DVD WOMEN OF 'INDY'-PENDENT MEANS.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Get me rewrite.

At a recent event for the press to promote the DVD release of ``The Adventures of Indiana Jones,'' Karen Allen was being asked - along with the other two heroines, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody - about how hard the shoot was. The star of the first Indy picture - ``Raiders of the Lost Ark'' - began describing some of what she went through when the man himself walked in.

``Bitch, bitch, bitch,'' joked Harrison Ford, dressed in Indy's trademark hat and leather jacket, about Allen's seeming complaints. His three co-stars got up immediately to greet him as applause erupted. The four of them then began posing for pictures during the commotion, but you could hear Ford murmuring to the actresses that he ``should have thought about the fact that there were three of you before I said that 'bitch, bitch, bitch' line.''

Not that anyone seemed to notice, and his three co-stars, who were all relatively inexperienced screen actresses at that time, had nothing but praise for the help Ford gave them on the sets. Allen talked about how Ford helped her get through the action scenes without seeming awkward, and Doody said, ``He was always teaching.''

The three women, who had never been together before, also talked about how different their roles were. For Capshaw, who went on to marry the series director, Steven Spielberg, she couldn't understand why she was cast in the role of Willie, a self-centered whiner. At the time, Capshaw was a single mom who felt she could take care of herself. ``I thought the character of Willie unappealing, and I kept trying to figure out what it was that they saw in me that they thought I could play that part.'' She added that ``it was so much fun to be this annoying, petulant, arrogant ... whining character.

Doody, though she did get to romance Indy, felt short-changed. ``Acting, for me, was hard because I wanted my character (Dr. Elsa Schneider) to be attractive and sexy, but the character was cold and hard. And I was furious with Sean Connery (who played Indy's father) because I thought he had my part.

As for Allen, she says, ``I fell in love with my character (Marion Ravenwood) immediately because I read the scene where Indy comes in and I punch him in the jaw. I just thought she was the best character I ever read.''

By the way, Allen didn't realize exactly what kind of film she was doing. She thought it was going to be like ``Casablanca.'' But that's the appeal of the Indy films - romance with Saturday afternoon matinee adventure artfully directed by Spielberg. The new, remastered discs (it's the first time the trilogy has been available on DVD) look and sound fabulous, and the fourth disc of bonus material is choice stuff, thanks to the work of Laurent Bouzereau. Having worked with Spielberg (who does not do commentary) a number of times before, Bouzereau is a master at putting together the behind-the-scenes material in informative and interesting ways, and his interviews with Spielberg and series creator George Lucas go beyond the usual pap on DVD extras. ``The Adventures of Indiana Jones'' is top of the list.

``The Adventures of Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark/The Temple of Doom/The Last Crusade)'' (Paramount; $69.98). It includes the three digitally remastered films plus a new, feature-length documentary on the making of the trilogy and featurettes on the stunts, the music and the sounds of the film.

Catch '28 Days' fever

Like a lot of people, director Danny Boyle didn't expect his zombie-style film ``28 Days Later'' to be such a hit. But the story about how an outbreak of a plague that turns the infected into enraged killers a few moments after contracting the virus resonated among young people.

Boyle says that a couple of outbreaks of diseases among cattle in England - one of hoof and mouth disease; the other, mad cow disease - helped inspire the film. ``They had to kill and burn them - a biblical scale of funeral pyres of corpses of animals,'' notes the British ``Trainspotting'' director. ``And then there was this ... paranoia about what was safe and what wasn't, and that sort of inspired us. When we actually got shooting the film, 9-11 happened - and then our paranoia about our safety and vulnerability got ratcheted up.''

As for why it appealed to young folks, Boyle thinks it was a way of facing their fears about the future. ``When it came out, people went to see it because they felt vulnerable, and the film addresses that in a very extreme way - puts you in that hole of hell. That's what we want cinema to do sometimes.''

But coming up with an ending was a tricky business. The filmmakers had a preferred ending that they couldn't afford to shoot and instead went in a different direction, but after the studio saw the movie, Boyle got more money to film the original, more optimistic ending. Both made it into theaters and onto the DVD.

As for which Boyle prefers, it's the happier one. ``I thought the bleak ending was just dragging people's faces along the cinder path, really.''

``28 Days Later'' (Fox; $27.98). It includes commentary by director Boyle and writer Alex Garland, alternative theatrical endings, a radical alternative ending with optional commentary and six deleted scenes, and ``Pure Rage: The Making of '28 Days Later.' ''

'Taken' falls short

The Steven Spielberg-produced ``Taken'' recently won an Emmy for best miniseries, which shows you just how that genre has gone downhill. The sci-fi 10-part epic of alien abductions over a 50-year time frame is somewhat entertaining. It has excellent production values and solid acting. But despite its premise of a government cover-up of extraterrestrial visitations beginning with the so-called alien crash in Roswell, N.M., in 1947, ``Taken'' never achieves the paranoid urgency of ``The X-Files'' - except perhaps with true believers.

`Steven Spielberg Presents Taken'' (Universal; $119.99). It includes a number of featurettes.

Ohhh, Rob ...

If humming translated from print, I'd be humming the theme to ``The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' the first two seasons of which are out on DVD. Comedy show writer Rob (Van Dyke) still trips over the ottoman, and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) is still lovely and loopy, and the groundbreaking Emmy-winning show with Carl Reiner (the show's creator), Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie is as funny as ever. Don't expect the quality on the discs to be any better than what you'd see rerun on TV. You buy this for the quality of the comedy.

``The Dick Van Dyke Show - Season One'' and ``The Dick Van Dyke Show - Season Two'' (Image; $69.99 each). Season one includes 30 episodes and commentary by Reiner and Van Dyke for two episodes, plus cast retrospective interviews and featurettes with Reiner, Van Dyke, Amsterdam and Rose Marie. Season two includes 33 episodes and interviews with Reiner, Van Dyke and Moore.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Harrison Ford shared stories of the Indiana Jones movies with co-stars Alison Doody, left, Kate Capshaw and Karen Allen during a press junket for the films' DVD release.

Jen Lowery/Associated Press

(2) Cillian Murphy in ``28 Days Later''

(3) no caption (``Steven Spielberg Presents Taken'')