disc 10 we're given "New Gods for Old", the third and final installment in Professor H.W. Brands' historical narratives, as well as DVD-ROM interactive programs of a third adventure game with young Indy and an interactive timeline of Indy's adventures and the people he encounters.

Overall, this is a nice addition to the previous two volumes. I only wish that they had preserved the original TV broadcasts intact with all of the original bookend segments as first shown on ABC... Wait a minute, did I say that mostly all of the segments were re-edited? I've got to clarify one point here. With the exception of tweaked main and end title credits, one segment has survived virtually intact from its original U.S. airing back in 1993, and it's the one that concerned Indy fans need not worry about...

In other words, HARRISON FORD IS ON THE SET!!!!!

To dismiss the original Indiana Jones' appearance in "The Mystery of the Blues" would be completely sacrilege, and Ford very rarely makes TV appearances, making this segment well worth the watch just for him alone. The only thing that would have made this set even just a little more sweeter would have been a preview for "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Oh well...

See you in the theaters on the 22nd!