The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life (1999)
In the eleventh film in the series, in December 1916, Indy, still stationed in Africa, is promoted to Captain and then ordered to cross the jungle with Remy and Captain Boucher to pick up a shipment of weaponry. Along the way, Ubangan Sergeant Barthélèmy picks up the sole surviving child from a disease-ravaged village despite Boucher's orders against it. On the way back, Indy and company succumb to disease themselves, and are picked up by Albert Schweitzer and the orderlies from his jungle hospital. At first resistant to being treated by a German, Indy soon begins to realize that Schweitzer is not interested in war, only attempting to cure people against all odds.
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As Good As It Gets
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Written as both an informative history lesson, and a formative history lesson of H.J. Jr. as are all of the other episodes. Very few of us, even the most adventurous, experience a 24/7/365 life of excitement and danger. Some parts of our lives contribute to our thoughtful outlook on life. Hardship of a sort other than battle, builds mettle. Lucas has done well to weave both a history lesson, and a background history for one of his most admired characters.
The first 7 minutes features a battle during WW1, the Belgians and French against the Germans. The Germans seem to have the upper hand, with their machine gun, and the troops are ordered to retreat. But young Indy notices that the machine gunners are reloading and he disobeys the retreat order, captures the machine gun post, and the Germans are defeated. His own field commanding officer wants to discipline him, but instead Indy gets a promotion to Captain.All this sets up the rest of the movie, which is an expedition across 2000 miles of Africa, to the west coast to get guns stranded there on a ship. They find hardships and illness, and lose many men. But it does take him to the hospital of a German doctor, who happens to be Albert Schweitzer. Besides healing Indy and the surviving men, the good Doctor gives Indy wisdom, the idea that all life is sacred and people must never kill without examining the impacts.All this is based on the real life of Dr. Schweitzer, who eventually won a Nobel prize for his work in Africa and his philosophies. Sean Patrick Flanery is young Indiana Jones and Ronny Coutteure is his friend Remy Baudouin . Friedrich von Thun is the good doctor Albert Schweitzer.In addition to presenting an interesting Young Indy episode, the DVD has a 28-minute "extra" on the life of Schweitzer, how he was moved to choose his life's work in Africa.
Clocking in at 13 words this Young Indy adventure surely has one of the longest titles I have ever encountered.Indy and Remy are still in Africa, and thanks to Indy's brazen attitude in the battlefield he's promoted to Captain before being given an important mission where he must secure delivery of a cache of machine guns. In order to do this he and his men must march through the Congo, where all but a couple of them die of jungle disease. After a middle segment that echoes the African Queen in more ways than one they are rescued by Doctor Albert Schweitzer.But the Doctor is German, and is soon kicked out of Africa despite all of the good work he has done.OtGaToL (how about that for an acronym?) is all about Melodrama and features very little action. Once the opening battle is over it's all talk, talk and talk all the way to the end. If I wanted a soap opera I'd watch Days of Our Lives.
Actually, it isnt bad. Its just not Indiana Jones. For some reason when I saw the video, it lacked the touch of the movies. But it is okay if you really want to see an Indy movie, but know the old ones by heart. Just remember: it is a boiled down affair.