Review on Bonus 5th disk

The bonus 5th disk from Best Buy features an original 1981 ‘Making of’ featurette called Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Classic Featurette that is just that: a 10 minute documentary on the making of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a wonderful addition to the existing DVD features. It doesn’t give you a lot of new information, but there is indeed a lot of good production footage and some little bits of info that wasn’t in the other ‘Making of:’ documentary that is on the Indy DVD bonus material.

Once you put the DVD in your player it instantly starts playing. No menus on this disk, which is understandable seeing as how this is the only thing on the DVD. After a few warnings and disclaimers the featurette begins. There is a little background music with the Raiders March, and everything is pretty raw as far as quality, but no worse than the video footage from the documentaries from the DVD (It IS over 20 years old).

The featurette walks you through the production of Raiders of the Lost Ark with interviews with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Robert Watts. It also features a lot of footage that you won’t find on the Indy DVD bonus material, some of which I’ve never seem before. There are also some interesting facts about Raiders that are mentioned throughout the featurette that make it all the more interesting.

One thing I must note is what Mr. Lucas said; “Why can’t they make movies like this anymore?” and that right there has got to be one of the main key to the success of the Indiana Jones franchise. Lucas says that he’s making this movie, because he wants to see this movie, he’s doing it because he loves it, that’s why it works. It took a forgotten genre, and gave it a new twist, with classic, enduring characters and made it a fun and adventurous movie. That’s why it works, and that is why the films are still so popular as they are today.

So if the question is, “Is it worth it?” I can say, yes! It’s a wonderful featurette and even though it’s 10 minutes long it gives you a lot of information and some very cool production footage. If you haven’t purchased your copy of the Indiana Jones DVDs (shame on you if you haven’t!) you can head on over to your local Best Buy to see if they have any more copies with the bonus disk, and if you can’t find it there, check out eBay. I’ve spotted several auctions on there for the bonus 5th disk, and you could start there. So in the end, you get your money’s worth and you have a piece of Indy history as well; a highly recommended disk!

Aaron Gantt - Webmaster, The Indy Experience.com