There's a classic quote from the inaugural Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage." The words are uttered by Harrison Ford's stoic and seemingly indestructible Indy, but the notion of mileage can clearly be applied to other key creatives working behind the scenes.
Step forward the esteemed composer John Williams who has been with the Indy saga ever since Raiders was released in 1981. And, like Harrison Ford, Williams returns to complete a victory lap in the soon-to-be-released Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, once again conjuring up a remarkable plethora of interconnecting musical themes and motifs that emotionally bind us to Indy's adventures.
Williams' scores act as the soul of the series and are centrally anchored by the unforgettably brassy idiom of the rousing Raiders March. And yet the sheer scale of Williams' achievement cannot be measured in words: across five films, he's come up with innumerable pieces that variously touch on romantic, ethnic, adventurous and flat-out terrifying textures.
Dial of Destiny is the first Indy movie on which Williams has collaborated with a director other than Steven Spielberg. Logan helmer James Mangold has brought the latest (and likely last) instalment of Indy's adventures to the screen and Williams responds with a rousingly nostalgic onslaught of familiar pieces and brand new themes, including one for the eponymous dial, one for Indy's goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and one for new Nazi enemy Voller (Mads Mikkelsen).
Go behind the scenes with Williams, Mangold, Ford, Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy in the following video as he explores the enduring impact of his music and how it helped transform a B-movie adventure franchise into something truly special.
Hear John Williams' latest score in context and click the link below to book your tickets for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It arrives at Cineworld on June 28th.
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