Ep. 5: German East Africa, December 1916

Matinee Idyll

New member
"You boys look like you crawled through hell on your bellies!"

"...We didn't crawl."

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Heh, probably the best quotable in the series. I've not seen this episode in its original incarnation for many years, but the "Oganga" video manages to maintain the tone fairly well (despite the idiotic decision to redub Barthelmy and Boucher).

The opening battle sequence is chaotic and exciting - this is the first time we see the African campaign in the series. The growing tension between Indy and Boucher is stunning with some fantastically dramatic sequences.

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The cross country trek is handled wonderfully - every torturous step is rendered vividly on screen. The diseased village still distresses me. The anti-colonialism message is handled well without being too 'preachy'. The Ubangi boy (that's all he is now, thanks to silly George cutting the bookends!) is beautiful, and many of the scenes are truly heartbreaking. The Christmas 'celebration' can bring a tear to my eye.

These two episodes probably have Flannerys best performances for the series. Really carries that weight wonderfully.

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This first of two parts is more the 'action' setup, where "Congo" will shift gears and become much more philosophical and haunting.

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A massive thumbs up, one of the finest episodes of the series - and the next one would be even better.

There's a 'picture series' for this episode at the Innermind website for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing it.

http://innermind.com/youngindy/pictures/series01/s01_1.htm
http://innermind.com/youngindy/pictures/series01/s01_2.htm
http://innermind.com/youngindy/pictures/series01/s01_3.htm
http://innermind.com/youngindy/pictures/series01/s01_4.htm
 
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Bullwhip

New member
Maybe it's a false memory, but is there an interior tent shot in the episode with the boy that mirrors the shot in RAIDERS with Indy and Sallah in the tent as silhouettes? For some reason i remember that and thought it was a neat touch.
 

Sven

New member
This episode had the name "Am Todesfluss" (At the river of death) in German TV and it was an episode full of death, indeed! Scaring and hard but with a very emotional ending. All these soldiers kissing the boy for a goodbye - heartbreaking! And it's another stupid decision to cut off the bookends here. To know that little Barthélémy will become the president of the Central African Republic someday is more than just a marginal note. Thank you, Mr. Lucas! :mad:

Sergeant Barthélémy's speech to Indy was very wise and should have been some onfluence to Henry's juvenile naivety. The Belgian and French age of colonialism in the Congo is really a dark chapther of African history, read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Congo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Equatorial_Africa

It's one of my most favorite episodes, of course in combination with the Oganga story.

By the way, there is a misspelling in the introducing credits of the new cut double episode. The actor who's playing Albert Schweitzer is Friedrich (the German form of "Frederick") von Thun but the credits display "Freidrich". That isn't a name here... ;)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Sven said:
This episode had the name "Am Todesfluss" (At the river of death) in German TV and it was an episode full of death, indeed!
Great info about the title, Sven!:hat: In my collection, I have 3 episodes with German titles (from the Austrian channel ORF 1) but would love to know ALL of them. I'm going to start a new thread on this subject!
Sven said:
And it's another stupid decision to cut off the bookends here. To know that little Barthélémy will become the president of the Central African Republic someday is more than just a marginal note. Thank you, Mr. Lucas! :mad:
The notes in the comic-book version have a great amount of detail concerning what became of young Barthélémy. Anyway, I agree that the information provided by the bookends are a great loss in this case.
Sven said:
The Belgian and French age of colonialism in the Congo is really a dark chapther of African history,...
There are many dark chapters in African history but the Congo Free State under Belgium's King Leopold II (pre-WW1) was pretty bad.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I've never set eyes on a YIJC script, but here's one.
Does the rust mark suggest it came from a stack of 'em?
 
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