Director Steven Spielberg grew up watching the cliffhanging matinee adventures at his local movie house and wanted to re-create them in his trilogy of films featuring an archeology professor. The three movies, all available as an Indiana Jones dvd were big hits with audiences. Harrison Ford, in the lead role in the films, never lost his fedora hat and bullwhipped his way into action around the world, not content to stay in the museum. The movies were co-produced by George Lucas, a friend of Spielberg and the man behind Star Wars. The franchise is set to return in 2008 with a fourth movie, starring Ford again.
It all began in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ford is in a race with Nazis to find the Ark of the Covenant. It also featured Paul Freeman and Alfred Molina. This was followed three years later with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when Ford searches for a mystical stone. This Indiana Jones dvd and film features Kate Capshaw and Amrish Puri.
The third installment came in 1989 with the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This time, the quest is for the Holy Grail and Ford is once again, up against the Nazis. Sean Connery has lots of tongue in cheek fun playing Ford's Dad and the late River Phoenix plays the professor as a young man.
There is also the television series that tells the story of Indiana in his youth, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. This was very popular and ran from 1992 until 1996 and is also available as an Indiana Jones dvd. Different actors played Indiana at different ages as his adventures are shown in a series of flashbacks but it mainly centered on him from the age of sixteen to twenty tears old. Sean Patrick Flanery played him at this age and some episodes showed his involvement in World War I. Harrison Ford appeared in an episode as middle aged Indiana, looking back on his life.
George Lucas was involved with the TV show, as its creator and executive producer and many future writers and directors worked on the show, including Mike Newell, Carrie Fisher and Nicholas Roeg. The series took some liberties with history and showed Indiana meeting famous people such as Al Capone, Lawrence of Arabia and Winston Churchill! The Indiana Jones dvd of all the installments is there for younger generations to enjoy, proving that you just can't beat a good old fashioned yarn.
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