‘Indiana Jones’ DVDs offer historical context

George Lucas is emphasizing academics over adventure as he revisits the early years of his bold hero Indiana Jones.

“The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One” arrives on DVD today, the first of three boxed sets gathering all of the character’s youthful exploits from the 1990s TV series.

Along with seven feature-length adventures, the 12-disc set packs 38 documentary segments offering historical insight into the eras, events and illustrious figures Indy encounters, including Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, T.E. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud.

“If Indy just touches on it, sees it or hears about a major historical character, there’s a full half-hour documentary on every one of those people,” said Rick McCallum, Lucas’ producing partner on “Young Indiana Jones.”

Along with historians, archaeologists and other scholars, noted politicians, statesmen, military leaders, filmmakers and cultural commentators are interviewed for the documentaries, among them Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Gloria Steinem, Barbara Boxer and Martin Scorsese.

The academic approach is fitting, given that Harrison Ford’s adult Indiana Jones is an archaeology professor who moonlights as a globe-trotting adventurer in 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the sequels “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Volume 2 of “The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones” comes to DVD on Dec. 18, and Volume 3 debuts next spring, serving as a buildup to the May 22 release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the first Indy film in 19 years.